VIDALIA &8212; It took the Attorney General&8217;s office all day to make its case against Henrietta Williams.

It took the jury just 16 minutes to find her guilty of tampering with the absentee ballot of Maude Lee Williams.

&8220;We feel like justice was done,&8221; Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said. &8220;This kind of thing needs to stop, and I think the jury sent a clear message.&8221;

The state sent the jury a pretty clear message itself, putting eight people on the stand who gave testimony that the women who signed as witnesses on Maude Williams&8217; ballot affidavit had not been present at her house when she signed &8212; or didn&8217;t sign, a matter of debate &8212; her ballot April 1, 2004.

The ballot affidavit in question &8212; the ballot itself is not a matter of public record &8212; contained Maude Williams&8217; personal information in a hand everyone, from the defendant to the state&8217;s handwriting expert, agreed was that of Henrietta Williams.

Filling out information on an absentee ballot for an infirm person, as the 80-year-old Maude Williams certainly appeared in court to be, is not a crime, if that person is registered as handicapped with the registrar of voter office, which she was not.

The state wasn&8217;t worried about that, however. It was the signatures of the two witnesses on the affidavit that were the basis of the filing or maintaining false public records charge.

Caldwell and Butch Wilson, who led the prosecution, put five witnesses on the stand, who all said Shirley Mason and Eloise Polk were not present at the time of the ballot&8217;s signing.

&8220;What is a witness?&8221; Wilson asked in his closing argument. &8220;It&8217;s a person who&8217;s there and sees something happen. If you&8217;re not there, you can&8217;t be a witness.&8221;

This made the witness signatures false information, the filing of which is a crime.

Defense counsel William Yarbrough argued that two of the state&8217;s witnesses, Polk and Mason, had lied during their initial interview with authorities &8212; in which they said they had watched Maude Williams sign &8212; and were lying this time as well.

As for two other of the state&8217;s witnesses &8212; Maude Williams&8217; granddaughters Renacia Reed and Felicia Williams, the later who filed the complaint &8212; Yarbrough said in his closing statement they were upset because they had wanted to take their grandmother&8217;s ballot to vote for the losing candidate in the election.

And, finally, Yarbrough argued for a close reading of the ballot affidavit.

&8220;Even if Mason and Polk signed it elsewhere, there is no false information on the document,&8221; he said.

Time and again, Yarbrough tried to make Maude Williams&8217; signature an issue, but the state countered that Henrietta Williams was not accused of forgery. Ad hoc Judge Sharon Marchman, working through laryngitis, agreed with the state.

The jury did, too, to Wilson&8217;s satisfaction.

&8220;With the clear and incontrovertible evidence the state put before the jury, there wasn&8217;t much else they could have done,&8221; Wilson said.

The speed of the verdict didn&8217;t surprise him either.

&8220;I&8217;m not surprised by anything a jury does.&8221;

Henrietta Williams will be sentenced April 4. She could receive up to five years and or a

$5,000 fine. A pre-sentencing investigation will take place before the hearing.

She was remanded and Marchman set her bond at $25,000. Friends of hers said they expected her to post the bond.

Yarbrough said his client plans to appeal the verdict.

The trial was just the opening salvo in the Ferriday voter fraud saga.

Williams is one of five Ferriday residents accused of 21 counts of forging, filing false ballots and conspiracy relating to the absentee ballots of Estella, Lillie and Frederick White.

The Attorney General&8217;s office decided to try Williams first on the sole unrelated count after a late disclosure of discovery material prompted the continuance of the other matters.

The two sides will hold a status conference after the April 4 sentencing hearing.