Man guilty of hanging a noose is jailed over new yard sign
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By Neil Harvey, the Roanoke Times
The Rocky Mount man who was convicted of hanging a noose in his front yard — and who is due to be sentenced for that crime next week — is back in jail, accused of making another provocative public display.
At his trial in September, Jack Eugene Turner, 52, was found guilty of a Class 6 felony. He was allowed to remain free on bond, but one of the conditions of his release was that he not post any further symbols or messages in his yard on Lindsey Lane.
On Tuesday, police said Turner was arrested for a second time after he put up a sign in front of his home that read “N—– lives don’t matter. Got rope?”…
Turner was arrested in June after he used a piece of rope to hang a dark-colored, life-sized dummy from a tree. Witnesses at his trial said the display was a response to an ongoing dispute he had with his next-door neighbors, who are black. They testified Turner had sent them strange notes and frequently flipped his middle finger at them and at their relatives, who also live on the street.
Caldwell said that when sheriff’s deputies responded to the figure hanging in his yard, Turner initially said it was a scarecrow, but then acknowledged it was put there to scare people.
“He stated that he was a racist and he did like black people but did not like n—–s,” Caldwell said in court. After his first arrest, witnesses said, Turner also started draping Confederate flags in his windows.
Judge Joseph Canada ruled that Turner had violated a 2009 Virginia statute that prohibits hanging a noose to intimidate someone, a felony that carries penalties ranging from no jail time to up to five years in prison and fines of $2,500.
“The statute, in my opinion, was written for a case like this,” Canada said.
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