People v. Harris

238 P.2d 158, 108 Cal. App. 2d 84, 1951 Cal. App. LEXIS 2008
California Court of Appeal·Decided December 7, 1951·No. Crim. 4701·Published·Cited by 36 cases

Opinion

*86 MOORE, P. J.

Appellant was convicted of two distinct felonies, (1) of “copulating” his mouth “with the sexual organ” of the prosecutrix (Pen. Code, § 288a) and (2) of rape upon the same person by the exercise of force and violence. He demands a reversal of the judgment on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to support the implied finding on either count.

On February 1, 1951, the prosecutrix, a factory worker 24 years of age, resided in the southern portion of Los Angeles about 6 miles from the civic center. Having alighted from a streetcar about 1 o’clock in the morning, she walked along the sidewalk toward her home. While thus proceeding she observed appellant drive by her, return on the same street and, having again directed his automobile toward her, he stopped, stepped up beside the prosecutrix, and grabbed her by the neck and right arm. Undaunted after his modest approach, in language that would blush the cheeks of a hardened mistress of a brothel, appellant startled the young woman with the announcement that he desired to lick her private parts and then he would let her go. She “struggled a little but then he forced me and dragged me into his car . . . we still argued a few minutes. Then he unbuttoned my slacks, pulled them down a little ways, then went farther ; well, we argued, then he finally jerked them down, took them off,” while she protested and attempted to keep them on. She asked his purpose. He did not want her money but just “that.” As he placed her under the steering wheel she told him to throw out his knife which she had seen while they were on the sidewalk.

After having placed his mouth on the os uteri of her body he thereupon “tried to have relations ... he got mad . . . he wasn’t ready to.” When she resisted he pushed her down and made her take his sexual organ into her mouth. He then inserted it into her and accomplished an act of carnal intercourse. On learning by his inquiry that she was unmarried he asked her to be his girl friend, and to meet him the following morning at a popular street intersection. She agreed to meet him and kept her promise. Having reported the crime to the police, she met him at the corner agreed upon where officers took appellant into custody.

The victim testified that she was in fear of bodily harm as appellant committed his acts; that she did not think he would let her go; that “he might beat me; he said he had a knife ... he never hit me ... no real violence because *87 I pretty well was afraid so I gave in.” In his conversation with the officers, appellant at first denied having had sexual intercourse. When they told him they had witnesses, he admitted the act but asserted it was by mutual agreement; that she told him she was married to a colored man. At a subsequent interview he admitted that (1) he had expressed to her his desire for sexual intercourse, (2) had kissed her private parts; (3) requested her to play with “it”; (4) she kissed his sexual organ; (5) he had an act of intercourse with her. Thereupon, appellant freely wrote substantially the same confession he had made orally denying that he had a knife on the occasion of his bestial adventure but only a can opener that fell on the street.

Section 288a

That the court’s finding of appellant’s violation of section 288a is justified by the proof was not contradicted. Where sufficient facts are proved and believed by the court to warrant an inference of guilt the appellate court is powerless to upset the judgment. (People v. Newland, 15 Cal.2d 678, 681 [104 P.2d 778].) Its only function is to ascertain whether upon the face of the record sufficient facts could not have been found to warrant the inference of guilt. A scrutiny of the evidence serves only to justify the judgment. It was in the dead of night on a silent street when he, displaying a knife, suddenly seized the young woman and pulled her into his automobile, demanding the privilege of caressing her private parts. He removed, her clothing as she protested. Not only did he declare his purpose but he lewdly and lasciviously “placed his mouth on her private parts,” a felony. She was an utter stranger to him; but he was bent upon the consummation of his deliberate design to gratify his debased and depraved desires. The still hour of midnight, the solitude of the place, the loneliness of the prosecutrix, the brutal boldness of appellant, his vile and resolute purpose, and withal, his avowed, obscene desire—these omit nothing that was essential to the establishment of his guilt even though he had never spoken to the officers. But to them he confessed his criminal scheme and its achievement. Because the chain of proof is complete and because he offered not a word of testimony in rebuttal, the finding of a violation of section 288a cannot be impeached. (People v. Wheeler, 61 Cal.App.2d 394, 395 [142 P.2d 938]; People v. Milo, 89 Cal.App.2d 705, 707 [201 P.2d 556]; People v. Cole *88 man, 53 Cal.App.2d 18, 26 [127 P.2d 309].) It cannot be npset unless the admitted acts of appellant do not constitute a violation as contended by appellant.

The testimony of the prosecutrix and the confessions of appellant are in accord; he placed his mouth on her private parts; he did so for no purpose other than to gratify his lustful desires and to arouse in the prosecutrix a sexual animation, all contrary to the word and the spirit of section 288a. He seeks refuge behind People v. Angier, 44 Cal.App. 2d 417 [112 P.2d 659]. Angier had been convicted on the testimony of two infants, 5 and 7 years of age. This court was impressed that the mouth of the accused could not have touched the bodies of the children. Such evidence was an indispensable element in the successful prosecution of such crime. On reaching that conclusion we were led into a discussion of the significance of the word “copulate.” While that discourse was philologically correct it was calculated to lead to the erroneous doctrine that the use of the word in section 288a signifies a legislative intent that an offender of the statute is guilty only when he has committed the repulsive act of sex perversion. Such was not the purpose of the lawmakers or the intention of this court. A person is guilty of violating the statute when he has placed his mouth upon the genital organ of another. This is the generally accepted interpretation of the statute. (See People v. Milo, 89 Cal.App.2d 705, 708 [201 P.2d 556]; People v. Coleman, 53 Cal.App.2d 18, 26 [127 P.2d 309].) The Angier decision is not pertinent unless the factual situation under judicial consideration is in all essential details identical with those there adjudicated. (People v. Owen, 68 Cal.App.

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People v. Harris, 238 P.2d 158, 108 Cal. App. 2d 84, 1951 Cal. App. LEXIS 2008 (Cal. Ct. App. 1951).

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