The Newton County Sheriff's Office will pay $400 in restitution to owners of guns whose weapons were destroyed while their cases were still pending. Sheriff Billy Rowles said in July that his predecessor, Eddie Shannon, destroyed evidence in at least three open cases before he left office in December 2016. Those cases were dismissed after Rowles took office in January. "I assume that they were dismissed because the evidence was destroyed," Rowles said. The department will pay about $400 from its general fund to the owners of the two guns that were destroyed before the charges were dropped, he said Monday. In his motion to dispose of the property, filed Dec.