State v. Gallup

520 S.W.2d 619, 1975 Mo. App. LEXIS 1906
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 3, 1975
DocketKCD 27196
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 520 S.W.2d 619 (State v. Gallup) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gallup, 520 S.W.2d 619, 1975 Mo. App. LEXIS 1906 (Mo. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

PRITCHARD, Chief Judge.

Appellants, John Henry Gallup and William Ernest Baker, were charged by information in the circuit court of Boone County, Missouri, with the crimes of kidnapping and forcible rape in violation of § 559.240 and § 559.260, RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S., respectively. After a change of venue was taken to Calloway County, Missouri, the trial was held, and the jury found both appellants guilty on both counts. The jury fixed Gallup’s punishment at six years for kidnapping and thirty years for rape. Baker’s punishment was fixed at ten years for kidnapping and forty years for rape. After overruling the motion for new trial and duly granting allocution, judgment and sentence were entered according to the jury’s verdict, the sentences to run consecutively.

From the evidence presented at trial, the jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that shortly after midnight on August 30, 1973, the prosecutrix, a sophomore at the University of Missouri at Columbia, was seated in a car with her date, also a student, at the rock quarry just south of Columbia, Missouri, in Boone County. Prosecutrix’s date was seated behind the steering wheel when a man with a flashlight approached him, identified himself as an FBI agent, and demanded to see his driver’s license. Prosecutrix’s date reached for his license and the man ordered him to keep his hands up high. The man ordered the prosecutrix to open the car door, and she testified that she complied because she was too afraid to refuse. When she opened the car door, she saw a man crouched down by the side of the car. The man with the flashlight ordered her out of the car and she again complied out of fear. She took one step, was grabbed from behind by a third man, and was dragged toward the bottom of a hill. She pleaded with him not to hurt her, but she was ordered to be quiet. The man tried to tie a cloth around her eyes, but because of her kicking and her attempts to get away, the cloth fell to her throat. As she held *621 onto the cloth so that she would not be strangled with it, the other two men approached. They forcibly led her toward a station wagon. She feigned sickness and told them that she was epileptic, but they were not discouraged. She pleaded with them not to kill her, to which one of the men replied, “Don’t fight me and you will be all right.” She was shoved into the back seat of the station wagon, one of the men got in beside her, and the other two men got in the front seat. The car was driven from the rock quarry and down some country roads. The man seated beside her held her so she could neither see nor move. He began kissing her, and the more she would try to push him away, the more forceful he became. In a vain attempt to avert his obvious intention to rape her, prosecutrix made up a story that she had venereal disease. Responding that it mattered not, he proceeded to disrobe pros-ecutrix, jerk her legs apart, and have sexual intercourse with her. After he had perpetrated the rape, the car was shortly thereafter stopped, and he pulled prosecu-trix from the car. The other two men put down the back seat of the car and prosecu-trix was shoved back into the car. Despite her pleadings not to do it, the other two men proceeded to have sexual intercourse with her. Each man pushed her down and became more forceful when she tried to push him away. She was then taken back to Columbia and released. She identified Gallup and Baker as two of the three men who had seized her at the rock quarry and later raped her. She had never seen either of these two men prior to the night in question. She testified that she never struck or bit any of the men, never screamed or cried for help because she was too afraid and feared that if she struck or bit any of them they would hit her back and probably kill her.

Both appellants took the witness stand and testified in their own defense. Their version of the facts was that prosecutrix had consented to sexual intercourse. The first point on appeal complains of the giving of Instruction No. 10, and in failing to give Instruction C. Instruction No. 10 reads as follows:

“As to Count II, if you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt:
First, that on or about August 29, 1973, in the County of Boone, State of Missouri, that each defendant inserted his sexual organ into the sexual organ of C_ H_ [prosecutrix], and Second, that each defendant did so against her will and after they caused her to submit by threats which caused her to fear physical violence to herself,
then you will find the defendants guilty under Count II of Rape.
However, if you do not find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt each and all of the foregoing you must find the defendant not guilty of that offense.
If you do find the defendants guilty under Count II of Rape, you will fix their punishment at imprisonment by the Department of Corrections for a term fixed by you, but not less then two years nor more than life imprisonment.”

Appellants contend that there was no evidence of threats of force and violence from which the prosecutrix could have apprehended physical violence to herself and, thus, the giving of Instruction 10 was error because not supported by the evidence. As previously mentioned, there was evidence that as prosecutrix was being forcibly led toward the station wagon, she was told “don’t fight me and you’ll be all right.” This was substantial evidence of a threat which could have caused prosecutrix to fear physical violence to herself and warranted the giving of Instruction 10. In State v. Neal, 484 S.W.2d 270 (Mo.1972), an instruction identical in all pertinent respects to Instruction 10 was upheld against the contention that it assumed facts not in *622 evidence. The threat in Neal consisted of appellant telling prosecutrix, “If you don’t make any noise, I won’t hurt you.” In State v. Gray, 423 S.W.2d 776 (Mo.1968), evidence that appellant had said, “Stop fighting so hard, damn it, or I will have to hurt you”, was held to be evidence of a threat of personal violence. Appellants’ contention that the giving of Instruction 10 was error is without merit.

Appellants next contend that the jury should have been instructed on the “utmost resistance” doctrine which was set out in their proffered Instruction C. This doctrine requires the rape victim to have manifested the utmost reluctance and to have made the utmost resistance towards her attacker. The contention is answered by the fact that the “utmost resistance” doctrine is not applicable where the woman is put in fear of physical violence to herself and her will thus overcome. State v. Neal, supra; State v. Gray, supra; State v. Beck, 368 S.W.2d 490 (Mo.1963). In this case, there was substantial evidence that the prosecutrix was put in fear of physical violence and her will thus overcome.

By Point II, appellants contend that the state had no jurisdiction or venue to try the offense of rape because there was a failure on the part of the state to show that offense occurred in Boone County, Missouri.

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Bluebook (online)
520 S.W.2d 619, 1975 Mo. App. LEXIS 1906, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gallup-moctapp-1975.