Mosley v. State

304 So. 2d 613, 54 Ala. App. 59, 1974 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1165
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedDecember 17, 1974
Docket7 Div. 316
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 304 So. 2d 613 (Mosley v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mosley v. State, 304 So. 2d 613, 54 Ala. App. 59, 1974 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1165 (Ala. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

HARRIS, Judge.

Appellant was put to trial upon a two-count indictment charging, (1) burglary in the first degree, and (2) rape. He was represented at arraignment and trial by counsel of his choice. He pleaded not guilty. The jury returned a verdict finding him guilty under count two of the indictment and fixed his punishment at fifteen years imprisonment in the penitentiary. After conviction, appellant was determined to be indigent, and he was furnished a free transcript. New counsel was appointed to represent him on appeal.

This is another interracial rape case. Cases of this type are coming to this court at an alarming rate, as we have pointed out before.

*60 The prosecutrix was a twenty-five year old married woman living with her husband in a predominately black section of East Gadsden. They lived in a duplex apartment and the bedrooms were upstairs. She was far advanced in her third trimester of pregnancy. In fact, she was rapidly approaching term time at the time she was raped.

Prosecutrix’s husband worked the third shift at the Goodyear Plant. He went to work around 7:30 P.M. on December 1, 1972, and his shift ended at 7:00 A.M. on December 2, 1972. Prosecutrix did her household chores after he left and looked at the clothes they had purchased for the new baby, and she looked at television for a long time. She went to bed at 1:00 A.M. She was dressed in a nightgown and had on a pair of under pants. She was awakened at 2:30 A.M., when she heard a noise just outside her bedroom. The noise sounded like someone was doing something with a chain. The next thing she knew a black man was at her bedside. There was enough light filtering through the blinds in her bedroom from a street light for her to see the man was black and wearing white work gloves. She started screaming and the man began to choke her and threatened to kill her if she did not hush. She continued to scream and her assailant ran a gloved finger down her throat and scratched the inside of her mouth to the extent she started bleeding. She had to go to the bathroom to spit up the blood. The man made her come out of the bathroom and go downstairs to the kitchen with him. She asked him to let her get a housecoat as she was cold, and he refused her request. When the man entered the house by breaking a window in the back of the duplex, he pulled the circuit switch which put out the front porch light and a table lamp by the couch in the living room that she left on when she retired for the night. He made her get two beers from the refrigerator. He forced her back upstairs and told her to drink one of the beers. She told him she did not drink. He drank one beer and grabbed her and forced her to drink a part of the other can of beer. This made her nauseated and she had to go back to the bathroom. He went to the bathroom with her and held her arm while she lost the beer. He then forced her to the bed and was trying to kiss her. She turned away and started hitting him. He subdued her and told her if she submitted to him he would not hurt her. She started screaming again and he beat her in the face to quiet her. He asked her if she had ever been with a colored guy before and wanted to know why she had not. He was most profane and used all kinds of bad words and obscenities to her. He told her that she and her husband had been making fun of him, and he was going to get her and her husband. Neither she or her husband had ever known this man before. He told her if she did what he wanted her to that he would not hurt her. She told him she was pregnant and he said he did not believe her. He then tore her pants off and raped her. After it was over, she went to the bathroom and was gone a long time. He kept hollering at her to come out of the bathroom and threatened her life if she did not come out. She finally came out and he made her lie beside him on the bed. When he pulled the circuit switch, the furnace went off and it got very cold in the house. He went downstairs to try and get the furnace on and he kept hollering to her that if she used the telephone he would kill her and she was scared to use the phone. He could not get the furnace on and came back upstairs and got back in bed with her. He asked her if she was afraid of him, and she said yes. He told her he was not going to hurt her any more but he was going to stay with her until just before her husband returned from work.

He stayed in bed with her until after 6:00 A.M. It was good daylight then and she got a good look at him. She was able to describe him to the investigative officer later. She said he had bushy hair but not to the extent that he wore an afro type *61 hair style and he wore a mustache. His features made a deep impression on her. He told her he was leaving as it was almost time for her husband to come home. He told her she had better not tell the police or anyone else what had occurred, and if she did, he would get her and her husband. He told her he was a member of a club, and they would take care of her if she told anyone.

Prosecutrix did not know that appellant lived across the street from her until after he was arrested. He, no doubt, knew what time her husband went to work and what time he returned home.

Shortly after leaving prosecutrix’ home, appellant called her and accused her of talking to someone and she told him she had not talked to anyone. She recognized his voice as she became familiar with his voice during her night-long vigil. He called again at 8:00 A.M. to accuse her of talking and made threats on her life. Her husband took the telephone from her and the caller hung up. He called her the third time at 7:50 P.M. and continued to threaten her life if she talked.

Prosecutrix’s husband came home a few minutes after 7:00 A.M. He went to the refrigerator and found two cans of beer missing. He knew his wife did not drink and he asked her if any one had been to the house. She told him a black man broke in the house and beat her up. She was in bed, and he saw she was beaten up real bad. Her face was bloody and puffed up on one side and blood was coming out of her mouth. She was crying and hysterical. She did not tell him at that time that she had been raped as the threat of death was still ominously hovering over her. Her husband said he was going to call the Police Department and she begged him not to as she was in mortal fear of her life, the life of her baby, and her husband’s life, but he called anyway.

Sgt. Gerald C. Poe of the Gadsden Police Department responded to the call. He and prosecutrix’s husband inspected the premises and found the glass in a back window was broken out, but the officer was unable to lift fingerprints due, no doubt, to the fact that the intruder was wearing gloves. The husband found a cash receipt for $45.00 from a finance company lying on the kitchen floor. The receipt was dated 11/30/72 and was issued to “Eugene Mosley”. The receipt was given to the officer and was introduced in evidence at appellant’s trial without objection.

Sgt. Poe interviewed prosecutrix and it was at this time that she revealed that she had been raped. She gave the officer a detailed description of the rapist and an investigation got under way.

Prosecutrix’s husband carried her to the hospital where she remained several hours after a pelvic examination. The doctor feared that she might miscarry. She was sent home with instructions to stay in bed.

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Bluebook (online)
304 So. 2d 613, 54 Ala. App. 59, 1974 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mosley-v-state-alacrimapp-1974.