Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1919 — GENERAL AND STATE NEWS [ARTICLE]

GENERAL AND STATE NEWS

Telegraphic Reports From Many Parts of the Country. SHORT BITS OF THE UNUSUAL Happenings in the Nearby Cities and Towns—Matters of Minor Mention From Many LocalitiesSHERIFF TAKES PRECAUTION Dash to State Prison FoUows Light Verdict for Prisoner. . Crown Point, July 19.—Fearing possible mob violence, Lewis Barners, sheriff for Lake county, placed Nicholas Trkulja in an, automobile last night and hurried him to the state prison at Michigan City. A few hours previously the man had been found guilty of manslaughter in the criminal court here. Trkulja was one of seven men accused of conspiracy in the shooting and killing of Herman Uecker, cashier of the First State bank at Tolleston, in connection with am effort to rob the institution. His brother and three others pleaded guilty and were sentenced to die in the electric chair in the state prison before November 1. The other two have been sentenced to life imprisonment. The jury ttiat found Trkulja guilty considered the evidence for seven hours before returning the verdict, which a sentence of 2 to 21 years in the penitentiary. Indignation that was expressed in some quarters at the mildness of the sentence caused the sheriff to decide to remove the prisoner.