Newspapers / The Jones County journal. / April 18, 1968, edition 1 / Page 1
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THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1968 VOLUME XIX . :*> V / Trials Coatinuieg of Hail Fraud Cases in Federal Ceurt; Larkins ■W Orders Transfer of All to His Ceurt This week trials before Judge John Larkins in federal district court are continuing of numer ous defendants indicted in con nection with a two-year investi gation of hail fraud charges largely centered in Lenoir County. Last week two defendants on trial pleaded guilty to several instances of mail fraud, and a third witness called also enter ed a guilty plea after first com mitting prejury on the witness stand. John Elmore and Earl Eubanks were the pair on trial and G. W. Gardner of Elm City was the insurance adjuster who got him self involved in testimony and later returned to the stand and recanted. This week additional pleas of guilty have been tendered by Floyd Gray Jr., Clifton Gray, J. W. Poole, Lyman Edwards, Willie S. Hudson, Willie J. Smith, J. W. Roberts, Howard Rouse and Floyd' B. Jones and W. C. Stafford, who pleaded not guilty has been found guilty. I Judge Larkins will begin pass ing sentence on the 13 when court is convened Thursday morning. Also earlier in the week Lar kins issued an order permitting (the transfer of numerous addii tional fraud charges pending against this group and others for the state courts to the feder al courts. A motion has been made of this nature earlier by counsel for Elmore and had been under study for several months by Larkins. The allegation supporting the motion to transfer was based on the allegation that great amounts of publicity would make it im possible for the defendants to get a fair trial in a state court. Larkins, who has not been ex posed to any of this kind of publicity, agreed with this alle gation thus permitting the trials to be held before a judge and a jury, both of whom had no previous knowledge of the cases. Nuts! Anas Murrell Appeals Suspended Jail Tern in Shooting of New Bern Man Among the cases before Jones County Recorder’s Court Judge Joe Becton last Friday was that in which Amos Murrell of Tren ton route 1 was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Murrell was found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon, but not with intent to kill .in the shooting of Thurman Parker of New Bern. The judgment of the court was that Murrell be given a six month jail term suspended on condition he pay a $50 fine and pay $450 for the medical ex penses of Parker. Murrell, who claimed that he was acting in self defense and only shot Parker after lie re peatedly tried to get Parker to leave his home, gave notice of appeal to superior court and was released under $500 bond. Willie Hill of Dover route 2 was found guilty of using inde cent language and making in decent overtures to a woman and was given a six-month jail term suspended on payment of the court costs and condition he remain on probation two years. Ethlyn Hicks Johnson of Jacksonville was fined $26 for speeding, Ben Moses Smith Jr. of Trenton route 1 paid $13 for a traffic violation as did James Alford Moore of Jacksonville and Warren Dale Hall of Rocky Mount paid $16 for failing to Extradition Hearing Held Monday, Final Decision Not Given It is expected that the answer will not be given until late this week, or possibly early next week whether Virginia Governor Miles Godwin will grant ex tradition of David Martin Ro chelle to North Carolina. Rochelle, along with Richard Rodesky of Montgomery, Ala bama, is charged with the Febru ary 7, 1968 murder and robbery of Jones County ABC Store Manager Albert J. Jones Jr. Rodesky waived extradition when arrested in Alabama, but Rochelle, when apprehended in his home town of Norfolk, Va. refused to voluntarily return to face trial. Rochelle, among other things to his part in the murder-rob is claiming that his confession bery was illegally obtained. He has not denied that he took part in the crime. MOORE IN VIETNAM Private First Class William G. Moore, son of William H. Moore, Maysville, was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Viet nam March 28. Two Youths Killed Just after 1 Monday morning a one-car wreck near Seven Springs claimed the lives of two young men from the Seven Springs Community. They were 19 year-old Kenneth E- Hill, son of Mr. and Mrs. James E. Hill of Seven Springs route 1 and 20 year-old Jimmy Ray Thompson, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Thompson of Seven Springs. Thompson was home on leave from the armed forces. Both were thrown from their car which was travelling at a high rate of speed and went out of control in a sharp curve reduce speed to avoid an acci dent. Display Schedule for Economical -i Water System Listed for County Every possible effort is- being made by Jones County Exten sion officials to give residents in every part of the county an opportunity to see a new and faost economical home water system that has been developed by State University specialists. Following here is the schedule for the display of this system and every homeowner in the county is urged to find time to take a look at it. April 17-9-4 Long Point. April 18-9-2 Clyde Monette’s Store, Pollocksville. April 18 - 2:30 - 4:30 Allen Brown’s Store, Garnet Heights, Pollocksville. April 19 - 8:30 - 4:30 Health Department, Trenton. April 22-8-3 Food Distri bution Center, Trenton. April 23-9-3 Eugene Hood’s Store, Wyse Fork. April 24-9-3 Comfort School. April 25 - 9 - 3:30 Ed Mitchell’s Store, Highway 41 (Tukahoe Area). April 26 - 8:30 - 4:30 Health Department, Trenton. April 29-9-4 Wayne Has kins’ Store Highway 58 April 30-9-4 Victor Harper’s Store Beaver Creek Area. A. H. Cheston Is Ham Show Winner A. H. Cheston of Route 2, Trenton received the Grand Champion Blue Ribbon and N. L. Simmons of Route 1, Pollocks ville, received the Reserve Champion ribbon at the Sixth Annual Jones County Ham Show and Sale held April 12 at the Agricultural Building in Tren ton. Seventy-five hams were enter ed in the show. Twenty-seven of the hams won blue ribbons, 20 of them red ribbons and 28 white ribbons. The judges for the show were Dr. John A. Christian, Food Science Specialist for Raleigh, and E. W. Barnes, Agricultural Extension Agent for Jones Coun ty. GOODING IN VIETNAM Specialist Four Ernest L. Gooding, son of Mrs. Harriet E. Gooding, Route 2, Trenton, was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Divi sion in Vietnam, March 27. Odom In Vietnam Airman First Class Howard L. Odom, son of Mr. and Mrs. Har vey L. Odom of Rt. 1, Maysville, is on duty at Phu Cat AB, Viet nam. Grainger High Dramatics Club to Give Four One-Act Plays on Friday In a “Night of One-Acts” Fri day night, April 19 at 8 in the Grainger High School Auditor ium the Drama Department will present four short one-act plays to the community, admission free. The featured production will be “The Lottery,” a play depict ing the heathen customs of a re mote mountain village that con cludes with the stoning of a citizen by her neighbors. The local drama group captur ed first place rating of “Distin guished” in the District Drama Festival at Campbell College with this play last month, and was the only high school group from the district to be invited to present its production in state competition in Chapel Hill at the State Drama Festival April 5-7. The GHS dramatists employ the special effects of grotesque white make-up and brown cos tuming in “The Lottery.” Seniors Carol Edwards, Debbie Conklin, and Chuck Courtney have all re ceived special recognition from contest judges on their individ ual performances in the play. The other three one-acts to be presented will be “Impromptu,” “Sparkin’,” and “A Mad Break fast.” Four Jones Arrests In the past week Jones Coun ty Sheriff Brown Yates reports the arrest of four persons. Two teen-aged boys, Thomas Wright and David Green of Trenton route 1 were each charged with forcible trespass, William Mur phy of Pollocksville was charged with public drunkenness and Criss Kinsey of Trenton route 1 was accused of drunken driving. KINSTON OFFICIALS ACT TO ANNEX SEVEN SMALL AREAS; IGNORING BIGGEST NEED by Jack Rider Monday night the Kinston City Council took the second legal step in the ultimate annexation of seven small areas to the north and northwest of the city, but there has still not been made the first official step to even begin an analysis of the annexation of that area which shouldbe given the most immediate at tention; specifically the River mont complex which lies just across NeusO River to the south and east'of Kinston. The orderly development of every urban area £» in great jeopardy when officials, for any reason try to ignore a large developed area on the doorsteps of a city. SchodLs, recreation, fire pro tection, sewage disposal, storm drainage, flood control, street improvement, police protection and zoning all .suffer when such neglect is tolerated too long. The second largest “town” in Lenoir County is Rivermont, al though it is not incorporated, and although the name River mont specifically covers just that area west of US 258 and South of the Old Asphalt Plant Road the overall built-up area more properly should be said to include those areas south of Neuse River and extending east wardly to at least the Blendspun Plant and extending southwardly to include Jackson Heights. Admittedly, there is still a con siderable “open acreage” in this area, but also admittedly very few years will have parsed be fore the spread of commercial and residential construction will consume the majority of those open areas. If one looks at a 10-year-old aerial photograph of the area and compares it with a current photograph this expan sion cut be -more fully appre ciated. » Thousands of people have mil lions of dollars invested in homes and hundreds of people have more millions invested in commercial enterprises in -this area, including the rapidly ex panding campus of Lenoir Coun ty Community College. ~ expansion of Kinston to the north, east and west has been careful and without major problems, but this has been done in small tracts when and as city finances could stand the cost of expansion. Now the city is on the eve of major extension of its water sys tem and' installation of a sewage disposal system. The Rivermont area is to a very large extent “included out” in all of these plans. There is no way of knowing what the feeling of the majority of home and business owners in this area is on the subject of an nexation to the city. Many auto matically resist coming under an additional taxing jurisdiction. But the vast majority of this area has been paying the special Kinston School District Tax for over 20 years mid not getting any benefit from this tax, since they 'have elected very largely to send their children to county schools because of free trans portation, although they have been paying 21 cents on the $100 valuation to make the schools ... ^ | better to which they were not sending their children. This, obviously, is a weird governmental mixup that could, and should be cleared up with an orderly annexation program that included steps aimed at correct ing this absurdity. As any sanitation engineer very well knows there is also a limit to the absorption potential of septic tank discharge in any soil types and especially the soil types that predominate in this area which very largely lies within the flood plain of Neuse River. This problem is a con stant health threat, not only to the residents of this area, but of the entire Kinston area. Before the entire area is con verted to private purposes land should be set aside for public uses, such as schools, parks, playgrounds,' fire stations and water and sewage installations. None of this is even being given rudimentary consideration now by either city or county officials. Although it is reasonable for residents of this, as well as other areas to resist annexation, when the full financial picture is known they generally realize that the cost is not nearly so bad as it sounds at first thought. One of the most immediate problems of this area is flood damage. . A id although this tnreat is not a frequent one it was learned the hard way just a few years ago that poor highway engineering and failure to con sider the potential damage from this poor highway engineering cost residents of this area a lot of money when the flood waters did come; not to mention the health threat to the entire metro politian Kinston area which the flood waters also brought. The development of Kinston from a town into a city has been orderly and extremely well planned with a few notable ex ceptions, but Kinston cannot continue its flight to the east, west and north forever. It must ultimately give serious consid eration to doing what so clearly lies so dose at hand to the south. If ultimately, why not now? ' ■ • ■ : " v^v .
April 18, 1968, edition 1
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