State v. Anderson
| Decision Date | 20 November 1935 |
| Docket Number | 721. |
| Parties | STATE v. ANDERSON et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Alamance County; Cranmer, Judge.
John L Anderson, J. P. Hoggard, Tom Canipe, J. F. Haraway, Florence Blaylock, Howard Overman, and Avery Kimrey were convicted of conspiracy to dynamite certain buildings; J. P. Hoggard, Tom Canipe, J. F. Haraway, and Florence Blaylock were convicted of feloniously breaking into storehouse with intent to steal and carry away a quantity of dynamite; J. P. Hoggard, Tom Canipe, J. F. Haraway, and Florence Blaylock were convicted of larceny of a quantity of dynamite of the value of $25 John L. Anderson, J. P. Hoggard, Tom Canipe, J. F. Haraway and Florence Blaylock were convicted of feloniously receiving dynamite knowing it to have been feloniously stolen or taken Florence Blaylock and Howard Overman were convicted of feloniously attempting to dynamite certain buildings, and all the defendants appeal.
On appeal of defendants Anderson, Hoggard, Canipe, Haraway, and Blaylock, no error; on appeal of defendant Overman, new trial; on appeal of defendant Kimrey, appeal dismissed.
Where an indictment contained more than one count, and the evidence did not apply to all, a general verdict will be presumed to have been returned on the count to which evidence related.Criminal prosecution tried upon indictment (1) charging all of the defendants, in the first court, with conspiracy to dynamite certain buildings or structures in Alamance county; (2) charging four of the defendants, J. P Hoggard, Tom Canipe, J. F. Haraway, and Florence Blaylock, in the second count, with feloniously breaking into a storehouse with intent to steal and carry away a quantity of dynamite; (3) charging four of the defendants, J. P. Hoggard, Tom Canipe, J. F. Haraway, and Florence Blaylock, in the third count, with the larceny of a quantity of dynamite of the value of $25, the property of Kirk Holt Hardware Company; (4) charging five of the defendants, John L. Anderson, J. P. Hoggard, Tom Canipe, J. F. Haraway, and Florence Blaylock, in the fourth count, with feloniously receiving the said quantity of dynamite knowing it to have been feloniously stolen or taken; (5) charging two of the defendants, Florence Blaylock and Howard Overman, in the fifth count, with feloniously attempting to dynamite a certain building, the property of Stevens Manufacturing Company; (6) charging two of the defendants, Florence Blaylock and Howard Overman, in the sixth count, with feloniously attempting to dynamite a certain building, the property of E. M. Holt Plaid Mills, Inc.
Chronology of the Case.
When the case was called for trial, Jerry Furlough entered a plea of nolo contendere to the first count in the bill, which was accepted by the state, and a nol. pros. with leave was taken as to him on the other counts.
Motions and Rulings Prior to Trial.
Before the jury was selected and impaneled, all of the defendants, except Jerry Furlough, moved to quash the bill of indictment, on the ground that it charged different offenses against different defendants, and that they were entitled to separate trials. Overruled; exception. There-upon, all of the defendants, except Jerry Furlough, entered pleas of "Not guilty."
The defendants then moved that none of the jurors summoned be called, but that the sheriff should call bystanders without regard to whether they had been summoned or not, and also that those already in the box be taken out and replaced by having the sheriff call jurors from bystanders. These motions were based upon the fact that no talesmen had been drawn from the box, and no order was made to summon special jurors in open court, or at the beginning of the term, and that no request was made by the defendants for the sheriff to summon such jurors.
Overruling these motions, the court made a finding of facts that immediately upon the adjournment of court on Tuesday, November 27, the solicitor approached the court and stated there were numerous defendants in the case he proposed to call the next morning, suggesting to the court that additional jurors be called, and as there was only one panel of jurors, the court instructed a deputy sheriff to summon fifteen to eighteen men to serve as talesmen, good men, of good moral character, who had paid their poll taxes, to appear the next morning.
Before the jury was impaneled, the court dictated to the reporter the following entry for the record: "At the time the jury was empanelled, the defendants, Anderson, Canipe and Haraway, had four unexhausted challenges, and the defendants, Overman, Kimrey and Blaylock, had eight unexhausted challenges."
The Evidence.
The case had its beginning with the throwing of dynamite into the plants of the Stevens Manufacturing Company and E. M. Holt Plaid Mills, Inc., of Burlington, during the nation-wide textile strike on Friday night, September 14, 1934. The following day, about noon, four sticks of dynamite, tied together at each end with two strings, with a fuse in them, were found under a loom in the Stevens Manufacturing Company. The night watchman testified that between 3 and 4 o'clock on the night of September 14th, a Ford roadster, with two men in it, stopped in front of the mill, and one of them lighted something at the car, and then threw it. Two witnesses for the state testified that about 3 a. m. on the morning of September 15th, a Ford roadster speeded from the direction of the Stevens Manufacturing Company, a quarter of a mile away, and stopped after going a short distance along the road next to the E. M. Holt Plaid Mills. Shortly thereafter, an explosion was heard, and a large number of window lights were shattered and jarred out, about 150. On the following day four sticks of Red Cross dynamite were found lying by the side of a fence at the old furniture plant in Burlington.
On the night of the explosion at the E. M. Holt Plaid Mills plant, a Ford roadster automobile with a khaki top, owned by R. H. Snyder, was stolen from the street in front of his residence in the North Carolina Silk Mill village, and the next morning, after the bombing, it was found abandoned in the woods about three miles away. Three gallons of gas had been consumed, and marks on the dashboard indicated that several matches had been struck thereon. There were also a few strings and a piece of cloth found in the car which were placed in evidence along with certain strings found attached to the dynamite.
For several years, the Kirk Holt Hardware Company had maintained a storehouse for dynamite, about a mile from Burlington. It contained a number of cases of dynamite up to the time of the day previous to the bombing, when it was found that the door had been broken open, the staple sawed, and the lock taken off. An investigation by the sheriff showed five different-sized tracks (two inside the dynamite house) leading down the road to a Studebaker automobile, owned by Lee Rumple, sitting in a ditch, with tracks in front and in the rear, also signs indicating that a car had been in front and another in the rear. There had been a rain during the first half of the night, the car in front having left before the rain, and the one in the rear after the rain. Tracks inside the house were compared with tracks in front of the Studebaker, and found to have been made by similar-sized shoes. T. M. Hundley, on the night previous to the bombing, was called to help Lee Rumple pull the Studebaker car out of the ditch. He found a Chevrolet automobile sitting behind the Studebaker, and in it three of the defendants, Hoggard, Haraway, and Canipe. There were two others who were not identified. There were also two other occupants of the Studebaker. Having failed to get the Studebaker out of the ditch, Hundley took its occupants with him and left the Chevrolet. Hoggard, Haraway, and Canipe admitted on the trial that they were there at the time, having gone in Canipe's car to Belmont, looking for liquor, but there was evidence by a policeman that Hoggard and Canipe claimed to be the only persons present.
On the night of the bombing, the defendants, Blaylock and Overman, were seen together in a café in the North Carolina Silk Mill village. Later, Overman told the sheriff he had not seen Blaylock that night. Blaylock said they were together and went out looking for liquor, then going home about 10 o'clock.
Blaylock told Charlie A. McCullom, witness for the state, that "I am the man that throwed the dynamite in the Plaid Mill," and that Howard Overman drove the car. Howard Overman, in an alleged written confession, signed in the presence of several special officers or detectives, after having taken a couple of drinks, said he met Blaylock, and after roaming around until midnight he drove the car and Blaylock threw some dynamite, on this trip, at the Stevens Mill and some at the Plaid Mill, one going off and the other not. This alleged confession was made in a cabin rented by S.E. Howard, and several special officers who, with one exception, had been brought in from Pennsylvania to investigate the dynamiting of the mill. The alleged confession, admitted only as against Overman, was attested by these special officers or detectives, as having been made in their presence, but Overman testified he thought he was signing a paper to get it straight about an automobile which had been stolen.
On Tuesday night following the bombing, the defendant Anderson told the state's witness, Pruitt, that he, Anderson wanted him to make a trip for him, this being in the Labor Union Hall in Burlington, and a little later the defendant Furlough also told him he wanted him to make a trip, but when he said Anderson wanted him to make a trip also, Furlough said he could wait until...
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