State v. Richardson

207 P. 124, 63 Mont. 322, 1922 Mont. LEXIS 97
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 8, 1922
DocketNo. 4,991
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 207 P. 124 (State v. Richardson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Richardson, 207 P. 124, 63 Mont. 322, 1922 Mont. LEXIS 97 (Mo. 1922).

Opinions

MR. COMMISSIONER COMER

prepared the opinion for the court.

The information in this case charges the defendant and appellant with rape of one Mary Richardson, a girl of the age of fourteen years at the time of the commission of the offense, [326]*326June 25, 1920. The ease came on for trial in the district court on the seventh day of December, 1920; the jury returned a verdict of guilty; and from the judgment of conviction and the refusal of the district court to grant a new trial, the defendant appeals.

The assignment of error is: That the court erred in overruling defendant’s motion for a new trial for the following reasons: First, that the verdict is contrary to the law and the evidence; and, second, that the court erred in decisions of questions of law arising during the progress of the trial. We will consider these assignments in the order stated.

The appellant contends that the testimony is insufficient to support the verdict rendered by the jury, and that the judgment should be reversed for that reason.

It appears that, from the evidence in the case, defendant and his wife adopted the prosecutrix, Mary Richardson, in February, 1916, while they were living in Saskatchewan, Canada. Thereafter they moved to the state of Minnesota, and about January 1, 1920, Mrs. Richardson left for California, where she remained for about seven months. Thereafter defendant and Mary left Minnesota for Texas, where they remained a short time, arriving in Kalispell, Montana, in the month of May, 1920.

The prosecutrix testified to many acts of intercourse between herself and the defendant, commencing in the year 1916, the last act being performed on the twenty-fifth day of June, 1920, the ■ date alleged in the information; that many times he took her to hotels, where they occupied the same room and the same bed. Defendant admits that they occupied the same room at various times, but denies that they occupied the same bed. A further detail of the evidence in this ease would not serve any useful purpose. It is sufficient to say that after a careful examination of all of the evidence in the case we are of the opinion that it warrants the verdict returned by the jury.

[327]*327The uncorroborated evidence of the prosecutrix is sufficient [1] to sustain the conviction. (State v. Peres, 27 Mont. 358, 71 Pac. 162; State v. Vinn, 50 Mont. 27, 144 Pac. 773.)

The solution of the conflict in the evidence is in the ex-02] elusive province of the jury. (State v. Gaimos, 53 Mont. 118, 162 Pac. 596.)

The story told by the prosecutrix is not unreasonable or improbable. There is corroboration of the prosecutrix in the record. While they were living at Kalispell, one evening the defendant asked the prosecutrix to sleep with him, and he was overheard by several young girls who were there at the time; defendant not knowing they were present.

During the course of the examination of the prosecutrix, she [3] was asked by the counsel for the defendant whether she had not had intercourse with persons other than the defendant, to which she answered, “No.” She was then asked whether she had not told Mrs. Richardson about having intercourse with a boy by the name of Bordson and a boy by the name of Cunningham, to which she answered, “No.” An objection was then made to this cross-examination, the court stating: “If the defense has no evidence of these acts other than the statements of the complaining witness, that line of questioning will be excluded, and that line of evidence ruled incompetent.” The defendant stated he had no other evidence except the statements of the prosecuting witness. The offer was then made to ask the prosecutrix whether she did not tell Mr. and Mrs. Richardson, during the month of March, 1916, that she had intercourse with a man by the name of Jones. Objection was made to the question and sustained.

Thereafter a doctor testified for the state that she had ex-04] amined the prosecutrix subsequent to the alleged offense set forth in the information, and prior to the trial; that she had found the hymen of the prosecutrix absent and her parts larger than would be expected in a girl of her years. The defendant, after the doctor had testified, made an offer to ask the prosecutrix on cross-examination if she did not tell to [328]*328Mr. and Mrs. Richardson, during the year 1916, that she had intercourse with one Cunningham, and if she did not tell Mrs. Richardson the same story concerning one Jones and one Bordson. Objection was made by the state to the questions, and the objection sustained. The defendant thereafter offered to show, by Mrs. Richardson, the wife of the defendant, that the prosecutrix had told her during the year 1916 that she had had intercourse with Cunningham and Bordson. Objection was made and sustained to these questions.

It is the contention of the defendant that error was committed by the district court because of the refusal to allow the defendant- to ask these questions, and that, inasmuch as the doctor testified to the physical condition of the prosecutrix, he should be allowed to show that she had had intercourse with other persons, and, if possible, break the force of the necessary inference cast against the defendant by the testimony of the physician, citing the case of State v. Apley, decided by the supreme court of North Dakota, 25 N. D. 298, 48 L. R. A. (n. s.) 269, 141 N. W. 740; and that, since defendant could ask prosecutrix as to prior acts of sexual intercourse with others, and the prosecutrix having testified on cross-examination that she did not have intercourse with persons other than defendant, he (defendant) should have been allowed to impeach the girl by asking Mrs. Richardson if she was not told by prosecutrix of sexual acts with others. In other words, the defendant contends that it is proper for defendant to ask prosecutrix as to other acts to rebut the presumption created against defendant by the testimony of the physician, and therefore impeachment of her denial should be allowed.

The real question thus raised by defendant is whether he should have been allowed to impeach prosecutrix by the testimony of Mrs. Richardson. The testimony of the physician was given for a limited purpose. The state informed the court: “That the testimony which the state expects to introduce on the physical condition of the girl will not be directed to fhe fact that the destruction of the membrane or the eon[329]*329dition of the organ was produced by this defendant. We are willing that the jury shall be so instructed, but merely to show that, on the physical condition of the child, it is possible that these acts took place. And we are willing that the jury shall be instructed that the testimony of the doctor on this point shall be competent only for the purpose of showing the possibility for the act to have taken place, and not with any idea of, by that testimony, connecting the defendant in any way with the offense.” Defendant alleges the court failed to instruct the jury concerning the purpose of the physician’s testimony, but if such instruction was desired by the defendant, he should have offered such an instruction, and he cannot now complain that such an instruction was not given. (Sec. 11969, Rev. Codes 1921; State v. McCarthy, 36 Mont. 226, 92 Pac. 521; State v. Francis, 58 Mont. 659, 194 Pac.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
207 P. 124, 63 Mont. 322, 1922 Mont. LEXIS 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-richardson-mont-1922.