Charlie Bumgardner, Kings Mountain youth charged with killing his young wife last March, was found guilty of manslaughter at this term of court and given a sentence of four months by Judge J. L. Webb. The decision of the jury was accompanied by a recommendation for mercy, hence the light punishment.
The verdict came as a surprise to the majority of attendants in the court room, the consensus of opinion having been that the boy would be acquitted of the charge. Clyde R. Hoey was attorney for the defense, while acting Solicitor C. E. Cowan was the prosecution lawyer.
No sensational developments marking the case, which proceeded largely as had been expected from the newspaper stories and other accounts of the affair. Solicitor Cowan’s introduction of the death-bed statement of the girl herself, obtained while she was in the hospital in Gastonia by two legal representatives of the state, was probably the high-light of the trial, and it was noticed that both the defense and prosecution made substantial use of this testimony.
Beyond the death-bed statement, outstanding witnesses for the state were Mrs. Ham, mother of the dead girl, who was the only eye-witness of the killing, Mr. Ham, Mrs. Bumgardner’s father, and Willie Ham, her brother. The defense succeeded in materially discrediting the testimony of the girl’s mother, introducing may witnesses to show that she was a victim of the dope habit and that consequently she was irresponsible. These same witnesses also testified to the good character of the defendant, as well as to minor aspects of the killing. Whitney Wells, chief of police in Kings Mountain, took the stand and told of getting two different stories from Mrs. Ham, in the first of which she denied all knowledge of the shooting. Another legal battle centered about the attitude of Bumgardner after the accident, the prosecution claiming that he displayed no solicitude for the victim, while the defense maintained that he did everything possible to save her life.
Plead Accident
Climax in the defense testimony was reached late Wednesday afternoon, when Bumgardner himself took the stand, and under the questioning of his lawyer told his story. He said that his pistol had been borrowed by another boy three weeks before, and had only been returned to him when he went to work at the mill Friday night before the killing. He returned home a few minutes after 6 Saturday morning, hung up his overcoat and took the pistol out of his pocket, not knowing that it was loaded. After playing with it for a while, putting it in his mouth and snapping it, he and his wife had a playful scuffle over its possession, which culminated in the shooting of the girl in the right side. As will be remembered, she died several days afterwards in a Gastonia hospital. Solicitor Cowan, in cross examination, was unable to materially shake his testimony, which corroborated essentially that which developed in the reading of the victim’s death-bed statement.
Arguments by counsel were completed early Thursday morning, and the jury took the case after being charged by Judge Webb, their decision apparently hinging on their interpretation of “wanton carelessness.” They were out only about 30 or 40 minutes.
Indications from the counsel for the defendant were that there is no likelihood of appeal, in view of the fact that the decision was accompanied by a recommendation for mercy, showing that the conviction was on technical grounds.
From the front page of The Cleveland Star, Shelby, N.C., Friday, July 30, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn97064509/1926-07-30/ed-1/seq-1/
