Saylor v. State

1973 OK CR 61, 506 P.2d 589, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 403
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 6, 1973
DocketNo. A-16582
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1973 OK CR 61 (Saylor v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Saylor v. State, 1973 OK CR 61, 506 P.2d 589, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 403 (Okla. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

OPINION

BLISS, Presiding Judge.

Appellant, Gary D. Saylor, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried, and convicted in the District Court of Comanche County for the crime of Rape in the First Degree, and his punishment assessed by the jury at ten (10) years imprisonment. From the judgment and sentence based thereon, a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

In substance, the Information charges the offense was accomplished “with the use of force and violence and by means of threats of immediate and great bodily harm to one Sue Thomas,” overcoming all resistance on her part.

The prosecutrix testified in chief that on June 26, 1970, the date of the alleged crime, she and her husband, a solider at Ft. Sill, resided at 2014 “C” Avenue in Lawton and had for some time prior thereto. That she was an active member of her church, taught a Bible class, and sang in the choir, and that she had a bachelor’s degree in education and psychology from Emily and Henry College. That on said date at the approximate hour of 4:00 a. m., as had been her custom for some time, she drove her husband to the post and then returned to their home on “C” Avenue.

Upon reentering her home she was attacked by a man wearing a black mask and holding a butcher knife; as she screamed, the man, later identified as defendant after removing his mask, told her not to scream, and that he would kill her and also her husband.

Mrs. Thomas further testified defendant said he had observed her home and their going and coming for some time and that he then told her “I want you, and I want you to come back to the bedroom with me.” She, out of fear, complied as the defendant held the knife against her body. In the bedroom the defendant forced her to perform and submit ,to two separate and distinct acts of perversion and then to submit to sexual intercourse vaginally, and later a second such act of intercourse. After a lapse of 30 or 45 minutes, she explained to the defendant that friends of hers were expected for breakfast and he had better leave. He left, but reluctantly, and only after prosecutrix agreed to meet [591]*591him again the following Monday. Prose-cutrix stated she feared for her life and feigned willingness to meet him as he suggested. She then locked the door and called her husband who suggested she go next door to tell. the neighbors that she would not be able to fix breakfast for them, which she did, and she began crying and became visibly shaken, and the neighbor suggested and drove her to get her husband at the post. She and her husband went to the police department, reported the incident and went back to Ft. Sill, where Mrs. Thomas had a physical examination.

The prosecutrix further testified that arrangements had been made for a police officer, Detective Connally, to wait inside her home the following Monday while she was away to take her husband to the base; Detective Connally gave the prearranged signal and the defendant appeared, as he had said he would, and was taken into custody and was being held when Mrs. Thomas returned. She positively identified the defendant. On cross-examination she denied she had ever seen him before the date of the alleged crime, Friday, June 26, 1970.

The attending physician, Dr. Jerome Eder, testified he examined Mrs. Thomas, as she had testified, and several smears from the vagina revealed the presence of sperm and further examination disclosed two small tears at the entrance to the rectum.

Detective Connally corroborated Mrs. Thomas as to his waiting in her home the early morning hours of June 29, and arresting the defendant, who appeared upon the giving of the prearranged signal with the porch light. Connally informed defendant of his rights, and defendant voluntarily admitted knowing Sue Thomas, denied he had raped her, but stated his acts of sexual intercourse with her were with her complete consent.

Defendant testified in his own defense. That he was in the Army, stationed at Ft. Sill, married, and lived with his wife and four children at 1402 Williams Street in Lawton. That on Saturday, June 20, 1970, after he and his wife had an argument, he was driving past the Thomas home on “C” Avenue and saw Mrs. Thomas for the first time and she smiled and waved to him; he stopped, talked to her, and ultimately made a date with her for the following Monday in the early morning hours. That the date was kept, as well as one the following Wednesday and Friday, June 26, the date alleged in the Information. The defendant testified further that on each occasion prosecutrix was agreeable to acts of intercourse and that he did not rape her, as charged in the Information, nor did he ever threaten her with a butcher knife as testified by Mrs. Thomas. He admitted the arrest by and conversation with Detective Connally in which he stated he had the acts of sexual intercourse with prose-cutrix on the date alleged in the Information, but with her complete consent and that he did not use any force, violence, threats, or bodily harm. Neither in direct examination or cross-examination was he asked, nor did he deny of his own accord, the depraved acts charged against him by Sue Thomas by her testimony in chief.

To rebut the defendant’s testimony that he first met Mrs. Thomas on Saturday, June 20, before the date of the alleged crime, the State called Captain Donald Scarbrough as a witness, who testified that on the Saturday in question he had placed defendant under certain restrictions at 8:00 a. m. until 3:30 p. m. on the Army post and the defendant had an NCO with him at all times during those hours. Another person, State’s rebuttal witness Eugene Sasranski, Criminal Investigator with the Criminal Investigation Division at Ft. Sill, testified he had taken defendant into custody at 1:10 a. m., June 20, 1970, while on guard duty with the motor pool compound and released him to a warrant officer at 7:00 a. m., per order from Captain Scar-brough. There was no objection to this testimony. To the contrary, the record indicates that the defendant was willing to stipulate that Sasranski would so testify, rather than await the appearance of the witness.

[592]*592Defendant then testified he broke restrictions Saturday morning and went to his home in Lawton to get some clothes and returned to the base later in the day, during which time he and his wife had the argument and, presumably, it was during this same period of time that defendant drove past the home of prosecutrix on “C” Avenue, talked with her, and arranged the subsequent meeting which he contended had taken place.

Both the State and the defendant then rested. A short time later, defendant moved to reopen the case, saying he had rested prematurely, and the court permitted the case to be reopened.

A stipulation was then entered into and submitted to the jury to the effect that the undergarment contended by the State to have been used by the defendant, as a mask when prosecutrix first saw him upon returning to her home the date of the crime, had been examined by the State Crime Laboratory and no hair was found on the undergarment.

Further, the defendant was permitted to make a record that he had entered his objection to the testimony of State’s witness, Eugene Sasranski, which objection was overruled.

Additional record was made concerning testimony of Sue Thomas as to a letter written by defendant’s attorney to her before the trial; however, this aspect of the trial is not embodied in either of the three propositions asserting alleged errors now before this Court.

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Related

Temple v. State
1977 OK CR 274 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1977)
Maxey v. State
1974 OK CR 163 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1973 OK CR 61, 506 P.2d 589, 1973 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/saylor-v-state-oklacrimapp-1973.