William Westmoreland Says Murder Committed by Ivey Sims, Feb. 4, 1921

Statesville, N.C., Feb. 4—The case of William Y. Westmoreland, charged with the murder of James Nantz, a jitney driver of Statesville, in south Iredelle on the night of October 20, will go to the jury this afternoon. Before a court room packed to capacity, slim, wiry Westmoreland has made a staunch fight for life. He throws the blame for the murder of the jitney driver on another man, Ivey Sims, an alleged eye-witness of the murder and now a witness for the state. He says his own black past caused him to hide the body.

Taking of evidence has been completed.

From the front page of the Hickory Daily Record, Feb. 4, 1921