Zamora v. State

449 S.W.2d 43, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1019
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 3, 1969
Docket42362
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 449 S.W.2d 43 (Zamora v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zamora v. State, 449 S.W.2d 43, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1019 (Tex. 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

ONION, Judge.

The offense is rape; the punishment, 12 years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections.

The indictment, in its first count, charged the offense of statutory rape. The second count charged rape by force, threats and fraud. It is not clear from the record when the State waived or abandoned the first count of the indictment or elected to stand on the second count, but the court’s charge withdrew the first count from the jury’s consideration and the offense of statutory rape passed out of the case. See Lewis v. State, 154 Tex.Cr.R. 329, 226 S.W.2d 861.

In his first ground of error appellant claims the evidence is insufficient to support the jury’s verdict of rape by force and threats.

The record reflects that on March 2, 1968, between 9 a. m. and noon, the 16 year old prosecutrix, a high school student, her 9 year old sister, Betty, and the appellant, the prosecutrix’s stepfather, 1 were alone in their home in the city of Dallas. The prosecutrix’s mother and other members of the family had gone to a grocery store.

According to the prosecutrix’s testimony, the appellant requested she bring him some coffee and that when she did he was sitting on a bed in his bedroom; that he asked her to sit on the bed beside him and when he asked the second time she did; 2 that he put his arm around her and kissed her and requested her to remove her clothes; that she knew what was going to happen; that though she did not want to she stood up and took off her skirt and half slip and laid on the bed; that when she did not take off her panties at appellant’s request he removed them. The prosecutrix then related appellant removed his clothes and had sexual intercourse with her. She testified that though she was not crying at the time she experienced pain during the intercourse and started to cry but the appellant “told” her “not to.”

The record on direct examination of the prosecutrix reflects the following:

“Q. Did he ever threaten you in any way concerning this act or telling anybody about this act?
“A. He said that if I told my mother, that he was going to tell her to put me in the juvenile home.
“Q. All right, did he threaten you in any other way besides placing you in the juvenile home ?
“A. He told me that if I didn’t do what he told me to do, that he would whip my younger sisters and brother for no reason.
“Q. Now, Delia, had he ever made some threats to you prior to this act ?
“A. No sir.
*45 “Q. He had never threatened to put you in the juvenile home before?
“A. No sir.
“Q. Had he ever threatened to whip your brother and little sisters if you didn’t do what he wanted you to do before this time?
“A. Before this time?
“Q. Yes.
“A. No sir.
“Q. Now, when he made these threats to you, did you believe him?
“A. Yes sir.
“Q. Now, when your mother got back from shopping, did you tell her about what had happened or did you not?
“A. I did not tell her.”

On cross-examination the prosecutrix admitted she had had sexual relations with the appellant since she was ten years old, which apparently had never been reported.

She did testify several times that at the time of the alleged offense she was “afraid of” or “scared” of appellant; that he had “whipped” her approximately three times in her whole “lifetime.”

Direct examination reflects the following:

“Q. Let me ask you this question: After you gave him the cup of coffee, did you leave the room?
“A. No sir.
“Q. Did you try to leave the room?
“A. No sir.
“Q. Did you start to leave?
“A. No sir.
“Q. What did you do?
“A. I stayed there in case he needed something else.”
* * * * * *
“Q. Now, on the date of the 2nd of March, 1968, when you told this jury that this happened, while your mother was at the store when your brother and two sisters were with her, were you afraid of him at that time?
“A. I was scared.
“Q. When you took that cup of coffee in his room as he told Betty to have you do, when you waited there instead of just leaving, is that because you were afraid of him?
“A. No sir.”

Betty, the prosecutrix’s half-sister, testified that on the date in question she had occasion to peek under the doorway curtain at the entrance to appellant’s bedroom and saw appellant on top of the prosecutrix. She related that approximately one month later she informed her mother. She testified that appellant had whipped her once when she came home late.

The record further shows that some five or six weeks after the alleged offense the prosecutrix and her mother had a discussion and the alleged offense was then reported to the police and a medical examination followed.

No medical testimony was offered.

Testifying in his own behalf, appellant denied the alleged offense occurred.

Article 1184, Vernon’s Ann.P.C., provides as follows:

“The definition of ‘force’ as applicable to assault and battery applies also to rape, and it must have been such as might reasonably be supposed sufficient to overcome resistance, taking into consideration the relative strength of the parties and other circumstances of the case.”

“By such definition the facts of each individual case determine whether *46 force exists, which, of necessity, renders it impossible to lay down a fixed standard by which it may be said that force has or has not been applied, in a rape case.” Bundren v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 211 S.W.2d 197.

In 48 Tex.Jur.2d, 2nd ed., Rape, Sec. 6, p. 638, the rule is stated:

“Where force is the ground on which the commission of rape is alleged, the crime will not be constituted unless there was a combination of force and lack of consent. But something more than the mere want of consent must also be shown; there must have been resistance on the part of the female dependent in amount on the circumstances surrounding her at the time and on the relative strength of herself and the accused.

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Related

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641 S.W.2d 250 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1982)
State v. Rusk
424 A.2d 720 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1981)
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599 S.W.2d 581 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Rogers v. State
575 S.W.2d 555 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Blount v. State
542 S.W.2d 164 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1976)
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504 S.W.2d 900 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1974)
Knox v. State
487 S.W.2d 322 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
449 S.W.2d 43, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1019, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zamora-v-state-texcrimapp-1969.