For nearly an hour Saturday afternoon able counsel pleaded before Judge W.A. Devin for the mercy of the court upon their client, Alex E. Jones of Newland, convicted by a Pasquotank jury Friday of manslaughter for the death of the defendant’s hand of Alfred Ferebee, colored, who had been an employe of the family for more than 20 years.
In their plea for mercy, counsel for the defense went so far as to ask that their client be not imprisoned at all, but that the court impose the minimum penalty prescribed by law, four months in the County jail, and permit the defendant to be hired out by the County Commissioners during his prison term.
“If I could consider no one by myself,” said Judge Devin, “I would accede to this request, but the duty devolves upon me to vindicate the majesty and the supremacy of the law.
“The jury has found the defendant guilty. It might have acquitted him, but it did not accept, at least not in whole, his version of the affair, and the fact remains that he did follow the dead man to a distance from his house and to the edge of his premises where he crushed the negro’s skull with one terrific blow.
“However, I am impressed by the tribute paid the defendant by his neighbors, present here in such large numbers and speaking through the defendant’s counsel, and in view of this tribute and in view of the fact that he has shown by all the witnesses in the case that he had the reputation in his community of being a man of good character, and in view further of the jury’s recommendation for mercy which I am disposed to be in accord with, it is the judgment of the court that the defendant be confined in the State Prison at Raleigh for a period of not less than two nor more than five years.
“Mr. Jones, I am very sorry to have to impose this sentence upon you, but I feel it is my duty to do so.”
Counsel for the defense immediately gave notice of an appeal and the defendant was required to give an appearance bond in sum of $5,000 and appeal bond of $100, which was promptly arranged, and he returned home with his family, pending the appeal.
The theory of the defense in the Jones case was that Alfred Ferebee turned back after he had almost crossed the bridge leading from the Jones lot to the State highway and with open knife came at Jones saying that he was going to leave but before doing so he was going to cut Jones open. The weakness of the defense lay in the fact that the knife was never found nor even seen by any witness other than Jones himself, though Mr. Jones did testify that while waiting for his money Alfred sat on the edge of the porch with his back toward her, apparently whittling. against the defendant and also to the jury’s mind probably was the significant fact that the club with which Alfred was hit seemed to have been carefully made away with, while the knife Ferebee was alleged to have had was never mentioned until Jones went on the stand, Jones telling Sheriff Reid when the sheriff arrested him that he had hit the negro because the latter was impudent in refusing to leave the Jones lot. Equally damaging to the defense was the fact, mentioned by Judge Devin in passing sentence, that Jones followed the negro to the edge of the lot.
The theory of the State was that Jones was chasing the negro with a club and that, seeing that he was going to be overtaken, “Alfred Ferebee turned just in time to receive the blow above the left eye instead of on the back of the head. The State contended that such a blow as was dealt the defendant, crushing in a triangular section of the cranium just above the left eye, could not have been delivered had the two men been face to face. The weakness of the State’s case lay in the fact that there was no eyewitness of the blow except Jones himself and that Mrs. Jones testified that “Abbie,” as she called Alfred Ferebee, fell nearer the house than he was at the last time she saw him before the blow was struck.
This weakness in the State’s case, together with the fact that the principal witness for the state was a negro who admitted that he had been active in financing the defense, led many who watched the jury closely throughout the trial to look for an acquittal or a hung jury. Following the jury’s verdict finding the defendant guilty of manslaughter, the sentence of the court was about in line with general expectation.
Mr. Jones admitted owing the negro $10 which, he said, Alfred had asked him to keep until Christmas. It was the theory of the State that after Mr. Jones had told Ferebee he need not work for him any more and to get off the place and stay off Alfred brought up the matter of the $10 Mr. Jones was keeping for him and that it was the negro’s instance that Mr. Jones pay him this amount that led the white man to go for the negro with a club. It was not the contention of the State nor did anyone who attended the trial have an idea that Mr. Jones deliberately intended to kill the negro.
Alex Jones is one of the most widely known and prominent farmers in the upper part of Pasquotank County. His home stands on the Newland brick road at the point where the State highway to South Mills joins that road, the Newland road bounding the Jones lot in front and the South Mills road bounding it on the right had side, as one faces the Newland road. Mrs. Jones is a sister of D.E. Wiliams of South Mills and of Mrs. W.L. Cohoon of Elizabeth City. D.E. Williams was one of the witnesses for the defense. Mrs. W.L. Cohoon sat beside her sister, Mrs. Jones, throughout the greater part of the trial, while between the two women sat their aged mother, Mrs. W.F. Williams, widow of the late Frank Williams. It is the old Williams home at which Mr. and Mrs. Jones reside, Mrs. Williams living with them. It was suggested in the course of the plea for mercy Saturday by W.L. Cohoon that Alfred Ferebee, who had long done the bidding of the Williams family, was resentful of the authority of the young son-in-law and so had in late years grown insolent and hard to manage, but that Mr. Jones had kept him in his employ largely for the sake of the aged mother-in-law.
Mrs. Williams did not go on the stand was said to be quite deaf. However, when some remark during the trial was made as to her age, she interrupted to say that she was a year younger.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones have been married 12 years and have five children. “It seems a pity,” said Judge Devin Saturday before passing sentence, “that these innocent must suffer along with the guilty,--probably even more than the guilty, but no way has been devised to prevent it.”
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., Monday, March 24, 1924.
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