St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1916-11-04
CARRIERE GUILTY
AS CHARGED
Slayer of Sheriff Marion Swords Must Pay
With His Life For Crime He
Was Charged With.

The twelve good men and true
who was chosen to decide the fate Of
Hilaire Carriere, the man charged
with the murder of Sheriff Marion
L. Swords, after six and half hours
of deliberation, at first unable to
agree, were ordered to belock up
until monday morning, brought in
the verdict at 1i:35 o'clock Satur-
day night of "GUILTY AS CHARG-
ED IN THE BILL OF ENDICT-
MENT" which means capital pun
ishment-DEATH.
When the large courthouse bell
tolled, the news spread quickly over
the entire city that the jury had ar
rived at a verdict. In the space OF
a few minutes the courthouse was
filled with spectators who were an
xious to know the fate of the prison
er who was charged with one OF
Che most diabolical crime ever
com1tted in this parish. Although
it was the consensus of opinion that
If verdict had been arrived at in
SO short a time, that Hilaire Car
riere was doomed man.
The prisoner was conducted into
the courtroom walking erect and
unmoved and upon assuming his
seat, as the twelve serious men were
taking their seats, he looked into the
eyes Of every man on the jury, but
saw no signs of consolation come
back; all in seriousness the court
was informed of the verdict and
one by one the twelve tired and true
men answered to their names as
well as to their verdict.
Thus ended one of the most noted
criminal cases ever tried in the par
ish of st. Landry. Very few cases
ever attracted so much attention as
did this trial. The town has been
crowded since the beginning Of the
trial, and the capacity Of the court
room was taxed to accommodate the
spectators. The visitors included
prominent parish officials from
every section Of the state who were
attracted here by a desire to see
Carriere.
The Staying of Sheriff Swords is
regarded as one of the most hairless
crimes in the history Of the state
as was proven by the failure OF the
defense to bring out any reason
whatsoever justifying Carriere to
comit such an attroeious crime. In
its arguement before the jury the
defense laid great stress upon the
fact the Sheriff had taken negroes
along to assist in the arrest OF
white man which was fifty answer
ed by the state with the evidence
that the accused lived amoung ne
groes associated with them almost
entirely and was found in the home
of the negro woman the morning
Of the killing.
During all the proceedings Judge
pavy ruled with a iron hand
drawing favorable comment from
all sides. Upon final discharsing
the jury, he highly compliment the
twelve men, as being the best
conducted and fairest jury that
ever sat in the parish of st. Landry.
Sentence will be passed on Nov. 4th.
Thursday morning
The witness, Durousseau, brought
the note from St. Andre to Sheriff
Swords on Sunday prior to the kill
ing, which stated where Carriere
could be found that night. He saw
Carriere frequently previous to the
crime and said ne was always armed
He was given an automatic re
volver on the night of the killing,
but never shot it, he said. He went
in the cornfield when instructed by
Swords to get Garriere out. Car
riere shot him at a distance Of some
six steps. That shot was tae last ne
heard. At that time he was only
twelve or fifteen yards from Deputy
Chachere and after being shot
staggered to Chachere exclaimed,
I'm shot to DEATH
His story largely coroborates
that of st, Andre and Chachere
as to the details of the fight and
was given in a sincere manner.
The defence made brake, it was
thought on cross-examinatlon by
bringing out that the reason the
sheriff had negros on his posse was
mat there were hardly any white
people in the neighborhood but Car
+ flere's relatives. This was Du-
fousseau's first time in court, but