Solicitor Wants Jury to Consider Death Penalty for Assault on 12-Year-Old Girl, Aug. 1, 1925

Solicitor Will Ask for Death Penalty for Major Bowman. . . Solicitor Huffman Will Ask Grand Jury to Return True Bill When It Meets Next November. . . Thinks He Can Get Conviction. . . Would Have Bench Warrant Sworn Out if Bowman Was Not Already Under Big Bond

By the Associated Press

Hickory, Aug. 1—Solicitor R.L. Huffman will make an effort to reverse the action of the lower court here yesterday by asking the grand jury at the November term of Catawba Superior Court to return a true bill against Major Wade V. Bowman, commander of the second squadron of North Carolina cavalry, charging a statutory offense, he stated over long distance communication from Morganton this morning. He will ask the death penalty for Major Bowman.

Solicitor Huffman would make no statement regarding the “private trial” held Wednesday in the law office of Lawyer Yount, at which time Bowman pleaded guilty to a charge of assault on a female and a prayer for judgment was continued until August 20th. He said he felt the city officials of Hickory were acting in the best judgment for all parties concerned, but he did not agree with their judgment, he said.

When asked if he was not afraid Bowman would leave the town after news of the solicitor’s proposed action at the November term reached him, Huffman said, “Well, that is always the chance. I don’t think I can get a bench warrant now that he is already under bond. But if he did skip, I would have him brought back.” He said he thought he could get conviction of the death penalty on the evidence he heard.

When the 12-year-old prosecutrix took the stand Wednesday afternoon the recorder ordered court cleared. The child and her mother were the only witnesses. Bowman did not take the stand, neither were the two doctors who examined the child charged to testify. The mother of the child prosecutrix corroborated the testimony of the girl in nearly every respect. The child swore that last Tuesday night between 7 and 8 o’clock she stopped to look at the partly completed house which Major Bowman is building on Eighth Avenue. Bowman was there, she said, and asked her how she liked the house. She swore she walked with Bowman to the second floor and he led her into an incompleted closet and he sat on a stack of shingles and pulled her to him. The child described the manner of the alleged offense.

From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Aug. 1, 1925

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-08-01/ed-1/seq-1/