State v. Miranda

401 P.2d 721, 98 Ariz. 18, 1965 Ariz. LEXIS 234
Arizona Supreme Court·Decided April 22, 1965·No. 1394·Published·Cited by 28 cases

Opinion

McFarland, justice:

Appellant was convicted of the crime of kidnapping, Count I; and Rape, Count II; and sentenced to serve from twenty to thirty years on each count, to run concurrently. From the judgment and sentence of the court he appeals. Appellant, hereinafter called defendant, was in another information charged with the crime of robbery. After arraignment in the instant case, on motion of the county attorney, the trial on the robbery case was consolidated with the instant case, but thereafter — one day prior to the trial of this case — separate trials were granted. Defendant was tried and convicted on the robbery charge, from which he is also appealing in the companion case of State v. Miranda, No. 1397, 98 Ariz. 11, 401 P.2d 716.

The 'facts, as they relate to the defense as charged under Counts I and II in the instant case are as follows: On March 3, 1963,. the complaining witness — a girl eighteen years of age — had been working in the concession stand at the Paramount Theatre .in downtown Phoenix, and had taken the bus. to 7th Street and Marlette. After getting off the bus, she had started to walk toward her home. She observed a car, which afterwards proved to be defendant’s, which had been .parked behind the ballet school on Marlette. The car pulled out of the lot, and came so close to her that she had to jump back to prevent being hit. It then parked across from some apartments in the same block. Defendant then left his car, walked toward her, and grabbed her. He told her not to scream, that he would not hurt her. He held her hands behind her back, put a hand over her mouth, and pulled her toward the car. He put her in the back seat, tied her hands and feet, and put a sharp thing to her neck and said to her “Feel this.” She stated it all happened so suddenly that she did not have time to do anything. Defendant was unknown to the complaining witness. She had not seen him before, and he was not related to her in any way.

He then drove the car for about twenty minutes, during which time complaining witness was lying in the back seat crying. When defendant stopped the car, he came to the back seat, and untied her hands and feet. He told her to pull off her clothes. She said “no,” whereupon he started to remove them. She tried to push away from him, but he proceeded to remove her clothing. And, then, after one unsuccessful attempt, made .a successful sexual penetration, while- she pushed with her hands and was screaming. She testified:

*22 “I was pushing against him with my hands. I kept screaming, I was trying to get away but he was a lot stronger than I was, and I coiddn’t do anything.”

He then drove her to 12th Street and Rose Lane, during which time she dressed. She ran home, and told her family, who called the police. Her sister testified that the complaining witness came home that morning crying and looking as if she had been in a fight. On March 13, 1963, defendant was apprehended by the police. The officers who picked him up both testified that he was put into the “line-up” and was identified by complaining witness. Thereafter he confessed that he had forced complaining witness into his car, drove away with her, and raped her. After these statements he signed a statement, partly typed and partly in his own handwriting, which was substantially to the same effect as the testimony of the officers. Defendant offered no evidence in his defense at the trial of his case.

Defendant assigns as error the following: denial of the motion to quash the information; denial of his motion to dismiss the action on the ground that the case was not brought to trial within sixty days, under Rule 236, Rules of Criminal Procedure, 17 A.R.S. (1956); the county attorney’s arguing the proposition of fear to the jury;' the admission of the confession of defendant; that the verdict was not sustained by the evidence; and denial of defendant’s motion for an instructed verdict.

We shall consider first the denial of the motion to quash the information. A.R.S. § 13-492 reads as follows:

“A. A person, except in the case of a minor by the parent, who seizes, confines, inveigles, entices, decoys, abducts, conceals, kidnaps or carries away any individual by any means whatsoever with intent to hold or detain, or who holds or detains such individual for ransom, reward or otherwise, or to commit extortion or robbery, or to exact from relatives of such person or from any other person any money or valuable thing, or a person who aids or abets any such conduct, is guilty of a felony.
“B. A person, except in the case of a minor by the parent, who seizes, confines, inveigles, entices, decoys, abducts, conceals, kidnaps or carries away any child under the age of fourteen years by any means whatsoever with intent to hold or detain, or who holds or detains such child for the purpose of raping or committing sodomy, or lewd or lascivious acts upon the person of such child, or a person who aids or abets any such conduct, is guilty of a felony.
“C. A person convicted under subsections A or B of this section shall be punished as follows:
*23 “1. If the person subjected to the acts mentioned in subsections A or B suffers serious bodily harm inflicted by the person found guilty, the person found guilty shall be punished by death or by life imprisonment without possibility of parole, whichever the jury recommends.
“2. If the person subjected to any acts mentioned in subsection A or B does not suffer serious bodily harm the person found guilty shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison from twenty to fifty years without possibility of parole until the minimum sentence has been served. As amended Laws 1956, Ch. 92, § 1.”

Defendant contends that there were objectionable, prejudicial and redundant, and unnecessary words in the following portion of the information:

“[D]id then and there wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously, seize, confine, abduct, conceal, kidnap or carry away one [complaining witness] for the purpose of raping and did rape said [complaining witness], said [complaining witness] not being related in any way to said defendant, * * *.”

(Italics added.)

The words which he complains of were the words italicized. We have held the word “otherwise,” in A.R.S. § 13^192 Subsec. A, includes other crimes such as rape. State v. Jacobs, 93 Ariz. 336, 380 P.2d 998; and State v. Taylor, 82 Ariz. 289, 312 P.2d 162.

In State v. Jacobs, supra, we stated:

“We therefore now hold that the crime of kidnapping with intent to commit rape may be charged under A.R.S. § 13-492, subd. A.” 93 Ariz. at 341, 380 P.2d at 1002.

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State v. Miranda, 401 P.2d 721, 98 Ariz. 18, 1965 Ariz. LEXIS 234 (Ark. 1965).

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