By EUGENE B. SLOAN
Staff Writer

Earl J. Jacobs, a Pontiac store owner, went on trail Tuesday in U. S. District court here on a charge that he failed to make a required return on the disposition of a quantity of sugar.

The case is brought under a U. S. Treasury Department regulation requiring stores under a “demand letter” to file a return on each disposition or sale of a large amount of sugar.

“Demand letters” are executed by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Unit (ATTU) of the Treasury Department, when in their opinion, larger than normal amounts of sugar are being handled through stores.

Four government witnesses took the stand Tuesday as the trail got under way. It will be resumed at 10 a.m. today.

Charles W. Yoakum, an ATTU agent, testified that he had discussed the treasury rules about sugar with Jacobs on February 1, 1963, and that on February 21, 1963, executed a demand letter against Jacobs’ store.

This demand letter reuired that Jacobs file a return with the Treasury Department on any disposition of sugar in excess of 24 pounds.

He testified that he read the letter to Jacobs, and that Jacobs and he signed it.

Yoakum testified that sugar was a prime ingredient in the manufacture of moonshine whiskey, along with a grain derivative such as wheat or rye, and water.

He testified that the returns were to be make on a “Form 169” which required the date of disposition, quantity of sugar, kind, name and address of customer, license tag of customer, the vehicle driver’s name if other than the customer, and the driver’s license number.

When asked under cross examination how from a practical point of view could a one-man store operator get all this information when busy with trade, Yoakum replied that they shouldn’t sell large quanitites of sugar to a single customer when under “demand letter” restricitions.

Thomas L. Wagner of the ATTU testified that on October 17, 1964, he observed Jacobs Supermarket with binoculars from a vantage point across the railroad tracks about 300 yards away.

He testified that about 7:20 p.m. he saw Jacobs carry a 60-pound bale of sugar up the front of the store. Shortly thereafter, he said, he saw a Negro man, Walter Edward Gibbs, get out of a nearby car, go into the store, and load into the car sugar, a cardboard carton, and a croker sack.

He testified that he saw the car later and that it contained two bales of sugar, a pasteboard carton containing 30 pounds of sugar, two packages of fruit jar caps, a sack containing 30 pounds of cornmeal and some jars.

Yoakum also testified that the car contained 150 pounds of sugar, 40 pounds of corn meal, two packages of jar caps, and some jars.

Under cross examination, Wagner testified that it was ATTU policy to contact every store selling sugar and ask them voluntarily not to sell more than 20 pounds to known or suspected liquor violators.

The next step, he said, was the demand letter, after which such dispositions are against the law. Wagner testified that anything over 20 pounds is considered a large amount, and that the regulations were directed only against these large amounts.

E. T. Dority, raw materials coordinator of the ATTU, testified that his records indicated that Jacobs did not summit any return on the sugar involved October 17.

Walter Edwards Gibbs testified that he went to Jacobs Store on October 16, and that Jacobs asked him to take 150 pounds of sugar and some jars down the road and put them off at a certain spot, for which he was paid $5.

He testified that on the 17th, he came to Pontiac, loaded the sugar at Jacobs store, and drove away down a black top road where he was “apprehended by the law.”

In other court action Tuesday, Wilton Alfred Sharpe and Delean McIver pleaded guilty to violation of liquor laws.

According to testimony their still had been found in a garage on Columbia’s Main Street.

McIver was given 12 months suspended sentence and placed on probation for five years. Sharpe was fined $250 on one count and on two counts got 30 months suspended and five years probation. These two sentences are to run concurrently.

Willie Garth and Earl Leroy Walker were given probationary sentences for the interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle.

Probationary sentences were given Lewis Grant, Homer Mack, Sr., and Homer Mack Jr., for violation of the liquor laws.

According to testimony, the still was found near the home of Mack Sr., being operated by the younger, Mack and Grant.

Mack Jr., who is 19, will serve on probation until he is 21. Grant and Mack St., will be on probation five years.