State v. Platner

93 S.W. 403, 196 Mo. 128, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 201
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 22, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 93 S.W. 403 (State v. Platner) 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. Platner, 93 S.W. 403, 196 Mo. 128, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 201 (Mo. 1906).

Opinion

BURGESS, P. J.

On the 30th day of June, 1905, the defendant was convicted in the circuit court of Jasper county and his punishment fixed at four years imprisonment in the penitentiary, under an information filed by the prosecuting attorney of said county charging him with having committed an assault upon one Minnie L. Stotts, with intent to ravish and carnally know her feloniously and against her will. In due time defendant filed motions for new trial and in arrest, which were overruled. He appeals.

The facts are about as follows: Minnie L. Stotts resided at Afton in the Indian Territory. In the early part of June, 1905, she left Afton to visit a brother in Dade County, Missouri, and stopped at Webb City to spend the night with friends. She arrived at said city on a train which was due there at 8:45 that evening. By previous arrangement, one Fred Wallner, a man whom she had met before and to whom she was engaged to be married, met her at the station upon the arrival of the train. They walked to Carterville, near by, where for some reason unexplained they were arrested by a policeman and locked up in the city prison. After being kept in confinement for about an hour they were' released, and they started to walk east to Main street, when defendant and another young man named Hardy followed them. The young men walked around in front of the prosecutrix, and defendant remarked to her that she was keeping late hours. He also wanted to know where she was going and said that that policeman was a friend of his. Wallner replied that it was nobody’s business where they were going, and prosecutrix said she was going to the little town of Prosperity. Defend[130]*130ant then said she was going with him, and he and Hardy took hold of prosecutrix by the arms and began to drag her along. When Wallner objected, defendant said, “Don’t you say a word, or we will both jump on you and beat you to death.” At that Wallner started to run, and Hardy threw a rock and struck Wallner on the back of the head, and one of them (the record is obscure as to which) drew a knife. Wallner called for help and ran back towards the city prison. When prosecutrix screamed, defendant and Hardy struck her in the face, and both of them took hold of her and dragged her down the street towards a vacant lot. Prosecutrix resisted all she could and tried to jerk loose from them, but was overpowered. Defendant and Hardy pushed prosecutrix backwards and threw her to the ground, and held her by the arms. Defendant then said, “Now, sweetheart, you are going to let me have it.” Prosecutrix refused and continued to scream; and defendant took out his handkerchief and wiped the blood from her nose and mouth. As she was still calling for help, defendant put his arm over her mouth and told her to be still or he would kill her. Defendant pulled up the clothes of prosecutrix, and again cautioned her to be still; at the same time he unbuttoned his pants. When they heard a pistol shot defendant threw his coat over prosecutrix to conceal her white waist; when a second shot was heard, defendant and Hardy ran off. In the meantime, Wallner had gone back to the policeman, made complaint of the assault, and he and the officer hurried to the place where Wallner had just left prosecutrix. When they reached that place prosecutrix was not there, but they heard her screams still further down the street. When they got to her defendant and Hardy had gone, and prosecutrix was on the ground and her nose and mouth were bleeding. The proprietor of a restaurant testified to the fact that Wallner and prosecutrix passed his place of business after they were released from prison, and that defendant and Hardy got [131]*131up, left the table, talked to each other and followed after prosecutrix. The constable testified to seeing defendant sitting on a bench in front of a saloon that night after the alleged assault. That defendant jumped up and started to run when police officer Brown came out of the saloon with Hardy under arrest. That some twenty-five people gathered around, and the officer told Wallner that he had recognized one of his men, and to try and see if he could find the other one. Defendant then tried to get behind the constable, but Wallner recognized him; defendant was pale and excited.

The evidence for the defendant tended to show that he was a fireman and worked in a mine at Osage. That, on the night in question, defendant and Hardy were in a restaurant eating lunch when prosecutrix and Wallner passed. That they came out, followed in the same direction, but on the other side of the street from prosecutrix, but accidentally caught up with her. That Hardy and Wallner got into a difficulty, used profane language, and Hardy threw rocks at Wallner. While this was going on, defendant coaxed prosecutrix to go on with him down the street. That Hardy got away from Wallner and came running towards prosecutrix and called to her. When prosecutrix asked what he wanted, Hardy tried to get her to go with him; but prosecutrix said she was going with defendant. That Hardy then hit prosecutrix in the mouth, and defendant drove him away. After going on down the street some distance further, defendant and prosecutrix sat down, on the ground, and defendant solicited her to have sexual intercourse with him, and she asked him if he had any money. That they soon heard the officer coming down the street, and prosecutrix told defendant to throw his coat over her white waist, and he did so. That, when the first pistol shot was fired, defendant told her to be right still; but when the second shot was heard prosecutrix advised him to run; and defendant did run. That prosecutrix never screamed, never tried [132]*132to get away, and that defendant never tried to force her and never used any threatening language. Defendant admitted that he had never seen prosecutrix before that night, and did not know anything about her, except that she and Wallner had been arrested. Hardy did not testify either for the State or for the defense.

The court of its own motion gave the following instructions, to the giving of which instructions the defendant at the time duly excepted:

‘ ‘ The court instructs the jury that if they find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant wrongfully, unlawfully and feloniously, at the county of Jasper and State of Missouri, on or about the 9th day of June, 1905, did make an assault on the witness, Minnie L. Stotts, by forcibly taking hold of her or striking her for the purpose and with the felonious intent to ravish her, the said Minnie L. Stotts, the jury should find him guilty of assault with intent to rape, and assess his punishment at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term not less than two years or more than five years, or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than six months, or by a fine not less than one hundred dollars and imprisonment in the county jail not less than three months, or by a fine not less than one hundred dollars.
‘ The court instructs the jury that if they find from the evidence that the defendant, at the county of Jasper and State of Missouri, on or about the 9th day of June, 1905, did wrongfully and, willfully make an assault on the witness, Minnie L. Stotts, but without the intent to ravish her, then the jury should find him guilty of common assault, and assess his punishment at a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail, not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
93 S.W. 403, 196 Mo. 128, 1906 Mo. LEXIS 201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-platner-mo-1906.