When John Watts and Cora Chapman faced the court Tuesday afternoon charged with F. & A., those in the court room heard some unusual evidence.
Sensing that the evidence to be introduced would be none to uplifting, Judge Webb ordered that the court room be cleared of all women and young boys except those in the case.
It developed from the evidence that John Watts was charged with being the father of the girl’s four children, she herself being his stepdaughter. Watts, through his attorney, plead guilty, and it was made known to the court that Watts had served a previous sentence for being the father of the oldest child. Witnesses testified that neither of the defendants were of normal intelligence. The stepdaughter, it seems, made her home with her mother and stepfather, and no direct testimony to the charge was introduced to the court. The children cited in the case were in town during the trial, they being by marriage ties the step-grandchildren of the defendants, and, according to allegations, his children as well.
Prayer for judgment was continued for the woman, while Watts was sentenced to three months on the No. 6 roads. His attorney asked the court following the sentence that Watts be examined as it is thought he is suffering from a dread disease.
From the front page of The Cleveland Star, Shelby, N.C., Wednesday, July 28, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn97064509/1926-07-28/ed-1/seq-1/
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