Henry Furr, white farmer of the county, was convicted in Superior Court Wednesday on the charge of selling liquor, two cases being presented to the jury against him. He was charged with having sold whiskey to Sim Smith and Annie Stacks and with keeping liquor in his possession, and the jury found him guilty.
Judge Bis Ray announced that he would sentence Furr Thursday. He was remanded to the custody of the sheriff until then.
Judge Ray indicated that he would make a former sentence of one year and which was postponed until November 1 to allow the defendant to gather his crops effective immediately and become a part of further road sentences which he is expected to administer to Furr.
LIVES NEAR CITY
Furr, who lives on the plantation of Dr. C.A. Misenheimber 3 miles from the city almost directly half way between the Providence and Monroe roads, has been frequently before the courts on charges either of liquor selling, liquor transporting or keeping more in his possession than is allowed. On two previous occasions, officers fund whiskey at his house, nine gallons once and five gallons at another time, and rural policemen on another occasion interrupted what they alleged to have been an attempt to deliver 50 gallons to Furr right near his home.
Officers have contended that Furr has bene one of the leading distributing agents in the entire county, judging from the number or complaints they have received of his operations and judging also from the number of automobile visitors who call on him in the course of a day. It is alleged further by th eofficers that Furr’s premises are the source of a vast deal of liquor that finds its way into the city, local bootleggers, it is claimed, getting quantities of it and returning here for retailing it.
In the case against him this course the two negroes, Sim Smith and Annie Stacks, testified that they went to Furr’s home Sunday a week ago, the Stacks woman buying a gallon and Smith two quarts. When they got back to the city, officers interrupted them on Second Street just as they had driven up to their homes. They told the policemen that they had been out to Mr. Furr’s and got the liquor. They testified to the same facts before Judge Ray Tuesday afternoon. The Stacks woman said that she was buying the liquor from Furr’s son and that Mr. Furr came into the well-house where the transaction was going on and, finding that there was hardly enough in the container in there to fill the gallon bottle which the woman had, stepped out and a short distance into the woods, where he got another container and poured from it until the gallon was completed.
Deputy Sheriff Fesperman and Detectives Riley and Bradley testified that, on the strength of the story told them by the Stacks woman and Sim Smith, they went out to Furr’s the same Sunday afternoon and found a container in the well-house, several others, kegs, bottles, etc., some of which were partly filled with water, but all of which had strong odor of whiskey, and that lying all about the premises were numerous bottles as well as large kegs and various sorts of containers.
PRODUCED COURT RECORDS
In the course of the testimony by the officers, Judge Ray interrupted to ask the solicitor if the defendant was not the same man who was in his courts a few months ago and for whom he had postponed the road sentence until he had gathered his crop. When the solicitor replied in the affirmative, Judge Ray instructed him to produce the court record as testimony where upon Attorney Jake Newell objected. Judge Ray consulted the authorities to rule on the competency of such a curt record as part of the direct evidence and at length sustained the attorney’s objection and instructed the jury to have no regard for whiat he had said and to take no further notice of the fact that Furr was under sentence to begin November 1 in another case.
The trial of Furr, beginning Tuesday afternoon and continuing through Wednesday morning, attracted to the courthouse a large number of spectators who were anticipating an interesting narrative. On account of the prominence of the defendant increases of this character, and on account of the stir that has been created generally in the community where he lives because of his alleged operations, unusual concern was indicated in the outcome of the trial.
From The Charlotte News, Oct. 5, 1921
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