The Paris News from Paris, Texas • Page 20

4B Paris News, Jan. 6, lSl ini 1 stands aslegal blotch I Father, son are reunited in Texas StatePrison By BILL CRIDER Associated Press Writer The trial of three men accused of murdering W.R. Ilichey and his wife at Haughton, during a 1964 holdup now stands as a wretched legal botch. In the latest development, Floyd E. Cumbey, 46, was allowed to withdraw his plea of guilty and a district court judge canceled both of his 21-year prison terms for manslaughter.

At least the Cumbey case didn't wind up with a financial loss like the $55,000 that had to be paid to former rodeo star Jack Favor in 1976 when he sued on a claim that he was railroaded into prison in the Richey killings. And though the recent court action cleared Cumbey on the Richey charges, he did not go free as a result. In 1967, the last time Ixniisiana law had a grip on Cumbey, officers escorted him out of vhe state and let him loose. He headed for Tulsa, and is now serving two life sentences for killing Sheiia Farley and Opel Richter in Tulsa two days after he was freed. District Judge Monty Benton granted plea that his convictions be earlier than his tentative parole date of October 1992, and his chance of release might be improved Three men were charged in the Richey killings: Favor, Cumbey, and Donald LeeYates.

In 1967, when Louisiana let go of him, Cumbey was supposed to have been sett to Angola Prison to begin serving the 21-year sentences after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the Richey killings. Instead, Bossier Parish Sheriff Vol Dooley, then chief deputy, took him to Texarkana and freed him. Dooley, who acted at the direction of then-Sheriff Willie Waggonner, later testified that he thought Wye he of Cumbey's Louisiana canceled. Cumbey claimed his constitutional rights were violated because a lawyer was not appointed to represent him before he pleaded guilty, and because he was not advised of his rights to appeal. Bossier-Webster District Attorney Henry Brown did not oppose the claim when it came up in court in early December.

He also did not contest Cumbey's claim that "evidence exists that the plea may have been the result of improper inducements." The action means Cumbey could be eligible for parole Nothing is sacred in this world ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. The battle lines have been drawn here in Iwhat could be called the dogs- 'Of war. And to the customers belong the spoils. When Edna Drury took -over a locally famous hot dog parlor, she decided not to limit her inventory to just wieners.

But the business' expansion into submarine sandwiches and salads has brought a yelp of protest from a competitor and an all-out hot dog war. Robert Caro of Schramm's Deli, just two doors down from Mrs. Drury's business says the expansion was against the rules, a blatant intrusion on his turf, "The rule is that she sells hot dogs and I sell subs," Caro said. "That's the way it's been for years. She is deliberately trying to take away my business." To deal with the newfound competition, Caro posted a sign earlier this week that he was selling hot dogs for 50 cents with the works.

That led to a series of price slashing, and as of Thursday, Caro's dogs were going for 35 cents, while Mrs. Drury's were selling for 40 cents. Al! (he price-cutting has brought in customers in droves, both owners say, and neither knows where it will end. "I'll stop selling hot when she stops selling subs," Caro said. "It says in his lease that he's not supposed to sell hot dogs," countered Mrs.

Drury. Caro admits that, but he said the lease also notes that Mrs. Drury is supposed to stay away from deli items. Wedding held atK-Mart BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) Janine Poole and Eric Wassel wanted their wedding to be "special and different." So they got married in the garden at mart.

"They told me when I started to work here at mart that it was like being a member of one big, happy family," explained the new Mrs. Wassel. "And we wanted our family and friends with us when we tied lljeknot." When the couple approached mart variety store manager Gloria Varga with the idea, she thought they were kidding. Assistant store manager Bill Throne gave the bride away and store employees Mike McGuigan and Norma Elston were best man and maid of honor. Cumbey's sentence had been suspended.

In a 1973 federal court hearing in Shreveport on Favor's claim that he was railroaded, Cumbey testified that Louis H. Padgett who was the Bossier Parish district attorney at the time, bargained with him to testify against Favor. Cumbey said Padgett, later to become a district judge, told him: "Floyd, I can't give you immunity but if you will help us in this case, I'll make sure you never do a day in the Louisiana penitentiary." Cumbey was the state's key witness against Favor, who wound up with two life sentences. The Shreveport hearing resulted in a U.S. District Court order that Favor be freed or given a new trial.

Federal court intervention in the case set off fierce state court resistance. The Louisiana Supreme Court contended the feds overstepped their authority in telling state courts to hold a hearing on whether the prosecutor and judge were involved in illegal collusion. However, federal courts had the last word. The second time around, the state district court jury found Favor innocent in 1974. The third man charged in the Richey killings, Yates, testified that he and Cumbey robbed the Richeys, that Cumbey pulled the trigger on the gun hat killed them, and Favor was nowhere around.

Favor had already spent seven years at Angola Prison, where he founded the prison's annual rodeo, The $7 million lawsuit filed by Favor was against Dooley, Padgett, District Judge 0. E. Price and Waggonner. It accused them of conspiring against him in dealing with Cumbey. Favor, 66 and ailing, was philosophical about the $55,000 settlement in 1976.

"I took the best I could get," he told a reporter at the time. "Sometimes you don't get what you want." Two principals in the prosecution, Price and Padgett, were indicted on a charge of perjury, accused of lying to the grand jury that investigated the handling of the case. However, a series of unusual legal wrinkles developed. First, on Sept. 18, 1972, Judge David T.

Caldwell, assigned as a special judge, dismissed the indictments on a legal technicality. Then another district court judge, Enos McClendon extended the deadline to Nov. 31. Then the whole thing wound up in the state Supreme Court, with the defense contending the state filed too late in appealing Caidwell's action. The high court ruled that McClendon had recused himself from the case earlier and therefore he could not extend the deadline.

Furthermore, there was no Nov. 31, since the month had only 30 days in it. Caidwell's dismissal was upheld. Yates' role in the Richey case also is a curious history. First he pleaded guilty to murder without capital punishment and was sentenced to life on Nov.

27, 1967, Records show he was then turned over to the federal government to serve a prior 20-year term for bank robbery, with his state sentence to be served at the same time. On Feb. 1, 1971, a judge granted a writ bringing Yates back to court, the then-District Attorney John Benton amended the murder indictment to manslaughter. Yates immediately pleaded guilty and drew a 17-year sentence. Then in 1974 a motion to, "correct an illegal sen-' tence" had the sentence wiped out on the ground that state law does not allow a prisoner to serve his state sentence at the same time, that he serves a federal sentence.

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When his son was 6, Fletcher was serving a 50-year prison sentence for two rape convictions. Ten years later, it was the son who was sentenced, to nine years in prison for using a shotgun in the robbery of a 23-year- old woman outside a Houston convenience store; "I don't know of any others that share the same cell, but we do have at least one other father-son combination here," said David Moya, assistant warden at the Ramsey. "Generally, it doesn't cause any great problems. In this case, it has worked out very well," Moya said. TDC spokesman Guy Taylor said younger inmates normally are not put in cells with other prisoners.

"And not all fathers and sons are Classified Ads Get Results allowed to live in the same cell and work together. But in this case, the chance for the father to teach his son a trade appeared an excellent option for said. Fletcher, 52, is teaching his son carpentry, and they hope to open a cabinet-making shop in Cleveland, Texas, when they get out of prison. The elder Fletcher probably will be paroled in May and his son is expected to leave prison two or three years later. "We've spent a great many hours talking about the situation we're in, the things we've done, the things so bad that shouldn't have been done.

And what we should do to better ourselves in the future," the elder Fletcher said. One of the elder Fletcher's regrets is that he wasn't there whefi his six children were growing up. "With their daddy in prison, I guess it was pretty hard for a woman to properly see that all six were attended to," Fletcher said, referring to his wife. "If I had been there, I'm convinced not one of the boys would have strayed," he said. liked to drove me crazy the first four of five years I was down here.

I was worrying myselt sick they'd start fooling with alcohol or drugs and end up here. As it was, their mother wouldn't let me correspond with them. I was of no influence at all." Stanley and Curtis Fletcher were first reunited last April when the teen-ager was bused in from the Clemens Unit in Brazoria for a visit at the Ramsey unit, about 30 miles south of Houston. From the start they wanted to share a cell, but the permanent reunion didn't take place for another six months, after the elder Fletcher's request for parole was denied again. Before their first visit, neither knew what to expect.

"I had heard some stories that had been told about me to the kids," the elder Fletcher said. "I didn't know how he might feel. I figured we'd just have to iron it out." His son said he didn't know his mother had hidden letters from his father. He said the family didn't talk about the father much, "I wished a lot of times that he had been there," he said. "All I knew was that he was in prison, 1 didn't know if it was in Texas, Louisiana or where." He said they shook hands and "ended up talking all night and half the next day What I found was thnt everything that was said about him is different from what 1 now know about him." The elder Fletcher is proud of his son's studying while in prison.

Tho fourth-grade dropout had trouble reading and writing but now may earn his high school diploma befoiv his father gets out of prison. "It sure will make me proud," father said. "He studies all day, sometimes. He can see the need for more education and he's trying 10 benefit himself while he's here. "A lot of boys down here can hardly wait to get out and pull another caper.

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Jackson. "That very bright, glowing object peeking through the tall pines seemed to carry a very optimistic message," she said. "It's not a star, but the same feeling was there." Mrs. Jackson, who recently wrote a book on painting, has been commissioned to paint in Bavaria for National Geographic magazine. But the Christmas card she painted differed from her earlier work.

"My painting changed after we saw the UFO," she said. "Seeing it made a deep impression on me. I'm not afraid of what might be out there. I feel privileged to have seen it. I have a very optimistic feeling about it." Mrs.

Jackson said she was asleep in the back seat of her car when her son, Chris, first saw the object at trectop level over an empty field as he was driving north near Uhinelander. "He woke me up, and 1 was amazed," she said "And then it followed us for about ten minutes. "I hope people don't make loo much fun of me about this. I feel very serious about it, I think it may be the future." Control at post office slipping? SALISBURY, Pa. (AP) Anthony Conticelli is a stamp collector so he's seen a lot of unusual postage come and go, but the S1H Green Stamps on a Christmas card he receieved has licked 'em all.

"This was not meant as joke," Conticelli said of the envelope he got in the mail on Monday. "The man who sent this card is a foreigner who has not been in the country very long. He knew that the postage was 20 cents and his wife had left some Green Stamps there." "He saw two 10s, two Green Stamps, and he must have thought they were postage," ConticeJIi said, declining to name the sender. The two in-point stamps had been canceled by the post off ice. The card went from Allentown to Salisbury via the Allcnlown Post Office.

Allentown Postmaster Gail said his staff handles more than 300,000 pieces of mail during the holiday season, and a letter posted with a trading stamp could have slipped through. "Quality control is reduced during the Christmas rush season," he said. Conticelli said he'll add the newest postage to his collection. have canceled stamps from all over the world, but this one takes the cake," he said. The Galapagos Islands were named by Spanish explorers for the giant land tortoises found there.

The tortoises are believed to be among the oldest living creatures on earth..