Bechtelheimer v. State

54 Ind. 128
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1876
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 54 Ind. 128 (Bechtelheimer v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bechtelheimer v. State, 54 Ind. 128 (Ind. 1876).

Opinion

Worden, C. J.

The appellant was indicted, jointly with one William Young, for the murder of Susan Ingram. The indictment contained three counts. Beehtelheimer was separately put upon trial, and was convicted upon the third count and sentenced to the state-prison for life. The conviction upon the third count of the indictment operated as an acquittal upon the others. Motions were made in the court below to quash the third count, and in arrest of judgment, but were overruled. These rulings are assigned for error. The third count was as follows, viz.:

“ The grand jurors aforesaid, for the county aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do further charge and present, that Martin Bechtelheimer and William Young, at the county of Kosciusko, in the state of Indiana, on the 14th day of July, A. D. 1875, unlawfully, purposely, feloniously and with premeditated malice, did kill and murder one Susan Ingram, a woman over the age of fourteen years, in an unlawful attempt, forcibly, feloniously and against her [130]*130will, to then and there ravish and have unlawful carnal knowledge of her, the said Susan Ingram, (the said Martin Beehtelheimer and William Young, and each of them, then and there having the present ability to ravish and carnally know her, the said Susan Ingram,) by then and there purposely, wilfully, feloniously, unlawfully and with premeditated malice, administering and causing to be administered unto the said Susan Ingram, a large quantity of a certain deadly poison, commonly known as and called cantharides, which said cantharides the said Martin Beehtelheimer and William Young, and each of them, had unlawfully, feloniously and with premeditated malice, mixed and mingled with certain wine, unlawfully, purposely, wilfully, feloniously and with premeditated malice, to be then and there, and at the county aforesaid, taken, drank and swallowed down into the body of the said Susan Ingram. They, the said Martin Beehtelheimer and William Young, and each of them, then and there intending and believing that the properties of the said cantharides, aforesaid, were such that, when drank down into the throat and body of the said Susan Ingram, it would create and greatly excite and increase her sexual passions, and create and excite in her a desire,which she could not control, to have sexual, carnal intercourse with men, and they, the said Martin Beehtelheimer and William Young, and each of them, then and there, and at the time and place aforesaid, believing such administration of said cantharides would, and thereby purposing and unlawfully intending that it should, so excite and increase the sexual passions and desires for sexual intercourse with men, in her, the said Susan Ingram, that she, the said Susan Ingram, by the means and operations of the said cantharides upon her system, would so greatly desire to have sexual, carnal intercourse with men, that she could not control her will, and resist the same, and that by the unlawful means and operations of said cantharides, aforesaid, so taken and swallowed down into her system, her, [131]*131the said Ingram’s will to resist having sexual intercourse with them would be, then and there and thereby, broken down and overcome, and they, the said Martin Bechtelheimer and William Young, and each of them, then and there and thereby, be enabled to have unlawful, sexual, carnal intercourse with her, the said Susan Ingram, forcibly and against her will, and she, the said Susan Ingram, not knowing the said poison, aforesaid, had been mingled and mixed with said wine, aforesaid, did take, drink and swallow down into her body, then and there and at the time and place aforesaid, several large quantities of said poison, aforesaid, the said Martin Bechtelheimer' and William Young, and each of them, then and there well knowing that the said cantharides, aforesaid, so mixed and mingled in said wine by them, as aforesaid, was- a deadly poison, and they, the said Martin Bechtelheimer and William Young, and each of them, then and there knowing the said cantharides to be a deadly poison, administered'^nd caused the same to be administered, then and there^ unto the said Susan Ingram, a woman over the age of fourteen years, with the unlawful intent, then and there, at the time and place aforesaid, and by the means and operations of the poison, as aforesaid, her, the said Susan Ingram, to unlawfully ravish and carnally know by force and against her will, the said Martin Bechtelheimer and William Young, and each of them, then and there having the present ability to unlawfully ravish and carnally know her, the said Susan Ingram, against her will, under and by the means and operations of the poison, aforesaid, upon the system of the said Susan Ingram, aforesaid. And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, charge and present, that the said Martin Bechtelheimer and William Young, her, the said Susan Ingram, then and there, and thereby, at the time, in the manner and by the means aforesaid, and at the place aforesaid, feloniously, wilfully, unlawfully and of premeditated malice, did kill and murder her the said [132]*132Susan Ingram, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state of Indiana.”

The count was evidently intended to charge the offence defined by the second section of the act defining felonies, etc., 2 R. S. 1876, p. 423, which is as follows:

“If any person of sound mind shall purposely and with premeditated malice, or in the perpetration, or attempt to perpetrate any rape, arson, robbery or burglary, or by administering poison, or causing the same to be done, kill any human being, such person shall be deemed guilty of murder in the first degree,” etc.

The count, it is needless to say, is laden with much unnecessary verbiage and useless repetition, but we think it alleges sufficient to constitute the crime of murder, as defined by the statute above set out. .

It commences by alleging that the appellant and Young, purposely and with premeditated malice, killed and murdered Susan Ingram, in an attempt to commit a rape upon her. But this statement is followed up by averments to the effect that the murder was perpetrated by means of the administration of poison; and the count concludes, that the appellant and Young, “by the means aforesaid,” that is, as we understand it, by the administration of the poison, wilfully, and of premeditated malice, killed and murdered the said Susan Ingram. If the count can be held good at all, we think it clear that it must be upon the ground that it charges a murder by the administration of poison, and not upon the ground that it charges a murder in an attempt to commit a rape. To be sure, the count charges, in the beginning, that the murder was committed in an attempt to perpetrate a rape, but when the means and cause of death are described, they are shown to have been the administration of the poison. No attempt to perpetrate the rape is shown. The poison may have been administered for the purpose of exciting the sexual passions of the victim, and with [133]*133the intent to have sexual connection with her while under ■ the influence of the drug, hut this does not amount to an attempt to commit a rape. Assuming that, if the appellant had succeeded in having connection with the girl by means of the drug, it would have constituted a rape, still, no attempt to have such connection is shown. An intent to do a given thing is not to be confounded with an attempt to do the same thing.

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Bluebook (online)
54 Ind. 128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bechtelheimer-v-state-ind-1876.