Ira Ates Killed, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** >From the June 30, 1933 Winnfield News-American Ira Ates, Tenant Farmer, is Victim of Shotgun Load H. A. Martin, Owner of Farm, Is Not Arrested In an argument over potatoes, Ira Ates, 31 year old tenant farmer of the Atlanta community, at noon Saturday lost his life. H. A. Martin, 37, owner of the farm on which Ates was a tenant, fired the fatal shots. Martin was released after his surrender to Sheriff Bryant Sholars, when a coroner's jury held that the death of Ates was "justifiable homicide." The argument over the potatoes began Thursday when Ates and Martin failed to agree on the weight of a bushel of potatoes in the settlement for Ates' crop. Apparently the first anger was cooled, but when Martin asked Ates to come to the Martin farm Saturday to take payment for the potatoes, he appeared with a shot gun and called for Martin to come out, witnesses testified at the coroner's inquest. Martin at first refused to come out on the porch of his home, witnesses said, but when summoned a second time by Ates, the farm owner walked out of the door. Ates, so witnesses said, had dismounted from his horse and was standing just outside the yard with his shotgun resting on the top of the gate and aimed at Martin. Martin rushed back into the house and picked up his shotgun, returned and fired point blank. A charge of No. 12 shot into Ates' face, causing instant death, Coroner J. F. Faith declared. The shotgun which was found by Ates' body where he fell was not loaded. Mrs. Ira Ates, widow of the victim, testified that neither she nor her husband knew that the shotgun was not loaded, and whether he ever attempted to fire his weapon is not known. Practically the same versions of the shooting were given by Martin, his wife, and two daughters, Ottis, 15, and Norena, 12, and by Mrs. Ira Ates, widow of the dead man. Immediately after the shooting, Joe Martin, brother of the farm owner, called the sheriff and coroner and H. A. Martin surrendered to the sheriff. Following the coroner's inquest Martin was not arrested and no charges were made. Attending the inquest were Miss Nancy Tannehill, believed to be the first woman ever to sit on a coroner's jury in Winn Parish, D. W. White, I. W. Shaw, D. C. Taylor, and E. Curry. (Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Winn Parish, LA.)