Mangrum v. State

432 S.W.2d 497, 1 Tenn. Crim. App. 155, 1968 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 103
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedApril 22, 1968
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 432 S.W.2d 497 (Mangrum v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mangrum v. State, 432 S.W.2d 497, 1 Tenn. Crim. App. 155, 1968 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 103 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION

WALKER, Presiding Judge.

The defendant below, Vernon Mangrum, was indicted in a two-count indictment for rape and for violating the [156]*156age of consent statute, T.C.A. Sec. 39-3706. On his trial in Dickson County on October 21, 1966, he was convicted under the second count of violating the age of consent statute, and his punishment was fixed at three years in the penitentiary. He has appealed from this conviction.

On July 2, 1966, the prosecutrix, Linda Fay Davidson, age nineteen, and Janice Hunter, age seventeen, were spending the weekend with Mrs. Ross Stinson, age twenty-five, known in the record as Thelma Ann Stinson. Mrs. Stinson lived with her husband and four children. Miss Hunter was related to Mrs. Stinson by adoption.

. On the afternoon of July 2, 1966, these three women met the defendant, who was twenty-four years of age, and his nineteen-year-old cousin, Paul Mangrum. In addition to being related, these men had married sisters. The purpose of this meeting was to make plans for that evening. Mrs. Stinson and Paul Mangrum had been together on previous occasions; the defendant had asked the prosecutrix for a date on another occasion, but she had declined. The men invited the women to go to Williamson County, where they were playing country music, but Mrs. Stinson was unable to leave home until her husband was asleep.

At about 1:00 A.M. on the following morning, the men drove to the Stinson house in a truck. The prosecutrix and Miss Hunter were expecting them. Mr. and Mrs. Stinson were asleep. Miss Hunter awoke Mrs. Stinson, and the three women got in her station wagon, leaving Mr. Stinson asleep in the house. Mrs. Stinson drove behind the truck a short distance, and both drivers stopped on a dirt road. Mrs. Stinson and Paul Mangrum [157]*157got out of their vehicles and left the other members of the group.

Mrs. Stinson had taken the keys to the station wagon, but Miss Hunter let it roll down a hill. She says this was to aggravate the boys. The defendant followed in the truck, and the prosecutrix and Miss Hunter got in it. They wanted to go driving, but he objected to Miss Hunter sitting next to him. The women then exchanged places. On his suggestion, Miss Hunter left the truck to turn off the lights on the station wagon. At that time, he drove away, leaving Miss Hunter there.

The defendant proceeded about two miles away, where he stopped. There the prosecutrix testified that he had unlawful sexual intercourse with her, forcibly and against her will. He contended that she was willing, but he was unable to have sexual relations with her because he had drunk a large quantity of beer earlier in the evening. By acquitting him under the first count, the jury found that force was not involved.

They discussed his domestic problems, and the prosecutrix urged him to return to his wife. He took her back to the station wagon. Her hair was disarranged and her appearance was unusual. In reply to a question from Mrs. Stinson, the prosecutrix told her that she had been raped, and that her pants were torn off. This was about thirty minutes after they had left the station wagon. Mrs. Stinson was angry with Paul Mangrum for showing attention to Miss Hunter and cursed both men there and again at the bridge where they had made plans for their meeting.

The women left to go to Buddy’s Place, at Dickson, [158]*158fifteen to seventeen miles away. On the way to it, they say the prosecutrix fainted several times and was almost hysterical. Mrs. Stinson offered to take her to a doctor, but she said she was not hurt. They agreed not to say anything about the occurrence because it would involve Mrs. Stinson and get her in trouble with her husband.

After leaving Buddy’s Place, the women drove to the Red Ace Truck Stop. The State introduced evidence by the prosecutrix, Mrs. Stinson and an employee of the station that when his employee came up to their car she screamed at him to get away; she contends his face resembled that of the defendant. Miss Hunter does not recall such an incident. The defendant objected to this testimony, as well as that of her complaint of rape to Mrs. Stinson.

The women returned to the Stinson home about daylight. On July 4, 1966, the defendant and Paul Mangrum came there again. Mr. Stinson was present at this time. The prosecutrix accompanied Paul Mangrum to the Blue Moon Cafe or Beer Tavern in his truck to get cigarettes or beer for other members of the party. As they passed his mother-in-law’s home, she lay down in the truck to keep from being seen.

The prosecutrix reported the alleged crime to the sheriff that day (July 4), and her mother swore out a warrant on July 7, 1966. At the suggestion of the sheriff and an investigator for the Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Identification, she went to a doctor. She does not know the exact date of her visit, although it was necessarily several days after the events under consideration. He did not testify in the case.

[159]*159The prosecutrix says she had never had intercourse previously, and that she became pregnant by the defendant.

The assignments of error are, in effect, that (1) the evidence preponderates against the verdict of the jury and in favor of the innocence of the defendant, (2) the court erred in admitting certain hearsay testimony into evidence for consideration of the jury to the defendant’s prejudice, and (3) that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury pursuant to defendant’s special request that the unchaste reputation of a female constitutes a valid defense to a charge of violating the Age of Consent Statute, to the prejudice of the defendant.

We consider assignment of error number (3) only, because it presents a valid and necessary reason for the reversal of this conviction.

By this assignment, the defendant contends that the trial judge erred in failing to give his special request as follows:

“DEFENDANT’S SPECIAL REQUEST NO. 1
(Not Given by The Court)
I have been asked to charge you and do hereby charge you that if a woman has a reputation of being unchaste she is considered a lewd character within the meaning of Section 39-3706 even though there is no proof of any specific act of illicit relationship. Ledbetter v. State, 184 Tenn. 396 [199 S.W.2d 112].”

In his charge, the court instructed the jury:

[160]*160******
“In considering the fourth inquiry, viz, whether Linda Fay Davidson, was at the time and before the carnal knowledge, a bawd, lewd, or kept female, it is necessary that you should understand the meaning of these words.
“A bawd female is a female who keeps a house of prostitution, and conducts illicit intercourse. A lewd female is one given to unlawful indulgence of lust, either for sexual indulgence or for profit, and this lewdness may either be open, public and notorious, or committed in secret or private illicit intercourse. A kept female is one who is supported and kept by a man for his own illicit intercourse.

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Related

State v. Hood
868 S.W.2d 744 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
432 S.W.2d 497, 1 Tenn. Crim. App. 155, 1968 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mangrum-v-state-tenncrimapp-1968.