Zuniga v. State

1953 OK CR 25, 254 P.2d 378, 96 Okla. Crim. 314, 1953 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 178
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 25, 1953
DocketA-11728
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1953 OK CR 25 (Zuniga v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zuniga v. State, 1953 OK CR 25, 254 P.2d 378, 96 Okla. Crim. 314, 1953 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 178 (Okla. Ct. App. 1953).

Opinion

POWELL, P. J.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged by information filed in the district court of Tulsa county with the crime of rape, second degree, was tried before a jury, convicted, and punishment was assessed at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of 14 years. Appeal has been duly perfected to this court.

For reversal, counsel set out five propositions:

“I. The court erred in refusing to grant defendant a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence.
“II. The verdict and sentence are not supported by the evidence.
“III. The court erred in admitting prejudicial evidence.
“IV. The court erred in admitting irrelevant testimony of police officer Glen E. Morris.
“V. That the verdict and sentence in this case is excessive under the circumstances.”

Considering proposition I, the information charged that on the 31st day of March, 1951, “the defendant did unlawfully, wilfully and feloniously carnally know and have sexual intercourse with one Dolores Hernandez of the age of fourteen years.”

The basic facts necessary for a consideration of proposition I, as found in the record, are that on October 20, 1951, the defendant’s motion for a new trial was overruled and on the same day judgment was by the court entered sentencing him in accordance with the verdict. On February 7, 1952, at the next succeeding term of court, the defendant filed an application before the court requesting authority to take the deposition of the prosecuting witness, Dolores Hernandez, for the purpose of ascertaining the whereabouts of the child, which had been bom after the trial. Defendant also sought an order of the court directing that a blood test be made of the child. Defendant stated that both he and Dolores Hernandez were of the Mexican race, and that the appearance of the child, if discovered, might show, and he had been informed that the appearance would show, it to not be of full Mexican blood and therefore he could not be the father. This statement was not supported by the affidavit of any doctor, nurse or other person purporting to have seen the child. The prosecuting witness was at the time of the trial six and a half to seven months advanced in pregnancy.

The state filed written objections to the defendant’s application on the ground that the results of the blood test sought would not be competent evidence as a matter of law and would have no bearing on the real issue in the case. At this point it is well factually to note that the record fails to disclose that the defendant, prior to trial, sought a continuance of the case setting out the grounds later urged months after the trial. The effect of this failure will be treated in convenient order hereinafter. On February 16, 1952, the trial court denied the application in question. Following this, and on February 27, 1952, the defendant filed a motion for new trial based upon the grounds of newly discovered evidence. *316 It was alleged that at the time of the trial the child had not been born so that it was impossible for accused to offer evidence of its blood type; that the child had been born in December, 1951, after the trial; that a blood test of the mother and the baby would disclose that the defendant was not the father of the child. Attached to the motion for new trial was an affidavit of Dr. Milton L. Berg of Tulsa, to the effect that alleged parentage of the father could be excluded should he, the mother and the child have blood type determined. A chart was attached showing type to be expected in a child where parents had specified types. Neither the motion nor the affidavit enumerated any facts or set forth any newly discovered evidence. The court overruled this second motion for new trial. Did the court err?

Tit. 22 O.S. 1951 § 952, enumerating grounds for new trial, sets out in part:

“First. When the trial has been in his absence, if the charge is for a felony. * * *
“Seventh. When new evidence is discovered, material to the defendant, and which he could not with reasonable diligence have discovered before the trial, or when it can be shown that the grand jury was not drawn summoned or impaneled as provided by law, and that the facts in relation thereto were unknown to the defendant or his attorney until after the trial jury in the case was sworn and were not of record. When a motion for a new trial is made on the ground of newly discovered evidence, the defendant must produce at the hearing in support thereof affidavits of witnesses, or he may take testimony in support thereof as provided in Section 5781 [Tit 22 O.S. § 494], and if time is required by the defendant to procure such affidavits or testimony, the court may postpone the hearing of the motion for such length of time as under all the circumstances of the case may seem reasonable. The application for a new trial on the ground that the grand jury was not drawn summoned or impaneled as provided by law may be shown in like manner.”

While the Attorney General sets out a number of points advanced in support of the ruling of the trial court, the important one, under the situation as presented, is the contention that “The paternity of the child is immaterial because the issue in this case is whether or not the defendant is guilty of second degree rape by virtue of having had intercourse with the prosecuting witness.” The defendant was not charged with bastardy. Even though the child of the prosecutrix had been born prior to the trial, and blood tests had been made of the mother, the child and the accused, and there had been expert medical evidence that the types excluded the possibility of the defendant being the father, and had such evidence been decided admissible 1 , still the defendant was charged with forcibly raping the girl who was shown to be only fourteen years of age, and even if such affair was by mutual agreement, the girl was not legally capable of giving consent. Hence the evidence that defendant would have liked to have turned out in his favor, and if so, would have liked to have presented on a new trial, could amount to nothing more than an attempt to impeach the prosecuting witness, and could not be a bar to the charge even if found true. We do not feel called upon in this case to consider the admissibility or inadmissibility of blood tests to establish or to exclude such possibility, by reason of what we have already said.

The Attorney General contends that the gist of the principles enunciated in the hereinafter cited cases by this court are to the effect that:

*317

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Related

Goodson v. State
1960 OK CR 21 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1960)
Reid v. State
1955 OK CR 106 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1955)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1953 OK CR 25, 254 P.2d 378, 96 Okla. Crim. 314, 1953 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zuniga-v-state-oklacrimapp-1953.