The first three days of Superior Court have been taken up mainly with the trail of liquor selling cases and the interest of the people of Beaufort and elsewhere in the county in the trials has been very great. In fact, ever since the arrests of a number of men in Beaufort on evidence furnished by detectives Robt. Lumsden and William Brandon of the Southern Detective Agency last week, the matter has been one of the leading subjects of discussion. Some have condemned the city officials for employing the detectives while others have zealously defended them. It is a matter of common knowledge that much liquor has been sold here and elsewhere in the county ever since a lot of booze was thrown overboard at Cape Lookout last December by a rum runner. City officials say they could not stop the whiskey selling without outside help.
Wm. H. Garner and his son Carlton, who is about 18 years of age, were the first of the defendants in the liquor cases to receive attention. They entered a plea of guilty and after having been told in forceful language of the evil of their ways by Judge Cranmer, they were sentenced to the jail to be worked on the roads of Craven county. The father received a sentence of 15 months and the son got 4 months.
The next case tried was that of George Garner, another son of Wm. H. Garner. He was tried by jury and acquitted. The jury was reprimanded by Judge Cranmer and excused from any further attendance at court.
The end of the liquor selling cases was a dramatic one and came Wednesday afternoon. All the defendants, except three who had run away, entered pleas of guilty. Their attorneys Walter Hill and Claude R. Wheatly made strong pleas for them, stating that the men had never been in trouble of this sort before, that they would not violate the prohibition laws again, and asked that they not be sent to the roads. The Judge had each man to stand up before him, and told them of the evils of liquor selling and announced his judgments. A large crowd of men and women were present as spectators and for an hour or more sat paying as close attention as if they had been witnessing the production of a great tragedy in some theater. When the judgments were finally announced the sobs and shrieks of female relatives of the accused could be hears filling the court room and the halls of the building.
Those that pleaded guilty of selling liquor and ser sentenced were the following:
Price Johnson, judgement suspended, put under $500 bond to show good behavior two years.
Guy Whitehurst, same sentence as Johnson.
John Davis (colored) $300 to show good behavior two years.
Dan Smith (col) eight months in jail to be worked out on county roads.
Cecil Brooks, 12 months in jail to be worked out on county roads.
George Styron, 12 months in jail to be worked out on county roads.
Howard Willis of Morehead City, who was caught some time ago with 40 gallons of whiskey in a cart, plead guilty and drew a sentence of 18 months on the roads.
Luther Loyd of Beaufort, who was let off at a former term of court on a suspended sentence and who was convicted in the Mayor’s Court recently of drunk and disorderly conduct was sentenced by the Judge to fix months on the roads.
Henderson Mobley, a negro from Morehead City, was convicted by a jury of secret assault and was given a sentence of two years in the penitentiary.
The grand jury finished its work today and was discharged. The foreman of the jury was Charles A. Lincoln of Morehead City, N.L. Carrow of Beaufort who was appointed officer in charge of the jury. Solicitor Jesse H. Davis prosecuted the criminal docket.
From the front page of The Beaufort News, Thursday, June 15, 1922
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