People v. Adkins

331 P.2d 195, 165 Cal. App. 2d 29, 1958 Cal. App. LEXIS 1257
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 10, 1958
DocketCrim. Nos. 6229, 6230
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 331 P.2d 195 (People v. Adkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Adkins, 331 P.2d 195, 165 Cal. App. 2d 29, 1958 Cal. App. LEXIS 1257 (Cal. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

FOURT, J.

This case involves two separate appeals in separate cases. In each case the defendant appealed from “sentencing the said defendant to the State Prison for the term prescribed by law . . ., and from the order denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial, and from the verdict or decision of this Court finding the defendant guilty of rape on January 8, 1958, and from all orders enter after rendition of the aforementioned judgments herein, and from the order of said court revoking the defendant’s probation herein.”

In this case the appellant requested the appointment of an attorney to represent him on this appeal. Pursuant to his request, an attorney was appointed to represent the appellant. The attorney so appointed examined the record on appeal and made a report to this court stating, “that no meritorious ground of appeal exists in either” case and that he had so informed the appellant, and thereupon asked to be relieved as counsel for the appellant. This court granted the request of the attorney. We made an independent investigation of the record and we determined that it would not be to the advantage of the appellant or helpful to this court to have other counsel represent the appellant. The appellant has filed a brief in his own proper person wherein he has set forth what, in his opinion, are reasons for reversing the judgments.

[31]*31In the first ease, the defendant was charged with burglary on February 8, 1957. He was represented by the public defender, and after a plea of not guilty, it was stipulated that the case might be submitted to the trial court on the preliminary hearing transcript. The court found the defendant guilty and fixed the crime as burglary in the second degree. Proceedings were suspended, the defendant was granted probation for three years under certain conditions, in part that he serve three months in the county jail, and upon release from jail report to the probation officer, that he obtain and maintain suitable employment and residence, that he support his children in Berkeley, that he not live with any woman unless legally married to her and that he obey all laws, court orders and directions of the probation officers, and that he make full restitution. The order granting probation was entered April 19, 1957. No appeal was taken from that order.

The defendant apparently failed to make any effort to contact the probation officer, he made no effort to contribute to the support of his children or to make restitution as ordered by the court. The court then ordered, on August 30, 1957, that the probation be revoked and a bench warrant to issue.

A violation of probation hearing was held on January 31, 1958, and judgment was pronounced. The defendant was sentenced to the state prison, the sentence to run concurrently with the sentence in the rape ease hereinafter referred to.

The notice of appeal heretofore set forth was filed February 5, 1958. No appeal lies from the order revoking the defendant’s probation. (People v. Jennings, 129 Cal.App.2d 120, 122 [276 P.2d 124] ; People v. Boyce, 99 Cal.App.2d 439, 442 [221 P.2d 1011].)

In the second case the defendant was charged in an information filed October 10, 1957, in Los Angeles County, with rape committed on September 22, 1957, in violation of section 261, subdivision 4, of the Penal Code. The information also alleged that the defendant had, on November 10, 1950, been convicted of rape, a felony, in the county of Alameda, and that on February 29, 1957, he had been convicted of the crime of burglary, a felony, in Los Angeles County.

Without relating or setting forth all of the details of the crime, suffice it to say that Bertha J. Hutchison testified that she was acquainted with the defendant, but was not married to him on the date in question; that on the evening of September 22, 1957, the defendant accomplished an act of sexual intercourse with her without her consent and by means of [32]*32force, namely by the use of a knife. She stated that the defendant, while holding the knife in a menacing fashion talked of "going to kill me and different things like that,” and he also told of killing a man while he was in the Army. The knife which allegedly was used was taken from the defendant by the police upon his arrest and introduced into evidence. The witness further stated that she did not resist nor scream because she was afraid to under the circumstances.

Very shortly after the act was committed the prosecuting witness made a complaint and the police arrived. She was present when the police took the knife from the defendant.

The defendant testified that he had an act of intercourse with the prosecuting witness on the date and at the time in question; however, that such act was with her consent. He denied the use of any knife and stated further that he had had intercourse with the prosecuting witness on previous occasions. He admitted on cross-examination that he had previously been convicted of rape and burglary, as set forth and charged in the information.

The appellant asserts, in effect, that the victim’s testimony was improbable. He also now presents a different story to this court than the one given by him under oath at the trial, in that he now claims that he was not telling the truth (that he was in fact committing perjury) when he said he had intercourse with the prosecuting witness on the date of the arrest, but that he was told by the public defender to "go along” with the prosecutrix in his story in order that he would not be "violated,” that "it would come out for better.”

A reading of the reporter’s transcript of the testimony presents nothing which would appear to this court to be inherently improbable. (People v. Huston, 21 Cal.2d 690, 693 [134 P.2d 758]; People v. Harris, 108 Cal.App.2d 84, 90 [238 P.2d 158].)

The real question as we view it is whether the prosecuting witness was prevented from resisting the act of intercourse by threats of great and immediate bodily harm, accompanied by apparent power of execution. In the case of People v. Tollack, 105 Cal.App.2d 169, at pages 171-172 [233 P.2d 121], it is set forth:

", . . If the female is prevented from resisting by threats of great and immediate bodily harm, accompanied by apparent power of execution, rape is committed under the conditions prescribed by subdivision 4. Threats to do bodily harm were made and the consent of the prosecutrix was obtained as a [33]*33result of those threats. (People v. Peterman, 103 Cal.App.2d 322, 324 [229 P.2d 444].) The threats were accompanied by apparent power of execution. ‘A submission induced by fear is not acquiescence.’ (People v. Blankenship, 103 Cal.App.2d 60, 66 [228 P.2d 835].) The evidence was also sufficient to bring the offense within subdivision 4.

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Related

People v. Benavidez
255 Cal. App. 2d 563 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
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200 Cal. App. 2d 629 (California Court of Appeal, 1962)

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Bluebook (online)
331 P.2d 195, 165 Cal. App. 2d 29, 1958 Cal. App. LEXIS 1257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-adkins-calctapp-1958.