A baby girl, four weeks ago, was brought into the municipal courtroom Monday, bearing bruises upon the head form blows which, had they been administered at one time, a physician said, would have crushed the skull.
Lounging sullenly in a chair, W.C. Hellerman, the defendant, listened disinterestedly to witnesses tell a story of cruelty to a wife and infant child by a father. The baby’s bruises had been administered during fits of anger by Hellerman, its father, so witnesses testified, and the father made no denial.
Hellerman kept away from the witness stand and his only defense was an attempt to argue with his wife when she testified as to his conduct in their home and his assaults upon her and her child. She had borne his assaults for months, she said, but when he struck her child she could stand it no longer.
Neighbors of the Hellermans in Belmont appeared in court as witnesses, pouring out words of condemnation upon the father and expressions of sympathy for the mother. The child was born four weeks ago last Friday, and for a week, it was alleged, attacks upon it by the father had brought the neighborhood up in arms with the result that Miss Julia M. Alexander was appealed to for action against Hellerman.
A delegation of citizens called upon her Saturday afternoon, following an alleged assault by the father upon the child and its mother. A warrant was issued against him, and he spent Saturday and Sunday nights in jail. The charge made against him Saturday was assault and battery on the child. An additional charge of attacking his wife was made Monday.
Judge J. Laurence Jones, after hearing the evidence, declared that the story was the most horrible relation of cruelty and torment he had heard in connection with local court cases. He considered first sending the man to higher court where a heavier sentence might be imposed. Fearing, however, that time might have an effect on the case he ordered him to the county roads for six months for assaulting the child and for 30 days for an attack upon his wife. Hellerman made no motion for an appeal.
The father was not represented by counsel, but the solicitor was assisted n the prosectution by F. Marion Redd and Miss Alexander.
Hellerman was said to have been a railroad man. It developed that neither whiskey nor dope had produced his assaults upon his baby. “Bad temperment” was held as the cause.
Dr. R.M. Gallant, who made the examination of the bruises on the child’s head, said, had they been given at one time, the skull would have been crushed. Bruises were also shown on the body of the mother.
Officers were prepared Monday to take Hellerman to the chain gang. Relatives form Cabarrus county of Mrs. Hellerman came to the city for her and the child. They were expected to take her to their home.
From The Charlotte News, March 7, 1921
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