McMaster v. State

260 S.W. 45, 163 Ark. 194, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 293
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 17, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 260 S.W. 45 (McMaster v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McMaster v. State, 260 S.W. 45, 163 Ark. 194, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 293 (Ark. 1924).

Opinion

Wood, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment sentencing .the appellant to imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for a period of one year .and adjudging a fine against him in the sum of $100, upon conviction, after a trial by jury, for the offense of seduction. The prosecutrix, Ocie Boyd, testified substantially to the effect that she had kept company with the appellant some three or four years. He began going with her in 1920. They were engaged to be married in the summer of 1920, and the appellant had sexual intercourse with her in the spring of 1921. Before this occurred, they were engaged to be married, and the witness would not have permitted appellant to have such intercourse if he had not promised to marry her. They continued this relation until the fall of 1922. The witness was the mother of the child' which she had with her while giving her testimony. Appellant was father of the child. The first act of intercourse occurred in the spring of 1921. The child was born in June, 1923. The appellant induced the witness to have sexual intercourse with him by telling her that he did not think there was any harm in it, as they were going to be married. . During the period appellant was going with her she was also keeping company with several other young ¡men.

The mother and father of the prosecutrix testified to the effect that the appellant kept company with their daughter some three or four years. He would come to their house and take her to church, parties, and other places. The father stated that he guessed the appellant went with his daughter as many as five hundred times. He would come regularly a while, and then quit. During the examination of the father he was asked this question: “Q. From the summer of 1921 up till the time he quit going -with her, did she make any preparation toward getting married? A. She made pillow shams and quilts. She would' say ‘I am going to get married. ’ ’ ’ The appellant objected to the testimony, and the court said to the witness, “You need not state what she said. ’’ Appellant saved his exceptions to the ruling. He was further asked, “Do you know whether or not the defendant saw these things or knew she was making them?” and answered, “I don’t know.”

On cross-examination the appellant asked witness this question: “Talking about the pillow shams and quilts, they are not the only ones made in your family? A. She made these and put them away — looked like she was making them for her use, or she would not have put them away. She told me they were going to get married.” Counsel for appellant said, “We object to that.” Thereupon the court stated as follows: “The statement of what his daughter told him is not admissible, and, gentlemen of the jury, you will not consider that in rendering your verdict. ’ ’ The witness further 'stated that, during the time that the appellant was going with his daughter, she kept company with him exclusively. The witness was asked if he ever had a talk with the appellant about the matter, and answered, “All we ever said about marrying — I gave my girl a heifer calf, and I said, ‘When you and her marry, you will have a start,’ and he said, ‘Yes, I have two besides that.’ ”

Laura Justice testified that she lived in the same neighborhood with the prosecutrix and appellant. She had a conversation with the appellant one day, and he said, “We will be close neighbors soon,” and said he was going to get married. Witness asked him if he was going to marry Ocie Boyd, and he said, “Don’t you think she would make a good woman?” and witness replied, “I do,” and he said, “ You know whom I have been going with.”

Zula Ballinger testified that the appellant told her once that he and Ocie Boyd were going to get married and live down there.

The appellant testified in his own, behalf, and his testimony tended to rebnt the testimony of the prosecutrix and ,the other witnesses for the State to the effect that'he kept company constantly with the prosecutrix, and the appellant testified that he had never had sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix.

Hubert Fears testified that the prosecutrix and George Ballinger, Laura Fowler and witness went to a play party, in the community where the prosecutrix lived, in the year 1919. Witness was with Miss Fowler, and Ballinger was with Ocie Boyd. The play party was in a house near MoMaster’s store. The party broke up at 10:30 or 11 o’clock. The place of the party was about a mile from the home of Ocie Boyd. When the party broke up, they started toward her home and got there at four or five o’clock in the morning. Witness and the young lady he was with were not with the other couple all the time. They were supposed to be ahead. They did not overtake them until the next morning, when they got to the gate. Witness did not know what occurred on the way. On cross-examination witness, over the objection of the appellant, was asked what he and his companion were doing on their way home, and whether or not there was anything improper in his conduct that night. The witness answered, “No sir; I don’t know if there was.anything improper between the other couple.”

In rebuttal the State introduced testimony tending to rebut the above testimony of the witness Fears.

Among other instructions the court gave the following: “1. Tins is a prosecution for seduction, and it contemplates the obtaining of cafnal knowledge of a woman of actual personal chastity, by virtue of a false express promise of marriage. The law presumes the woman to be chaste; and, if the defendant maintains that she is unchaste, he must show it by evidence. If a woman lapses from personal chastity, yet if she reforms and maintains her personal chastity for such a time that the jury can see that she is actually personally chaste at the time of the alleged seduction, then if the accused' obtains carnal knowledge of her person by a false express promise of marriage, and this is sufficiently proved, the defendant should be convicted. If, however, it appears that the woman, at the time of the alleged seduction, was not possessed of actual personal chastity, the accused should be acquitted.” The appellant duly objected and excepted to the giving of this instruction.

The appellant set up, as one of the grounds of his motion for a new trial, the newly discovered evidence of one Harvey Myers. Appellant alleged that Myers, if present, would testify that he had had sexual intercourse with Ocie Boyd on several occasions between April or May and August or September of the year 1922; that he knew nothing of this testimony until after the trial, and that it was impossible for appellant to know what the witness Myers would testify, as Myers had not communicated to appellant that he knew and would testify to the above alleged facts before the trial.

1. The appellant concedes that there is some testimony to warrant the jury in finding that the prosecutrix was corroborated as to the express promise of marriage. But he contends that there is no substantial testimony to corroborate the prosecutrix as to the act of sexual intercourse. The law requires that the testimony of the prosecutrix must be corroborated both as to the promise of marriage and as to the act of sexual intercourse. Hope v. State, 40 Ark. 482; Lasater v. State, 77 Ark. 468; Nichols v. State, 97 Ark. 421. But we cannot concur in ■the view that there is no substantial testimony to corroborate the prosecutrix as to the act of sexual intercourse.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
260 S.W. 45, 163 Ark. 194, 1924 Ark. LEXIS 293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcmaster-v-state-ark-1924.