ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 11, 1990                   TAG: 9005110411
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HOUSTON                                LENGTH: Short


TEXAS TREE KILLER GETS 9 YEARS, $1,000

The man convicted of poisoning Austin's 500-year-old Treaty Oak was sentenced Thursday to serve nine years in prison and pay a $1,000 fine.

The defendant, Paul Stedman Cullen, was convicted Wednesday night in state District Court here and had faced a life sentence on the felony charge of criminal mischief because he has a previous conviction for burglary, a felony. The jury set the sentence.

More than half of the tree is dead, and it is not expected to survive. Well-wishers leave get-well cards at its base and pray there. - The New York Times



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