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Title
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Negro Man Dies in Jail Two Hours After Arrest
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Source Type
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Newspapers
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Publisher
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The Southern Courier
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Publication Place
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Montgomery, AL
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Publication Date
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11/26/1966
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Transcript
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BY MICHAEL S. LOTTMAN
WETUMPKA--At 2 a.m. last Sunday, James Earl Motley, a 27-year-old Negro from Wetumpka, was arrested by an Elmore County sheriff's deputy.
Two hours later, he was dead.
Three eye~witnesses said IVlotley was struck after his arrest by sheriff's deputy Harvey Conner. One of the wilnesses said Conner was aided by two state troopers.
Motley's step-father, William Varner Jr., said no one told him his son was dead until four hours after the body had been taken to the Geeter Funeral Home In Wetumpka. He said Mrs. Katherine Geeter came home at 8 a.m.
Sunday. and "told us they had him over there and he was dead."
When Varner got to the funeral home five minutes later, he said, an autopsy had already been performed. "I went In there to see the body," he said. "and they wouldn't let me in. They told me it was against the rules to let me see
the body."
Wetumpka residents asked the U,S. Justice Department for an Immediate
Investigation of Motley's death.
Elmore County Sheriff Lester L, Holley said he was conducting his own
Investigation. "I'm running an investigation that's honest and honorable," he said. "I've been sheriff for 20 years, and I've never dodged no Issue that's ever come up." Witnesses gathered in a Wetumpka, home Monday to talk about the case., Besides Varner, there were three of the, six people who were in a car with Motley, when he was arrested., They said they were driving north on, Highway 231, three miles north of the, Elmore-Montgomery county line, when, Conner stopped their car at about 1:45., "He asked Earl out," said Miss, Gloria Jean Johnson, 16, of Wetumpka. "He told him that he was drunk, Earl told him he had had two or three, beers when he got off work at 6 clock.", "Mr. Conner kept telling him to get, in (the deputy's) car," said Mrs. Joyce, Ann Jackson, 18, of Wetumpka., Then Conner and Motley "went to the, back of (our) car," said Miss Edna Mae, Bowman, 16, of Wetumpka. "Three or, four minutes after that, we heard a gun, fire.", When Motley t back in the car, Miss, Bowman continued, "I say, 'Earl, what, happened?' and he say, 'He shot at, me.'", Witnesses said the deputy then called, for state troopers. "After the troopers, got there, Harvey Conner got him out, again," said Miss Bowman. "Both state, troopers held him by the arms, and, Harvey Conner started beating him over, the head., "They beat him down to the ground.", Varner said an attendant at the funeral home told him Motley's body was, picked up from the Elmore County Jail, at 4 a.m., Across town last Monday, Sheriff, Holley talked about his investigation of, the matter. "The state toxicologist al-, ready performed an autopsy," he said., "I don't know nothing until I hear from, the state toxicologist.", Holley said "it was reported to me, that (Motley) was dead. Why he was, dead, I don't know." He said Motley, had been charged with highway drunkenness, resisting arrest, and interfering with an officer., The sheriff said he had "no fixed, opinion, ,I'll go by what the evidence, shows in the case.", Motley's grieving mother, Mrs., Daisy Varner, lay on a couch in her, darkened home. "Something has to be, done," she said. "I don't know why it, had to be me. We have many wonderful, white friends here. But in a case like, this, something has to be done."
