State v. Woodall

305 P.2d 473, 6 Utah 2d 8
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 18, 1956
DocketNo. 8540
StatusPublished

This text of 305 P.2d 473 (State v. Woodall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah 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. Woodall, 305 P.2d 473, 6 Utah 2d 8 (Utah 1956).

Opinions

WORTHEN, Justice.

Defendant was convicted upon a verdict of a jury of the crime of pandering and sentenced to the State Prison for a term not to exceed 20 years as prescribed by law, and he appeals.

The offense charged was that defendant “induced, persuaded, encouraged and enticed Ida E. Duelo, * * * to become a prostitute.” The offense charged is one of several proscribed in 76-53-8, U.C.A.1953, the pandering statute.

It is undisputed that during the fall and early winter of 1954 a house of prostitution was being run in a trailer house on U. S. Highway 91 between Moab and Monticello in San Juan County, first in Kane Springs and then on Blue Hill. The trailer house was partitioned, one half was used as a bar and the other half for prostitution. It is also undisputed that defendant was a frequent visitor at this house of prostitution — the evidence of the State tending [10]*10to show him to be the proprietor, and the evidence of defendant tending to show him to be a patron.

Ida E. Duelo, the prosecutrix, came to Hole In The Rock in San Juan County in late September and worked as a waitress in a cafe at that place until early December. Defendant and the two prostitutes, working in the trailer house, a Bobby Miller, and a Jerry McAllister, were frequent visitors at the cafe. On December 12, 1954, the prosecutrix was approached by defendant who represented that Jerry had left the State, and defendant requested that the prosecu-trix go to work as a bartender in the half of the trailer house used for a bar, for which she would be paid $5 per evening and 25$S for each “Bee” shot she would be able to sell to the patrons.

Prosecutrix, being unemployed at the time, the cafe having closed, and having to support her unemployed husband, accepted the job of bartender at the trailer house, although she knew at 'the time prostitution was being practiced thereat. She remained working in the capacity of a bartender only two days before taking on additional duties as well, and the only question is whether defendant “induced, persuaded, encouraged or enticed her” to perform those additional duties of prostitution.

The State relies primarily upon a conversation between defendant and the prose-cutrix which occurred on the 14th of December, 1954, after prosecutrix had begun work as a bartender but before she extended her activities to prostitution. The conversation was overheard by Bobby Miller, and both she and the prosecutrix testified that the conversation on the part of the defendant was substantially as follows:

(1) (Prosecutrix’s version) “He said that since I started working there that I’d been seen around town with Bobby Miller quite a bit and that I had the same reputation that Bobby Miller had and he asked me if I wouldn’t go ahead and work as a prostitute.”
(2) (Bobby Miller’s version) “He told us that since she’d been seen around Moab with me and that I.had such a bad reputation that her reputation was the same as mine now so she-might as well go all the way. ShebJ get more money. There was more money in that way * * * he said it would be a better deal all the way around for her. That she’d have more- money and things like that.”

The defendant’s main contention on appeal is that the motion to dismiss the case at the close of plaintiff’s evidence should have been granted because (1) there was insufficient evidence as a matter of law to establish the crime, and (2) that if there was sufficient evidence it was not sufficiently corroborated to establish the crime under Section 77-31-14, U.C.A.1953, requiring corroboration of the prosecutrix’s testimony in cases of this nature.

[11]*11As to the first point, it would seem that there is sufficient evidence to support the verdict if the testimony of the prosecutrix is believed. She testified not only to the inducement above, but also that defendant was a general errand boy and manager around the trailer house, and that she paid him $5 (half her fee) from each act of sexual intercourse performed. There is in the instant case sufficient evidence of defendant’s guilt to go to 'the jury.

This court said in State v. Penderville:1

“It has been repeatedly held by this court that upon a motion-to dismiss or to direct a verdict of not guilty for lack of evidence that the trial court does not consider the weight of the evidence or credibility of the witnesses, but determines the naked legal proposition of law, whether there is any substantial evidence of the guilt of the accused, and all reasonable inferences are to be taken in favor of the state * ifc »

To support the contention that there was insufficient corroboration of the testimony of the prosecutrix, defendant cites and relies upon State v. Smith.2 In that action the type of pandering charged was the same as in the instant case. The only evidence other than the testimony of the prosecutrix was a sister’s statement that the defendant jokingly had remarked that she could make more money doing something other than being a waitress, and that the prosecutrix was seen to give defendant some money on one occasion; testimony of another woman that she had given accused some money, and testimony of an officer that he had seen the prosecutrix and accused together on a number of occasions.

It will be noted that in State v. Smith, supra, only the sister’s statement went to the point of showing the slightest possibility of inducement or encouragement, and it was very equivocal, susceptible of many different meanings. The other testimony involved did not tend to connect the defendant to the crime of persuasion or encouragement, although it may have had efficacy to convict of other offenses not charged by that information.

The testimony in the instant case is quite different. Here we have a corroborating witness, albeit another prostitute, who testified as to certain statements made by defendant, which, although not entirely unequivocal, tended to only one meaning, namely, that Ida E. Duelo should become a prostitute. This would seem to be sufficient corroboration to satisfy the requirements of corroborative testimony.

As was said in State v. Vigil,3 in speaking of the quantum of corroboration [12]*12necessary to enable the State to convict when the testimony of an accomplice is involved :

“In State v. Erwin, 101 Utah 365, 120 P.2d 285, this court stated that the corroboration need not go to all the material facts as testified by the accomplice, nor need it be sufficient in itself to support a conviction; it may be slight and entitled to little consideration. However, the corroborating evidence must connect the defendant with the commission of the offense, State v. Lay, 38 Utah 143, 110 P. 986; and be consistent with his guilt and inconsistent with his innocence, State v. Butterfield, 70 Utah 529, 261 P. 804. The corroborating evidence must do more than cast a grave suspicion on the defendant and it must do all of these things without the aid of the testimony of the accomplice.”

There is nothing to indicate that Section 77-31-14, supra, requiring corroboration in cases of this nature requires any more corroboration than already set down by this court in the above case dealing with corroboration of the testimony of an accomplice. It would seem, a fortiori, that the same rule would apply to both matters.

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Related

State v. Penderville
272 P.2d 195 (Utah Supreme Court, 1954)
State v. Gates
221 P.2d 878 (Utah Supreme Court, 1950)
State v. Vigil
260 P.2d 539 (Utah Supreme Court, 1953)
State v. Dubois
98 P.2d 354 (Utah Supreme Court, 1940)
State v. Erwin
120 P.2d 285 (Utah Supreme Court, 1941)
State v. Butterfield
261 P. 804 (Utah Supreme Court, 1927)
State v. Smith
274 P.2d 246 (Utah Supreme Court, 1954)
State v. Lay
110 P. 987 (Utah Supreme Court, 1910)

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Bluebook (online)
305 P.2d 473, 6 Utah 2d 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-woodall-utah-1956.