The People v. Dravilles

152 N.E. 212, 321 Ill. 390
Illinois Supreme Court·Decided April 23, 1926·No. No. 17245. Judgment affirmed.·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Dunn

delivered the opinion of the court:

Harry Dravilles was tried in the criminal court of Cook county upon an indictment of one count charging that on November 14, 1924, in Cook county, he “then and there being a male person of the age of sixteen years and upwards, did unlawfully and feloniously malee an assault upon one Ivy McRae then and there being a female, with intent then and there feloniously and forcibly to ravish and carnally know the said Ivy McRae against her will, contrary to the statute.” The jury returned a verdict finding him guilty in manner and form as charged in the indictment and that he was of about the age of eighteen years. He was sentenced under this verdict to confinement in the penitentiary at Joliet for a term of years not to exceed the maximum term fixed by the statute, and he has sued out a writ of error.

The plaintiff in error contends that the court erred in overruling his motion to quash the indictment because it alleges merely an assault with the intent charged and contains no allegation of any overt act constituting the assault. An assault is defined in the Criminal Code as “an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another.” The section under which the indictment was found provides that an assault with intent to commit rape shall subject the offender to imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term not less than one year nor more than fourteen years. A battery is not an essential part of the crime. It may be important on the trial as tending to show the intent with which the assault was committed, but an assault with the intent mentioned in the statute constitutes the crime whether an actual battery or unlawful beating occurs or not. The acts done by the defendant in pursuance of the assault are admissible in evidence for the purpose of characterizing the intent.

Another objection to the indictment is that the allegation that the persop assaulted was not the wife of the person charged is essential to the charge. It has been decided to the contrary in People v. Stowers, 254 Ill. 588, which holds that at common law it is not necessary for the indictment to aver that the female was not the wife of the accused, and it is not made necessary by the statute to do so except where the indictment is under the second clause of the act, which refers to carnal knowledge of any female under the age of sixteen years, not the wife of the accused, either with or without her consent, and that an indictment for forcible rape need not contain such allegation.

It is contended that the evidence does not establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, the intent of the defendant to have carnal knowledge of the prosecuting witness notwithstanding any resistance she might make. The prosecuting witness was a married woman twenty-three years old, living with her husband and father and mother on the second floor of a flat-building owned by her father. The plaintiff in error is a Greek, who has been in America about five years. He was a peddler of fruit and vegetables from a wagon which he drove from house to house. He called at the house where the prosecuting witness lived on November 11 and sold Mrs. Shaeffer, her mother, some potatoes, and called again on the morning of November 14 and sold her some bananas, for which she paid, but he did not have the bananas with him and went to his wagon in the alley to get them. On his return Mrs. Shaeffer had left the house, and her daughter, Mrs. McRae, was alone in the flat. The plaintiff in error came in through the back door into the kitchen. Mrs. McRae testified that she was in the front room using the vacuum cleaner. She was wearing corduroy “knickers,” a blue blouse, shoes and stockings and an old hat. There was a swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room where Mrs. McRae was, and a bedroom next to the dining room. The plaintiff in error said something in the kitchen which Mrs. McRae did not understand, so she stopped the cleaner and went to the kitchen. The plaintiff in error was standing by the door. She testified that he started to talk about some bananas that her mother had told him her sister would buy and he wanted to know where she lived. Mrs. McRae started to tell him, and then he said to her, “You are very young and every time I come up here you are working.” At that she testified she was a little nervous, and then he asked her if she was going to school, and she said she had been out of school for some time. After that he seized her hand, and she told him to leave her alone, — not to do that. He then seized her by the breasts. They struggled and she kept telling him not to do anything, but he “grabbed” her, took her into the bed-room, threw her on the bed and fell on top of her. He tried to get her knickers off and succeeded in getting the belt unfastened, but the knickers were buttoned on the side. He then raised himself up and tried to get his clothes open, but she got a good chance when he raised himself up and kicked him. Then she got up and ran out of the front door. She screamed and ran through the parlor and down the front stairs. He kept calling her to come back and he would give her anything she wanted and he loved her. Her sister-in-law lived next door, on the first floor. She went in the front way and rang the bell but could not make her hear. She then came out and ran through the passageway between the buildings. When she got to the rear of the buildings she saw the milkman. Her blouse was torn down off the shoulder, her belt was unfastened, she had marks on her arms, which later turned black and blue, and scratches on her right arm, and was crying. Her sister-in-law came down while she was talking with the milkman. She went in to her sister-in-law’s home and sat down in a chair, and in about a half hour her father came in and she went back to her home. She described the defendant to the milkman. The police came, and she went with them and the milkman in an automobile to where the milkman directed, at Monticello and Ferdinand streets, where they found the defendant coming out of an alley, leading his horse. She told the officers that was the man and told them what he had done.

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The People v. Dravilles, 152 N.E. 212, 321 Ill. 390 (Ill. 1926).

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