Rogers v. State

332 So. 2d 739, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1869
Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama·Decided March 30, 1976·No. 8 Div. 782·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

TYSON, Judge.

The indictment charged the appellant with forcibly ravishing Martha Jean Johnson. The jury found the appellant guilty as charged and set punishment at life imprisonment. The trial court entered judgment in accordance with this verdict. The appellant’s motion for a new trial was duly overruled after a hearing thereon.

The appellant through counsel filed a petition to be treated as a youthful offender averring his age to be twenty years, and following a hearing thereon on August 11, 1975, this petition was denied.

Earl King testified that he was eighteen years of age and had been arrested on the late evening of March 9-10, 1975. He testified that he had been riding in an automobile with the appellant, Turner Lee Rogers, and one Billy Wayne Baker, who was the driver of the 1966 Ford automobile. King testified that the automobile in question belonged to him and that the three men were driving toward Huntsville, Alabama, on Highway 72 when they saw one Martha Jean Johnson and another girl walking along the side of the highway near the Hickory House Restaurant. King testified he was sitting on the back seat of the car that Baker was driving and that the appellant was sitting on the right hand front seat. He testified that they pulled up beside where the two girls were walking and that they were headed in the direction of Athens, Alabama. He testified that it was the appellant, Rogers, who had asked the driver to turn the car around and see if the girls wanted a ride. He stated that Rogers asked the girls if they wanted a ride and they answered no, that they were just going up the road a little piece. He stated that a few moments thereafter Rogers jumped out of the car as the girls started to run and pulled one of them inside the car on his lap and that she was screaming and trying to pull loose. He testified that the other girl leaned down and threw a rock which struck Rogers and that the other girl ran away. He testified that Rogers pulled the Johnson girl into the car with her feet hanging out of the door and told Baker to drive off. He testified that the girl’s feet were dragging the pavement and that she screamed, “stop, my feet is dragging the ground,” and that they slowed down and Rogers pulled her into the car.

King testified that they then drove the car down a dirt road and turned into a field off Lindsey Lane Road. At this point, Baker stopped the car, and the appellant, Rogers, got into the back seat with the girl. He testified that Rogers was a big man, weighing over 200 lbs. and that there was a struggle and that the girl said to please not hurt her as she had two children at home. He testified that Rogers had intercourse with her and that after he finished, he, King, then had intercourse with her as did Baker, the driver of the car. He testified that she asked each of [741]*741them not to hurt her as she had two children at home. King testified that the appellant, Rogers, had pulled the Johnson girl’s blue jeans from her and pulled off her underclothes before and that he was the first one to have intercourse. He testified that he had plead guilty in this case and that he was eighteen years of age and had been sentenced to ten years imprisonment. He testified that when they finished, they were driving down a road in the general direction of Pete’s Corner when another car began chasing them and that they ran off into a field and that they were doing 80 or 90 m. p. h. and that the appellant, Rogers, had said, “the cops are after us.” He said that after the car wrecked, the men told them to lay on their stomachs, which they did, and they were later handcuffed and taken to jail.

Brenda McGee testified that she and Martha Jean Johnson had been over to Huntsville, Alabama, and had stopped in a couple of beer joints and had a beer or two. She testified they were driving back toward Athens, Alabama, near the Hickory House Restaurant when they ran out of gas. She testified they began walking in the direction of Athens when a blue Ford with three colored men in it pulled up and asked them if they wanted a ride and they replied no.

Brenda McGee further testified that they started walking faster when the largest of the three men, she identified in court as the appellant, jumped out of the car and grabbed Miss Johnson and pulled her toward the car. She stated that she picked up a rock and threw it at him and then began to run. She stated that she saw Miss Johnson struggle and heard her scream and that the three men took off in the car pulling her into it, that she saw Miss Johnson’s foot dragging. She stated that after running, she finally came across one Bobby Joe Knox who was a friend of her brother and that he took her to the Sheriff’s office in Athens where she reported what happened. She testified that when she last saw Miss Johnson her foot was dragging the pavement and that she did not see her again until late that evening in the hospital in Limestone County.

On cross examination, Miss McGee testified that she and Miss Johnson had a couple of beers at the Peppermint Lounge in Huntsville before they started back toward Athens. She testified she had not seen any of the three colored boys before the night of March 9, 1975.

Doctor E. G. Norwood testified that he was a physician at the Athens-Limestone County Hospital and was a licensed medical doctor practicing as an internist. He testified that on the night of March 9 or early morning of March 10, he examined Martha Jean Johnson at the emergency room of the hospital. He testified she had a deep abrasion on the top of her right foot and right knee and had some scratch marks on her hands and lower part of her chest and stomach, that there was a cut inside her lower lip and that she had a severe bruise on her head and a bad bump. He said that he made an internal examination of Miss Johnson with her permission and that her “perineum was abnormally red.” He said there was a large amount of vaginal secretion and that this was consistent with recent intercourse within the last thirty minutes to an hour. He said that his findings were that this would be consistent with intercourse with three men and that the longest period of time that it could have been would be perhaps twelve hours. Doctor Norwood testified that a smear was taken of the secretion and sent to Barbara Morgan, the laboratory technician.

Doctor Norwood further testified that he administered some penicillin and several shots which were to prevent venereal diseases and also to prevent conception. He testified that that same evening, he also examined the appellant, Turner Lee Rogers, who was complaining mostly of a severe headache and chest pains, that the appellant appeared to be dazed and that he [742]*742examined him and made a skull X-Ray but that his vital signs were normal, and that he told him of being in an automobile accident that night. He testified that the appellant and the other two men were black and that Miss Johnson was white.

On cross-examination, the doctor stated that the lacerations about Miss Johnson’s face and head were consistent with being in an automobile accident, but that the abrasions on her knee and foot were consistent with being dragged on the pavement.

During the cross-examination of Doctor Norwood, the trial court ruled that the appellant could see the medical records of the victim Miss Johnson for the period of thirty days prior to the examination of Doctor Norwood at the hospital and all medical records subsequent to March 9, 1975, but would not permit appellant’s counsel to obtain medical records more than thirty days ■ prior to the incident.

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Rogers v. State, 332 So. 2d 739, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1869 (Ala. Ct. App. 1976).

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