People v. Díaz Ríos

95 P.R. 350
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedOctober 20, 1967
DocketNo. CR-66-429
StatusPublished

This text of 95 P.R. 350 (People v. Díaz Ríos) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Díaz Ríos, 95 P.R. 350 (prsupreme 1967).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

After having been convicted of the offense of rape by a majority of ten to two of the jury, Luis Diaz Rios was sentenced on October 20, 1964, by the Superior Court, San Juan Part, to serve from three to ten years in the penitentiary.

On appeal he alleges that (1) “the verdict is contrary to the evidence”; (2) “the verdict is contrary to law ... be[351]*351cause, the evidence of corroboration failed to establish the offense of rape in the manner required by law”; (3) the trial court erred in instructing the jury on corroboration of the facts constituting the offense of rape; and (4) said court erred in denying the motion for a new trial.

After, examining the record of the case, we conclude that the assignments in question lack merit. In order to justify this adjudication, it is necessary to make a brief summary of the evidence which appears below.

The prosecutrix testified that she met appellant while she travelled from San Juan to Isabela, where she was a resident, when he boarded near Bayamón the “Motor Coach” in which she travelled. Answering questions of appellant, she gave him her name and the telephone number of her office in the Public Recreation and Parks Administration, in San Juan. Later he called her several times at the office, he obtained her home address, a boarding house owned by the witness Arcadia Cruz Cariles and the latter’s mother, and there he visited, her several times. Later she accepted an invitation to dine at the San José restaurant on the Caguas Highway. On another occasion they went dancing with another couple at another place. On the eve of San Juan’s Day of 1964 the prosecutrix went with appellant to San José restaurant but since there were no lobsters there he insisted on going to “Richard” in Loíza Aldea. On their way back and since she expressed her wishes of returning because it was late, about 10:45 p.m., he took another road which he said to be a short cut; he stopped the car. He asked the prosecutrix if she loved him, to which she answered in the negative because “if he was nothing to me, I could not tell him that I loved him.” When he lighted a cigarette, she noticed that his virile member was showing. She tried to run, but he grabbed her. He threatened her with a wrench telling her that “he was going to blow my brains out . . . thus we began the struggle, he struggled with me and I [352]*352with him, he pushed me against the seat'; my head struck the steering-wheel and then the dress; the zipper, on account of the force exerted, broke and immediately he, telling me, threatening me-with the wrench and at the same time pressing his hands against my back, telling me that he was going to kill me, there and then, in the course of the struggle, he was able to pull off the girdle I was-wearing . . . She added that “since the girdles I use are light,' not tight, he pulled it off with his hands.” The prosecutrix continued testifying that “the zipper opened and since' I' do not wear tight clothes,-tight fitting, they went-up with the struggle, I was kicking; he immediately grasped my hands, at the same time he threatened me, my right leg got stuck' with the car and the' ; . . and at the same time he introduced his virile member in my parts.” She said that some of her underwear was stained with blood.

•••:' After the'former incidents, the defendant-told her not to say anything because if she did, he would kill her. “He wanted me to drive, and since I could not drive in the state of nerves I was in, since I have a license he asked me if I did not know how''to drive, he took the steering wheel from me and drove to San Juan to take me to-the boarding house.” When they arrived the prosecutrix opened the door of the boarding house and threw herself upon Arcadia (daughter of the owner of the boarding house), and she told her what had happened, telling it just as it is stated above. The latter told her': “You are all stained with blood, and then she immediately told me to wash my clothes' so that the other girls would not notice what happened to me.”

Next day she went to a doctor, accompanied by a friend, and the doctor practiced a medical examination. That night she lost a lot of blood..

■On the evening of that day she went with Arcadia and another girl to Isabela and on the way, at the request of Arcadia, they stopped in Arecibo at defendant’s home. That [353]*353at Ms house she stayed in the car, and the other two girls alighted. That Arcadia wanted to talk to Mr. Diaz “to give her an explanation before taking me home.” That she did not talk to the defendant nor did they walk out of there together. Next day she returned to San Juan “We went to police headquarters, we tried to notify in Arecibo, but they refused to take the case because it belonged to San Juan.”

Dr. Jordán testified, in essence, that from an examination of the genital organs of the prosecutrix it appeared that she had had recent sexual relations and also he could observe that the left arm of the prosecutrix suffered a “traumatism.” That he issued a medical certificate on that date in which he only specified the condition of the genital organs of the prosecutrix.

Arcadia Cruz Cariles testified that she worked in a lawyers’ office for four years as a receptionist. That' she has known the prosecutrix for about a year, and the latter lodged in her house. That about one o’clock in the morning the prosecutrix arrived at her house “she threw herself upon me and told me what had happened to her”; that the prose-cutrix was very nervous, that she told her that “Mr. Diaz had . . . abused her” and it was done by force. That the clothes of the prosecutrix were rumpled and her half-slip and panties were torn and stained with blood.

On cross-examination she testified that Mr. Diaz used to visit Miss Vargas “weekly, well, two or three times a week, more or less” for three or four months. That they used to go out frequently together, about twice a week.

She also testified that as a rule she did not wait for the girls of the boarding house when they went out at night, and that they had keys to the house. That when the prose-cutrix arrived, she was sleeping. That she accompanied the prosecutrix, next day, to a female doctor but she was not in, that later the prosecutrix went to the doctor who examined her.

[354]*354Later, in the afternoon of that day, they got into a car which took them to Arecibo, to the home of Mr. Diaz, they went out expressly to the home of Mr’ Diaz in Arecibo. That the prosecutrix, another friend, and she went there. That she did not know where the defendant lived, but the prose-cutrix did, that the latter indicated where it was and they went, that they got down from the car but did not enter the house because they found out that the defendant did not live there, but that it was a brother of the defendant who lived there. That at this place they were given the address of the defendant. That they went to that address, to his wife’s house and did not find him.

When examined by the trial judge, she testified the following:

“Q. Listen, Doña Cayita, you mentioned that you went to a house in Arecibo which you discovered was the house of the brother.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was that the house that Miss Vargas indicated to you as the house of the defendant?
A. Yes, sir.
Q.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 P.R. 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-diaz-rios-prsupreme-1967.