State v. Schlichter

173 S.W. 1072, 263 Mo. 561, 1915 Mo. LEXIS 169
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedFebruary 23, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 173 S.W. 1072 (State v. Schlichter) 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. Schlichter, 173 S.W. 1072, 263 Mo. 561, 1915 Mo. LEXIS 169 (Mo. 1915).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, 0.

Rape" Upon an information charging him with rape, defendant was tried in the circuit court of thé city of St. Louis, found guilty, and his punishment assessed at fifteen years in the penitentiary. Defendant duly perfected an ap1 peal to this court.

Prosecutrix was eighteen years of age at the time of the alleged offense and the information charged the defendant with “forcibly ravishing” the prosecutrix. During the progress of the trial, the defendant made a motion that the State be required to elect whether the case should be tried upon the theory that the offense was committed by force or on the theory that the V prosecutrix did not have the mental capacity to con- ) sent. At the close of all the evidence, the State elected to submit the case to the jury on the theory that prosecutrix was incapable mentally of giving consent, and ,the case was, by the court, submitted to the jury on ' that theory.

The record embracing the testimony is very large. It will only he necessary to state such facts as shall have a bearing on the theory of the case upon which it was submitted to the jury.

The evidence on the part of the State tended to establish the following facts: Prosecutrix was eighteen years of age at the time of the alleged offense. When she was a baby and during her “teething time” she began to have spasms and continued to have spasms [567]*567at intervals until she was about -seven years of age and was unable to walk until she was five years old. From eight until twelve years of age she suffered with St. Vitus’s dance, resulting in a nervous breakdown at the age of twelve and she has continued to be very nervous to the present time. Her entire schooling consisted of about one month and on account of her nervous condition she was taken out of school. She knows the figures on the face of a clock and can tell which of the numbers the hands of the clock are on but cannot tell the time of' day by looking at a clock. She knows the value of different coins but cannot add several coins together and tell what the total is. She can go to places where she has been but if she gets a block or so out of her accustomed route she becomes lost and confused. She never received gentlemen callers, but always played with children much younger than herself. Her father testified that she had always been bright “with the exception of her nervesthat if any one would talk to her she would become excited and would stand dumb and could not answer; that going along the street, over a route to which she was accustomed, she would go along like any other lady. Her mother testified that she was not bright; that she had' to tell her how to do everything and that the left side ’ of the girl’s body was not fully developed but was 1 smaller than the right’side. One of the neighbor women testified that prosecutrix was delicate and weak mentally; that she talked like a child eight years old but always seemed bright in company. Another neighbor woman testified that, in her opinion, prosecutrix was unsound mentally and seemed stupid in conversation and ¡could not always answer questions readily but that she seemed to be bright when she went on errands. A policeman who lived in the neighborhood testified that he did not think that she was mentally sound because she was not as bright as girls of her age and [568]*568for the further reason that she always played with children.

Dr. Simon testified that he attended her the day after the occurrence and that she was very nervous. Upon examination he found the hymen broken and thought that it was freshly torn but would not swear "‘that it was. He noticed an inflammation of the vagina, which, he said, might have been caused by two or three men having intercourse with her.

On the afternoon of February 5, 1913, the date of the alleged offense, prosecutrix was sent by her mother on an errand to the Westhus Carpet Company, on Broadway, in the city of St. Louis, to make a payment on a bill. Prosecutrix went to the store and paid the ■bill and was on Broadway, going toward her home, when she saw the defendant standing in front of a pool hall. On two former occasions, while prosecutrix and her mother were down town, the defendant had whistled at them when they passed. On the day in question, as prosecutrix passed the pool hall, defendant came out and said, ‘ ‘Little girl, ain’t you cold ? ’ ’ P'ros1 ecutrix said, “ Yes. ” Defendant told her that he would take her to his home where it was warm. She replied that she wanted to go home and defendant said, “What are you in a hurry to go home for?” Defendant then took prosecutrix by the arm and he and two other young men walked with her around the corner to the back part of Zang’s saloon and into a small room back of said saloon and connected therewith by a door. This back room also had a door leading out into the back yard. When they were inside the back room, two of the girl’s male companions went into the saloon and one remained in the room and had intercourse with her, and then he went into the saloon and one of the other young men came back into the back room and had intercourse with her, and then he went back into the saloon and then this defendant came into the back room and had intercourse with her and then went back [569]*569into tlie saloon, and another yonng man went into, the hack room and had intercourse with her, and this con- ¡ tinued until eight different men had intercourse with ' prosecutrix. She testified that they forced her to have . intercourse with them and threatened her, but, by the f greater weight of the evidence, it appears that she j made little, if any, resistance. After the above oc-' curred the proprietor of the saloon went into the back room to see what was going on, and upon finding the girl there ordered her and her companions out of the room.

Prosecutrix and one or two young men went out the back door and down the street and some of the other men went out the front door and joined her later on the street. Prom there they went to a livery stable and prosecutrix and the defendant, accompanied by the other five or six men, went up into a hayloft of the stable. Here defendant and three other men again had intercourse with her and then the proprietor of the| livery stable upon hearing noise up in the hayloft called up to them and asked who was up there, and at that defendant and some of the other young men jumped out of the loft window. Prosecutrix attempted to jump out of the window, but the son of the proprietor of the livery stable went up in the loft to see what was going on and helped prosecutrix down the ladder and told her to go home. She started down the street and rejoined some of her male companions. The defendant and the other young men then took prosecutrix a distance of a block or two to a room occupied by one Grastroieh. She testified that in this room defendant and the same young men again had intercourse with her. That it was about dark when they arrived at the room and that she does not know how long they stayed there, but finally they all went away and left prosecutrix with Grastroieh and she stayed all night with him. Grastroieh was a workman in a nearby iron mill and before daylight the next morning she went [570]*570with G-astroich to the iron mill where he worked. After daylight, prosecutrix and Gastroich walked up to Broadway, and there Gastroich went into a corner saloon and prosecutrix waited on a corner. A strange man then came out of the saloon and took prosecutrix over to another saloon.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
173 S.W. 1072, 263 Mo. 561, 1915 Mo. LEXIS 169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-schlichter-mo-1915.