People v. Armstead

501 P.2d 472, 179 Colo. 387
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedSeptember 11, 1972
DocketNo. 25137
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 501 P.2d 472 (People v. Armstead) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Armstead, 501 P.2d 472, 179 Colo. 387 (Colo. 1972).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE GROVES

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The defendant filed a motion for post-conviction relief, under Crim. P. 35(b), alleging that (1) post-conviction lie-detector tests conclusively demonstrated his innocence, and (2) his right to due process was violated by certain perjured testimony of two prime prosecution witnesses and the intentional or negligent failure of the prosecution to disclose a medical report that was contradictory to the prosecutrix’ testimony. From the denial of that motion, he appeals. We reverse.

Appellant was convicted of kidnapping and rape in 1966. Those convictions were affirmed by this court in Armstead v. People, 168 Colo. 485, 452 P.2d 8 (1969). The defendant’s present counsel did not represent him at the trial.

I.

At the 35(b) hearing, the defendant offered into evidence the results of a set of polygraph examinations to which he had submitted after his conviction. The set of four tests was administered by a highly qualified private polygraphist. This examiner concluded his report as follows: “It is further the opinion of this examiner, who has worked with all branches of law enforcement in the State of Colorado, that the subject is innocent of the crime of which he has been convicted.” The court received the report in evidence “for whatever weight might be given to it”' in conjunction with the other testimony at the hearing. From its ruling, we infer [389]*389that the trial court found the polygraph evidence to be of little weight, a finding it was fully entitled to make as the trier of facts. The defendant does not contend that polygraph results should be regarded as conclusive, but argues that it was error to “disregard” them. The latter contention seems congruent with the first. If there be any difference, we do not accept either.

II.

We find somewhat more merit in defendant’s second allegation in support of his 35(b) motion that his conviction should not stand because of the quite possibly peijured testimony presented at trial.

Some of the testimony at trial was as follows: The prosecutrix’ boyfriend testified that he called for the prosecutrix at around 8:30 p.m., on Friday, September 9, 1966, and they went to a bar for two hours, leaving there at 11:30 p.m. The prosecutrix was quite positive that they had left her house at 11 p.m. They both testified that they had been lost in the City of Aurora, which adjoins Denver on the east. The boyfriend testified that they were lost for a period of two hours. He had grown up in east Denver.

The boyfriend then parked the car. On direct examination the boyfriend stated that after they had parked he moved to her side of the car, where they talked for 30 to 45 minutes. He further testified that the defendant broke in the left car window, unlocked the door on the driver’s side and forced the prosecutrix to go with him using a weapon which appeared to be a box cutter. On cross-examination, the boyfriend stated that the time during which they sat in the car was one or two hours, the abduction having occurred between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. The boyfriend related that for the first 10 minutes after parking he and the prosecutrix occupied the two front seats, which had a console between them. After that, he stated that he moved around and sat on her side next to the door, with the prosecutrix sitting next to the console and partly on it. Regarding their activities while thus seated, he stated that they were only talking, that “you might say we were a little passionate, but that is about all.”

[390]*390His recollection of the defendant’s car was that it was a 1957 or 1959 Mercury, two-tone, possibly cream and yellow in color. He obtained his view of the car from a distance of one block as it drove away at high speed in the dark. A police officer who interviewed him on the day following the alleged attack testified that his description then was that the car was light blue with a dark blue top.

The prosecutrix’ recollection of that evening was quite similar. Her testimony on direct examination was:

“We were both sitting in the front seat on my side of the car. Russ was sitting next to the door and I was sitting kind of like in the middle and we were talking and — and we weren’t carrying on real bad or anything.”

She gave no description of her assailant’s car on direct examination and on cross-examination stated first that she never gave any description of the car to the police and that she hadn’t noticed anything about it. Further cross-examination was as follows:

“Q Did the police ask you to describe the car you were attacked in?
“A Yes.
“Q Did you describe the car for them?
“A Yes, but I wasn’t sure of it.
“Q Did you tell them it was a ‘57 or ‘59 Mercury, twortone, cream car?
“A Yes.
“Q Was that your recollection of the car or was that the description your boyfriend gave you?
“A That was Russ’s description. I thought it was a Buick

(There was other testimony at the trial tending to show that neither prosecutrix nor her boyfriend were ever taken to see the defendant’s car. They were present at a lineup and heard the defendant describe his car. The defendant did not then mention the fact that on the night in question his automobile was smashed all along the right side and the left front door was caved in. Neither the prosecutrix nor the boyfriend mentioned any damage in their descriptions of the car.)

[391]*391Immediately following the alleged attack, the prosecutrix described her attacker to the police as a negro in his early twenties. She made no mention of a moustache or a goatee, but only of a scar on his right cheek. (The defendant was 33. He then had a moustache and there was testimony that he also had a goatee. He had no scar on his right cheek.)

The police took the prosecutrix to Denver General Hospital for an examination. The doctor who there examined her testified that sperm was present in her vaginal canal.

At the 35(b) hearing the same doctor testified that he made the following notations at the time he examined the prosecutrix:

“The patient is a 20 year old, ‘gravida 4, para 2, aborta 2,’ stillborn 1, Caucasian female, 1 living child, who has taken C-Quens for contraception purposes. Her last missed period began the 17th of August. She presents with the complaint, T have been raped.’ Inquiry reveals patient was parked with her boyfriend and had just completed the act of intercourse when a man smashed the car window, pulled a knife and threatened them, if she did not accompany him to his car. She then complied and was driven to a vacant lot, whereupon he threatened her again. She then unbuttoned her blouse and bra at his request and pulled up her skirt. Her girdle, panties, etc., had been removed for the boyfriend and she had not been allowed time to put them on before being abducted. She further states that the abductor requested her to eat him and blow him and she did. She further states, ‘He screwed me.’
“Inquiry reveals that neither her boyfriend or abductor had used a condom and that her boyfriend had not had a vasectomy.

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Related

People v. Germany
674 P.2d 345 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
501 P.2d 472, 179 Colo. 387, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-armstead-colo-1972.