The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, W. Va.
Saturday Morning, November 23, 1912

FIFTEEN YEARS IN PENITENTIARY FOR SIDNA ALLEN

Jury Reaches Compromise Ver- dict After Long Hours of Tedious Wrestling.

WILL NOT BE TRIED ON OTHER INDICTMENTS

Wesley Edwards, Who Was Captured With His Leader at Des Moines, Only One of Hillsville Court House Assassins Who Remains to be Ar- raigned for Crime.

Wytheville, Nov. 22. --Immediately after the decision of the jury, in the case against Sidna Allen, the prosecution announced that it would next take up another indictment against the prisoner, that charging him with the murder of Prosecuting Attorney William M. Foster, and the court fixed December 2nd, as the date of the trial. It was announced that the next venire would be summoned from different places and from the eastern part of the state. Until the case of Sidna Allen is disposed of, nothing will be done in the case of his nephew, Wesley Edwards.

The prisoner received the verdict with no show of emotion, which was also true of his wife, who sat beside him. However, the strain of the trial showed plainly. He was lost a great deal of flesh and appears care worn and dejected.

Wytheville, Va., Nov. 22. --Sidna Allen, the leader of the Allen clan which shot up the Carroll county court house at Hillsville last March, resulting in the death of five persons, was found guilty of murder in the second degree today, for the killing of Judge Thornton L. Massie. The jury fixed the penalty at fifteen years in the penitentiary. The jury deliberated twenty hours before returning the verdict.

Wesley Edwards, who was captured with his leader, at Des Moines, is the only member of the clan, who yet remains to be tried. The trial that ended in the conviction of Allen began November 11, after the first jury had been discharged by Judge Staples, because a juror had discussed the case outside the jury room.

The jury after having the case since 4:55 yesterday afternoon reported today shortly after 1 o'clock that they had reached a verdict of murder in the second degree and fixing his punishment at fifteen years in the penitentiary.

It was a compromise verdict and was only reached after long hours of tedious wrestling with the many questions confronting the jury. Almost the whole of last night was spent by the jury in considering the case. The jury stood as follows:

Six for acquittal.
One for second degree murder and eighteen years in prison.
Five for murder in the first degree.

For hours it looked as if the jury was hopelessly divided and that no verdict would be reached. At ten o'clock this morning Judge Staples ordered the jury to be brought into the court when the foreman announced that they had vainly tried to reach a verdict after nearly a whole nights' laboring.

Replying to the judge's question, they said that they did not desire any additional instructions. This was taken as an indication that the jurors were widely separated in their views as to the defendant's guilt.

The court then read to the jury the instructions given in the Floyd Allen case with the hope that a verdict might be reached when they had failed to agree after long deliberation. The jury was then sent back to the jury room.

The long and tedious wait for the verdict seemed to have a most buoyant effect on the accused. It seemed that the strain was not telling on him at all, and he acted as though he confidently expected an acquittal. He laughed and talked pleasantly with his family and friends and seemed to be less worried than any of his friends or some of his attorneys.

After the rendering of the verdict, Judge Staples dismissed the jury with the usual thanks for their attention and for the manner in which they had deported themselves.

At the request of the prosecution Judge Staples reconvened court at 2:30 o'clock for the purpose of taking under consideration the question of trying the prisoner on one of the other indictments, returned against him at Hillsville for the murder of Commonwealth's Attorney William M. Foster, Sheriff Webb, Juror Fowler or Miss Ayers. There are several other indictments against the accused. It is hardly probable that he will be tried on any other charge until it is determined whether or not Judge Hairston carried the Claude Allen case to the supreme court of the United States, as the same principle or constitutional question will be involved in this case as in the Claude Allen case.