State v. Epps

198 Iowa 580
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 1, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 198 Iowa 580 (State v. Epps) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Epps, 198 Iowa 580 (iowa 1924).

Opinion

Arthur, C. J.

— I. At the close of the State’s evidence, appellant moved for a directed verdict in his favor, and at the close of all the evidence, the motion was renewed. Both motions were overruled, and errors are predicated on the rulings. The motions were principally based on the contention of appellant that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a verdict of guilty. The main question presented on this appeal, in different ways, by several assignments, as counsel for appellant pertinently states it, is, Was the prosecutrix in fact deceived and’misled into having sexual intercourse with appellant? For consideration of this question, we must go to the record.

The prosecutrix, Lucy Haines, at the time of the alleged seduction was eighteen and one-half years of age, unmarried, and at the time of the trial was twenty years old. She is the daughter of a farmer, living near Brooklyn, Iowa. She attended school until she was about fifteen years old, intermittently, spending a part of her time working on her father’s farm. During recent years she spent part of her time in the town of Brooklyn, with relatives. She had an older sister living in Brooklyn, with whom she spent some time. She had a brother, Walter Haiijes, a married man twenty-six years old, who was a section hand for the Rock Island Railroad Company, and lived in and [582]*582around Brooklyn. The first meeting of prosecutrix and defendant occurred on January 11, 1921, on the streets of Brooklyn, in front of the opera house, where she had been attending a moving picture show. Prosecutrix testified that she was standing in front of the opera house, waiting for her brother, Walter Haines, when appellant approached her, started to talk to her, and wanted to take her home; that in conversation he told her his name was Harry Johnson; that she walked with him to the home of her sister, Daisy Hervey, who lived in the extreme east part of the town of Brooklyn; that, when they got to her sister’s house, she and appellant went into the house; that the family was in bed, and appellant stayed a while; that at this time he asked her if he could see her again, and she told him he could ; that after that she met him regularly, sometimes at the home of her sister and sometimes at the schoolhouse near her sister’s home; that these meetings kept up until about the middle of February; that sometimes he took her to the moving picture show; that they continued to meet until about the middle of February, when someone told her that appellant was married, and that his name was Clarence Epps; that, the same night that she was told that appellant’s name was Clarence Epps, and not Harry Johnson, as he had told her, appellant called her up and asked her to come and see him; that she scolded him over the telephone, but finally met him, and confronted him with the information she had received, — that he was married, and that his name was Clarence Epps; that appellant then told her that he had been married, but was divorced, and stated that his name was not Clarence Epps; that finally she believed his statements, and relations were resumed between them substantially as before ; that afterwards, sometime in May, he asked her if she had a car, and wanted to know why they could not take a ride; that she got a car from her brother, and drove it to Brooklyn, and met appellant at the home of Alex Sharp, who lives a block west of her sister’s home, and that there she and appellant got into the ear and drove out into the country; that this was the first time she had gone out with him in a conveyance; that, when they had driven out into the country a distance, the car stopped, because the wire came off the magneto point; that, when the [583]*583ear stopped, she got out and cranked it, and got back into the seat with appellant; that he then put his arms around her, told her he loved her, kissed her, and took some liberties with her person, and pressed her to have intercourse with him; that she told him she would give alarm if he bothered any more; that for a time he left her alone, and then renewed his efforts; that she told him it wasn’t right, and he said there wasn’t any harm in it, and he would marry her if anything happened; that she then had intercourse with him; that, to-usé her expression, “he had bothered her a few times before that,” but that was the first time she had intercourse with him; that she loved him, and that was the reason why she permitted him to have intercourse with her; that, after the occurrence in May, she had intercourse with defendant about once a week, — sometimes twice, — and became pregnant as a result of the intercourse, and had a baby born April 5, 1922; that they stopped going together in the fall of 1921.

Prosecutrix testified that she had never had sexual intercourse with any man except appellant; that, after he stopped coming to see her, in the fall of 1921, she went to Des Moines to see him, but did not get to see him, and afterwards, in February, 1922, went to Valley Junction to see him, accompanied by her brother, Walter Haines; that her brother found appellant and brought him to her at Valley Junction, and she had a talk with him, in which she told him that she was in the family way, and asked him if they could get married, and appellant said that he wouldn’t marry her, that he had a wife and five children, and that his name was Clarence Epps; that appellant then said, “Why not go to an institution until the baby is born?” Prosecutrix testified that appellant said he loved her, and promised to marry her, at the time she had intercourse with him in May in the car, and that she believed him when he made said statement.

Daisy Hervey, sister of prosecutrix, who lived in Brooklyn, testified that she first met appellant at her home, when he came there with Lucy, and was introduced as ‘ ‘ Harry Johnson; ’ ’ that Lucy stayed at her home sometimes, and that appellant came to see her regularly; that appellant phoned her with reference to [584]*584meeting Lucy, and inquired whether Lucy had come to town, and said to tell her, when she did come, that he wanted to see her; that she knew of a quarrel between them; that appellant asked her what she thought of the “stuff they had been"telling Lucy;” that he said it wasn’t so, — that he wasn’t married; that appellant and Lucy commenced going together after that, but he did not come to her house so often; that she did not know appellant by any name but “Harry Johnson;” that, when he called her up over the telephone, he gave the name of “Harry Johnson,” or “Harry;” that appellant and Lucy continued going together until sometime in the fall; that he came to her house and stayed all evening with Lucy probably once a week; that sometimes the family would be in bed when appellant would be there visiting; that sometimes he would come to her house and he and Lucy would go away together.

Claude McGee, a railroad employee who had known appellant for some years, testified that he had a conversation with appellant in the summer of 1921 in regard, to appellant’s association with Lucy Haines, in which was said:

“I said, ‘Hello, Lucy,’ as he was going to the cinder pit. He got off the engine and came back, and wanted to know what I meant by that. I said, ‘ Going with a girl of that kind, ’ that didn’t know any more than she did, — a man of his kind, and married. He said it was a pity a man couldn’t go out and get a little without everybody knowing it.”

Walter Haines, brother of prosecutrix, testified as follows:

“I am a brother of Lucy Haines’.

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Related

State v. Marker
20 N.W.2d 886 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1945)
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201 N.W. 49 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1924)
State v. Weaver
198 Iowa 1048 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1924)

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Bluebook (online)
198 Iowa 580, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-epps-iowa-1924.