“Everybody lies but Joseph. He tells the truth all day.”
“That,” said J.C.B. Ehringhaus, who opened the argument for the State in the Swindell case Monday morning at half past 11 o’clock, “is what you gentlemen of the jury would have to believe in order to bring in a verdict of not guilty against this defendant.”
It was Swindell’s use of that term “lie” on the stand that in all probability suggested the foregoing couplet to Mr. Ehringhaus.
“That is a lie,” said Swindell, in the course of his testimony, referring to the Ford coupe incident at Berea testified to by Bakley.
“That’s one of his own make,” was again the term Swindell used in referring to the testimony of Otto Boettcher relative to Swindell’s alleged boast that he didn’t intend to let getting stuck in the mud cheat him out of the “fun” he had in prospect when the accident occurred.
But the most damaging evidence against Swindell, or certainly the most damaging evidence put on since Barkley went on the stand Friday afternoon was that of George Steger, tinner, connected with E.J. Cohoon & Company. Mr. Steger testified that on Thursday or Friday prior to Swindell’s arrest that Joe came into the shop where Steger was at work and in the course of a conversation boasted of the very act of which he stands accused. Swindell, according to Mr. Steger, did not call any name but referred to his conquest as in high “society.”
Swindell, recalled to the stand by the defense in rebuttal, denied outright any such conversation that attributed to him by Mr. Steger. Mr. Steger had testified, however, that far from having any ill will against Swindell he had always liked the boy ad had warned him at the time that such conduct would get him into trouble.
Court opened Monday morning with the introduction of character witnesses on both sides, the defense as to the character of George Ward and McKinley Midgett and the State as to the character of Elwood Barkley. Testifying to the character of Ward were Sam Leigh, Ned Rhodes, Ossie West and A.T. Davis; while W.D. Lee and Police Officer George Twiddy testified as to that of McKinley Midgett. On the other hand, Marion Love, Horace Culpepper and Dr. Z. Fearing testified as to the good character of Barkley.
The defense drew from Barkley when he was recalled to the stand by the State admission that he had done some drinking at times, that he had shot crap, and he had been suspended from school. Any advantage this admission might have gained for the defense seemed offset when Sinclair Bailey, put on by the defense, testified that prior to the police court hearing Barkley had confined to him, in seeking legal advice, an account of what happened on the night in question that coincided completely with Barkley’s testimony in police court.
“He told me the story,” said Mr. bailey, who is a young lawyer, “and asked me if I thought he had better leave town. I told him to stay right here.”
The defense had sought to emphasize, through Mr. Bailey’s testimony, the putting in of details by Barkley when on the stand in Superior Court that were omitted in the trial before the recorder; but Bailey’s testimony on this point went for little when solicitor small trapped the witness into saying that Mr. Small had conducted the examination in the recorder’s court, when, in fact, Mr. Small was out of the city at the time. The State explained these omissions on the ground that the State did not desire to reveal all the cards in its hand and that the examination was conducted by different attorneys and that different questions were asked.
Herbert Winslow, witness for the defense, went on the stand to corroborate McKinley Midgett’s testimony to the effect that at the Elizabeth City hospital Barkley had admitted lying on Swindell at the police court hearing. As young Winslow told it, however, Swindell accused Barley of lying on him and Barkley promised only “to tell the truth next time.”
"That's all I want,” was Swindell’s reply, according to Winslow.
When both State and defense had rested and the case was ready for argument by counsel, the State offered to submit the case to the jury on the court’s charge and without argument, “so convinced are we of the justice of our cause,” said J.C. B. Ehringhaus. However, the defense would not agree to this, and at last each side was given three hours in which to argue the case. If each side take all its time, argument can not be concluded before the regular time for adjournment of court Monday afternoon.
Meantime J.D. Farrior, aged grandfather of the wronged girl in the case, still awaits sentence in the County jail, where he has been confined since Friday afternoon.
Representing the defendant in this case are Aydlett & Simpson and T.J. Markham. Assisting the State are Ehringhaus & Hall, McMullan & LeRoy, and A.D. ward and W.F. Ward of New Bern.
Outright denial by Joe Swindell of the testimony of Elwood Barkley as to Swindell’s misconduct on the night of June 18 with the 13-year-old granddaughter of J.D. Farrior of Wilson was the sensation of Saturday afternoon’s evidence in the Swindell trial.
Swindell took the stand at the opening of the Saturday afternoon’s session of court. His testimony was in virtual agreement with that of Barkley as to the circumstances of the automobile ride, except for the fact that Swindell claims it was not himself byt Barkley who suggested as well as delivered the invitation to the tow girls in their party to go for a ride, until they reached Corinth Church. There Swindell testified that they did not even stop and that Barkley’s story of what happened there is pure fabrication.
Swindell also branded as false Barkley’s story of two pairs of legs extending out of the door of a Ford coupe back of Berea Church and Otto Boettcher’s testimony to the effect that Swindell, on the way to town for another car after his own had got stuck, complained that he had got stuck just as he was ready to have some fun which even yet he did not propose to be cheated out of.
Swindell testified with great positiveness, not only in denying his guilt in the case in question but also in denying having done any wrong in other instances in which his name has been bandied about with other women. Once when his name got in the paper in connection with an escapade of two girls at New Bern, Swindell said that at the time he was accused of spiriting those girls away from that town he was at his home here. Again when his name was mentioned in a local newspaper, in connection with a young married woman’s attempt at suicide, Swindell said that gossip had fastened on him without justification. He even denied that he had wronged in any way a girl on Southern avenue, this city, to whose attorney he paid a sum of money when their girl was about to become a mother.
“I was not the father of the child,” he testified. “I paid her that money because I had been going with her and she had treated me all right and I wanted to help her get out of town. Her father told me that she was in wrong and that he was not able to make provision for her.”
Swindell also testified that up to the night of June 18 he had never known or talked to the two girls that went with him and Barkley on the automobile ride and that until they got in his car and Barkley introduced them, he did not even know their names. He did not even know, he testified, whose daughter the girl sitting beside him on the front seat of his car was until she had talked to him awhile.
After turning around at Berea Church, Swindell testified that he intended to bring the girls on back to town.
“They asked me where I was going,” he said, “and I told them back to town. They said it was too early, and I turned to the right taking a dirt road that I had travelled before, intending to drive back into town around by Fork School and come in across the railroad at the end of Main street. It was there I got stuck.” When Boettcher came by, Swindell testified, he urged the girls to come back to town, but they said they did not want to. “Alex was just a boy,” he said, referring to Elwood Barley, “and I did not like to leave him alone with the two girls; but he would not come to town for help, and so I did.” He testified that he borrowed a car from Claude Ives and started back to the place where his won car was truck, but that the lights went out and he had to get another car, a Nash, belonging to Alfred Lane. “I got back to my car,” he testified, “and the girls seemed afraid. I called to them that it was nobody but me, and told them to come on and let’s go home. They got into the car and I brought them back to town, intending to take them home, but when we got to Broad street they again said it was too early and so I turned by the Norfolk Southern Station to the State Highway to Hertford. I did not have but a gallon of gas and I did not want to risk going to far, so at Simpson’s garage I turned around and brought the girls back to town and put the out on Center street, at their request.”
“Did you stop at Corinth?” asked E.F. Aydlett, Swindell’s attorney.
“Absolutely not,” was Swindell’s reply.
McKinley Midgett, Second street, native of Dare County, at one time a truck driver and prior to this employed at the Standard Pharmacy, friend and companion of Swindell, testified that on the night of June 18 he went out on the Newland brick road and pulled Joe Swindell’s Durant out of a mud hole and got back to town at 10:50 o’clock. He also testified as to having had a conversation with Elwood Barkley shortly after Swindell’s arrest in which Barkley told him that there was noting to the charges against Swindell, and that Mr. Blades had offered him money to “go against” Joe, but he had refused it.
Midgett also testified that while he was a patient at the Elizabeth City hospital, following an injury to his hand which resulted in the loss of several fingers, Barkley came to visit him on Sunday, October 5.
“While we were sitting there talking,” he testified, “Joe came in. My hand was paining me so much that I did not pay much attention the conversation until I heard Alex say, ‘I like don ou joe. I did it because I was scared, but I am going to tell a different tale in the next court. I am going to tell the truth.’”
“That is all I want,” Joe told him.
“There were tears in Alex’s eyes while he was talking.”
Midgett also testified that he had been on the dirt road where Swindell’s car got stuck since the night he pulled Swindell’s Durant out of the hole on it, and that it leads by Charlie Pritchard’s, a man named Bright, and some colored people’s houses, through to the Fordk School road.
“Why did you happen to be traveling that road?” asked Solicitor Small.
“Oh, I was just out riding,” was the reply.
“With all the paved roads that there are in the County, why did you choose an infrequently travelled road?”
“Oh, I just as leave travel on a woods path as a boulevard,” replied the witness.
The State brought out on cross examination that Midgett was a witness when Swindell’s wife obtained her divorce on statutory grounds.
Representing the defendant in this case are Aydlett & Simpson and T.J. Markham.
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., Monday, Nov. 11, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92074042/1924-11-10/ed-1/seq-1/#words=NOVEMBER+10.+1924
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