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A Clarke County Circuit Court civil jury returned the largest punitive damages verdict ever rendered in the First Judicial Circuit last Friday afternoon, $2 million to Lillian Andrews whom the jury said was defrauded in a land deal by co-conspirators Jimmy Tucker and Willie E. Sheffield. Mrs. Andrews' attorneys, Gil Gilmore and Lamar Johnson of Grove hill, has asked for $1.5 million.

The jury of seven blacks and four whites deliberated only about an hour before returning the verdict. The jurors also set aside all of the fraudulent documents and awarded the 91 -year old Mrs. Andrews $10 in compensatory damages for her mental anguish.

Sheffield showed no emotion when Judge Charles Partin read the verdict/ Afterwards, Tucker jugged Mrs. Andrews, his former client.

Mrs. Andrews sued Tucker and Sheffield, saying they conspired to get her to sign documents that would give Sheffield ownership in over 700 acres of family property near Zimco west of Grove Hill.

The trial started Tuesday, Jan 31 and continued through Friday.

Gilmore said Tucker and Sheffield preyed on her because she was an elderly, nearly blind, widow woman who trusted Tucker to handle her legal affairs.

All three individuals told different stories about events surrounding the case but the jurors believed Mrs. Andrews.

Tucker admitted to wrongdoing in getting his then-client to sign deeds and agreements giving Sheffield her interest in the property. Tucker said Sheffield gave him $15,000 to coerce Mrs. Andrews into signing. His attorney, Luke Coley, offered no defense for his client, saying Jimmy Tucker only wanted to set the record straight and see justice served.

Sheffield claimed he never told Tucker to commit and crime and the money he paid him was for legal services rendered. His attorney, Ed Turner of Chatom, said his client was a legitimate businessman who thought he was participating in a legitimate land transaction.

Tucker has claimed Mrs./ Andrews knew what she was signing but "did so reluctantly." Mrs. Andrews however testified that she did not know she was signing a deed and an agreement conveying her land interests to Sheffield.

Attorney Gilmore portrayed Sheffield as a wheeler-dealer in real estate who would do anything to obtain property. He produced a thick file, saying it was 56 land transactions Sheffield had made in the past 3 years in Clarke County.

He said Sheffield sought Tucker out to help him because he knew him to be of "poor and dishonest character."

It was a foolproof plan, he said, "except these two old ladies would not die" Mrs. Andrews' sister, Minnie May Pugh, in her 80's and incapacitated by a stroke, was a co-plaintiff because they jointly own the property, She did not attend.

The final alleged agreement between Mrs. Andrews and Sheffield, through a trust that was being administered by Tucker, pay Mrs. Andrews' estate $500,000 at her death for the over 700 acres. That was assuming Miss Pugh died first and Mrs. Andrews owned all of the property.

The value of any timber cut would be deducted from the $500,000. Gilmore said that $123,000 had been cut so that Meant Sheffield would pay only about $377,000 for the land. Forester Bill Wright testified that the land and timber is worth $1.9 million.

Sheffield had agreed not to record the documents until Mrs. Andrews' death. However, when she gave Bob Bowling of Jackson a hunting permit that conflicted with one held by Sheffield, he recorded his documents last spring and the affair became known.

Sheffield claimed that he agreed not to record them at Mrs. Andrews' request because she did not want relatives to know before she died that she sold the land.

But Gilmore contended it was part of the cover up. "Nobody knows about any documents if they are not recorded,..{recording them] is to let the world know about them.

"How many other people have been defrauded the same way? We won't know until they die," he said.

Gilmore asked the jury to "punish Jimmy Tucker and Willie Sheffield for conspiring to defraud this lady...protect society so the in this county when people's mamas and daddies die people are not running to the probate office to record document they got them to sign...years ago."

Defense Attorney Turner contended in his closing remarks that there was no evidence of wrongdoing, no evidence of a bribe to Tucker. He said Tucker admitted on the witness stand the Sheffield never asked him to commit a crime. He said Mrs. Andrews das stated the Sheffield never forced her to sign any documents and that she knew of no conspiracy between Tucker and Sheffield. All the wrongdoing was "committed by Jimmy Tucker and not Willie Sheffield," Turner concluded.

On the witness stand Thursday, Sheffield said Minnie May Pugh, before he stroke, had told him that she wanted to sell her share of the land. He said he talked to Mrs. Andrews who said that she did not want to sell. When he told Miss Pugh, she said she would not sell if her sister wouldn't.

But in a later conversation with Mrs. Andrews they did reach an agreement, he testified. He would pay her $125,000 for her one-sixth undivided interest in the Gordon/Pugh/Hearn lands.

He said Mrs. Andrews told him to work out the details with her attorney, Jimmy Tucker. He then talked to Tucker.

He said he had no more conversation with Tucker or Mrs. Andrews until he picked up the deed and other documents at Tucker's office March 6 and gave Tucker a $125,000 check made to Mrs. Andrews.

Sheffield's attorney, Turner, asked his client if he met with Tucker at Radley's restaurant in Jackson and told him he would give him $15,000 to get Mrs. Andrews to sign over her property. He said the he did not. He denied giving Tucker $5,000 cash on March 6 or of ever saying the financial dealings were "just between you and me." Tucker had stated in his testimony.

Sheffield testified that Mrs. Andrews called him at his home by phone March 8 asking to get her deeds back since the other parties in the Gordon/Pugh/Hearn properties were ready to divide. He said she told him if he would do that, she would arrange in her will for him to buy all of her property after her death.

He said he agreed and turned the deeds and related documents over to Tucker and got back his $125,000 check.

Tucker prepared the trust document the set up $428,500 that would be used to buy the property at Mrs. Andrews' death.

Sheffield said he asked Tucker several times about the portion of Mrs. Andrews' will that would secure his right to the property and was put off several times. Finally, Tucker showed him an article that he said was included in the will instructing the executors to deed the property to Sheffield. He did not, however, show him the entire, signed will.

Sheffield said he paid Tucker $10,000 to represent him in the division of the Gordon/Pugh/Hearn properties, to see the deeds were properly prepared and that his best interests were looked after in the division.

Sheffield said he gave Tucker $5,000 in cash for helping settle a wreck lawsuit and for a deed and title work.

Sheffield testified it "made me mad" in 1992 when timber was being cut on the property. Tucker told him only bug timber was being cut but Sheffield said everything was being cut.

In 1993, when timber was again being cut, Sheffield got his documents and went to the woods and showed Harry Boldin of Boise Cascade who ordered the cutting stopped.

Sheffield said the when bob Bowling recorded his hunting permit the next year, "I made a copy and threw it down on his [Tucker's] desk...[asked] how could he do this?" Tucker said he knew nothing about it.

When Tucker did nothing, Sheffield said he contacted Bowling and asked him if he knew he had put up $500,000 for the property. Sheffield said he offered Bowling $10,000 for his hunting permit but he refused.

He also denied Bowling's previous statement that he once offered Bowling $50,000 to get Mrs. Andrews to sell him her land interests.

Sheffield said he recorded his documents April 29, 1994. He said he did not talk to Tucker that week and Tucker did tell him that Mrs. Andrews did not know what she had signed. He said he did not receive Tucker's letter to the effect until after the lawsuit was filed.

Turner asked Sheffield if he ever directed Tucker in execution of the documents to commit an illegal or fraudulent act to trick her into signing the documents. Sheffield said no.

Under cross-examination, Gilmore introduced Mrs. Andrews' March phone bill, which showed no call placed to Sheffield's number from her home. Sheffield has testified she had called him wanting her deed back after the March 6 signing.

Of the five-minute call Sheffield mad to Mrs. Andrews March 8, Gilmore asked, "you could have been begging her to accept the $125,000 check?"

Sheffield responded, "It could have been anything, Mr. Gilmore."

Gilmore questioned the $5,000 cash payment, asking how much work Tucker performed on the lawsuit case. Sheffield said Tucker wrote a few letters but that he [Sheffield] negotiated a settlement. The $5,000 was also for some deed work, approximately $300 worth. "He [Tucker] denied handling the accident but you paid him $4,700?" Gilmore asked Sheffield.

Tucker and Sheffield also ere indicted by the grand jury last fall on criminal charges in connection with the transactions. Those cases could come up at the next criminal jury term of Circuit Court, set in May.

By JIM COX

Democrat Editor & Publisher

The Clarke County Democrat

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