Charlotte, July 18—Ralph Hollars, central figure in a long series of sensational house robberies here, today was adjusted (adjudged?) of weak mind and leally (legally?) irresponsible for his confessed crimes.
Judge T.D. Bryson in Mecklenburg county Superior court, at the conclusion of a trial in which several rather sensational statements were made by witnesses, announced that the 17-year-old Charlotte youth would be committed to some corrective institution. The choice of this institution will be made, Judge Bryson said, after conferences with Solicitor Carpenter and defense attorneys.
The trial was finished this morning after the state had announced it would rest with the introduction Friday afternoon of the testimony of four witnesses and the defense this morning had presented 11 witnesses. One psychologist and three physicians on the stand for the defense asserted that this boy, whose crimes caused intense apprehension among Charlotte people, especially the women, has the mental development of a child of eight years.
Solicitor Carpenter made no effort to combat the testimony of the defense that the youth is a mental defective, and asked each defense witness only a few perfunctory questions. The solicitor did not address the judge regarding the decision after all testimony was heard. D.B. Smith, one of the defense counsel, made a short impassioned appeal to Judge Bryson tha the prisoner be sent to a corrective institution and not to a prison, because, the lawyer said, Hollars “is mentally deficient and morally irresponsible.”
Judge Bryson, in announcing his decision, said that he was convinced of the justice of the defense appeal and of the accuracy of the conclusions of the psychologist, Dr. H.W. Crane of Chapel Hill, director of the bureau of mental health and hygiene of the state department of public welfare, and the Charlotte physicians that the youth’s mental condition was responsible for his criminal activity.
Mrs. John H Hollars of 902 West Fifth street, mother of the prisoner, was the first defense witness sent to the state. She testified that Ralph had been sickly all his life. He has never shown indication of normal mental development, does not know right from wrong, and has never shown an ability to plan or to exercise will power Two former employers of the youth testified that they had discharged him because of his inability to hold jobs as a soda dispenser.
From page 2 of The Concord Times, July 20, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn91068271/1925-07-20/ed-1/seq-2/
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