State v. Bowman

199 S.W. 161, 272 Mo. 491, 1917 Mo. LEXIS 169
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 4, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 199 S.W. 161 (State v. Bowman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bowman, 199 S.W. 161, 272 Mo. 491, 1917 Mo. LEXIS 169 (Mo. 1917).

Opinion

WHITE, C.

Defendant appeals from a conviction of statutory rape. The offense was alleged to have been committed upon one Eva Frampton, a girl under the age of fifteen years, during a “joy ride” in defendant’s automobile.

The defendant challenges the evidence as being insufficient to warrant a verdict of guilty.

Two other persons, Robert L. Moore, a man 33 years of age, and Clara Parker, a girl apparently older than the prosecutrix, were also in the automobile during the ride. Neither Clara Parker nor Moore testified, in the ca«e, although it appears from the record that Clara was in the court room at the time, and Moore was under arrest for the same offense against Eva Frampton as that with which defendant was charged. The girl and the defendant were,the only witnesses who presented direct testimony as to what occurred.

Some important facts are undisputed. Eva Frampton’s mother, who had separated from, her husband when Eva was an infant, had recently moved from Wellsville, Kansas, to Kansas City. Eva had been an inmate of the House of the Good Shepherd and, only a short time before the joy ride, had come to live with her mother at the latter’s home in Kansas City. While at the House of the Good Shepherd she had made the acquaintance of Clara Parker. After coming to her mother in Kansas City, some time in May, 1915, while on an errand for her mother, Eva met Clara on the street and was invited by the latter to take an automobile ride that afternoon. Later the two met by appointment at Fourteenth Street and Broadway, and after waiting a few minutes the defendant, Bowman, and Moore came along in Bowman’s “Hudson Six.” The two girls got in the rear seat, the two men sitting in front, and the joy ride began at about 3:30 in the afternoon.

[496]*496The defendant was a married man forty-six years of age, had several children and ran a prosperous restaurant. He had several hundred dollars on his person at the time and paid the expense of the escapade. Eva had never seen either of the two men before, and Bowman, who had made the appointment for the ride with Clara Parker, did not know that Eva was to accompany them.

They drove a few blocks when the four got out and entered a side room or hall adjacent a saloon, where they took several rounds of whiskey. They then proceeded to another place, the precise nature of which does not appear, where they again went in and took drinks. They stopped at several saloons where drinks of whiskey, beer and cocktail were brought out to them by Moore. Besides, they took along bottles of whiskey and prepared cocktails of which they partook as they rode They finally turned the automobile toward Independence, all of them being more or less drunk. The two men had been drinking before they met the girls. After the visit to the first saloon Clara Parker got in the front seat with defendant, and Moore sa,t behind with the Frampton girl. The party arrived at Independence before dark and stopped at the home of Mrs.' Yetter, Moore’s mother, where they all went in and remained for a few minutes. When they continued their ride Mrs. Tetter and her husband accompanied them in the car. They had not been driving long until the car got stuck in the mud. Mrs. Tetter and her husband then left the automobile, intercepted a passing buggy and left for home in it. The four joy-riders remained in the car and, after repeated efforts to extricate it from the mud, it was finally dislodged and started on the return journey to Nansas City, where it arrived at three o ’clock in the morning. It had been in the mud several hours. After the car had been in the mud for some time Clara Parker left it, probably going to a street car. Eva was left alone with the two men; During the ride and particularly after the car was stalled, “improper familiarities,” as defendant’s counsel expresses it, were indulged in by the joy-riders, but defendant claims the crime charged was not committed by him.

[497]*497When the car was driven back to Kansas City, Moore got out at an ice plant where he wais employed, and defendant drove on with Eva Frampton, left her at a hotel and gave her two dollars to pay for her lodging. She remained there the remainder of that night, the next day, and the following night, and then was taken home by a man staying in the hotel. "When she reached home the family and the police were excited about her disappearance, and the defendant was already under arrest.

In the facts as above stated, as well as in many unimportant details of the ride, the defendant and the prosecutrix are in substantial agreement.

There was a sharp conflict in the evidence as to the girl’s age. Eva asserted that she was forcibly ravished by both men, by Moore while on the way to Independence, and again after the car became stalled, and by Bowman after Clara Parker left the automobile. The defendant stoutly denied that he committed the act or even attempted any familiarities with the prosecutrix. He said he attempted the act with Clara Parker, but was too drunk to accomplish his purpose. Certain it was, according to the testimony of Eva, as well as of himself, that he was drunk, sick and vomiting a good deal of the time. Defendant also said the reason he took Eva to the hotel was because she was afraid to go home and refused to go.

Force, I. The appellant complains of error by the trial court in permitting the State to prove that the act of carnal intercourse with the prosecutrix was committed forcibly and against her consent, because the information failed to allege force, and for that reason the defendant was not advised by the allegation of the charge he was required to meet. The rulings are against that position. The unlawful act committed upon a female under fifteen years of age constitutes the offense. The additional element of force in accomplishing the crime is an immaterial incident. It does not change the nature of the offense as defined by the statute, and a failure to allege it cannot mislead a defendant as to what he must defend against. [State v. Knock, 142 Mo. 515, l. c. 522, 525; State v. Hamey, 168 Mo. 167, l. c. 197-9.]

[498]*498Sufficient Thou.6 hC No Force is shown. . II. Appellant makes the further point in this connection that a verdict of acquittal should have been directed under the evidence. The argument is that the prosecutrix asserted the act of intercourse was aecomPbshed by force; while the' defendant denied the act altogether; therefore, a forcible act was the only one sworn to and if there was no force there was no unlawful act. It is fur-, ther urged that the evidence must be weighed and considered in the light of rulings of this court in cases of forcible rape. Appellant then points out many circumstances shown by the evidence which indicates force could not have been used, aaid concludes that there being manifestly an absencé of force the erim'e was not committed. The point is ingeniously and finely drawn. Because the testimony of the prosecuting witness is incredible in one particular, it does not follow that she testified falsely in all particulars. The jury well might have believed the unlawful act was committed without believing her statement that force was used. Her testimony as to the facts, was very clear and circumstantial, and was corroborated by other circumstances. It was, we think, sufficient to take the issue to the jury. The court has sustained verdicts of guilt in cases of this character where the prosecutrix asserted force was used where the defendant denied the guilty act, and the evidence of force was as weak as it is here. [State v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
199 S.W. 161, 272 Mo. 491, 1917 Mo. LEXIS 169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bowman-mo-1917.