Bethune v. State, 35035

• Decision Date: 05 December 1962
• Docket Number: No. 35035,35035
• Citation: 363 S.W.2d 462
• Parties: Dorothy Jenkins BETHUNE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 462

363 S.W.2d 462

Dorothy Jenkins BETHUNE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 35035.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

Dec. 5, 1962.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 23, 1963.

Foreman & Walsh by William F. Walsh, Houston, for appellant.

Frank Briscoe, Dist. Atty., Carl E. F. Dally and Lee P. Ward, Jr., Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

MORRISON, Judge.

The offense is rape; the punishment, life. The appellant, being a female, was charged as a principal.

Prosecutrix testified that she had come from West Texas to Houston looking for work as a vocalist in the entertainment field; that she was in destitute circumstances; that she was introduced to Delmus Bethune, who made some telephone calls and agreed to take her to meet a theatrical agent; that they drove to a motel, where Delmus said the agent was delivering a contract to some other entertainers, but when they entered the cabin designated she found it empty. She testified that Delmus choked her into insensibility and, when she regained her senses, found herself naked and Delmus was pouring ice water on her stomach. On cross-examination, it was developed that during this period of time Delmus had intercourse with her.

It was after the above incident occurred that appellant first appeared upon the scene, knocked on the motel door and was admitted by Delmus. At this juncture, Delmus told appellant that prosecutrix tried to call the police in an effort to report that she had been raped and instructed appellant to hand him a coat hanger which he straightened out and used to beat her. Color photographs of prosecutrix's neck and legs taken later that morning by the police were introduced and showed bruises about her person. Thereafter, appellant announced that it would be futile for prosecutrix to call the police, as she (appellant) was Delmus' wife and the police would do nothing even if she killed prosecutrix because she had found her in bed with Delmus. Upon entering the motel room, appellant took a locking device, which when placed on the door would prevent anyone from opening the door from either side without the use of a key, and Delmus locked the motel door. Appellant then informed prosecutrix that if she wanted to live she 'had better do what she and Delmus wanted her to do'; that there was no chance for her to escape; that she might as well resign herself to it; and that the next morning she would take prosecutrix home with her and show her how to make some fast, easy money. On more than one occasion when prosecutrix went to the bathroom, she was accompanied by appellant, who threatened her life unless she 'did whatever they wanted me to do.' At some juncture in this proceedings, appellant disrobed; prosecutrix was forced to lie on the bed, and a sex orgy of appalling proportions took place. Prosecutrix was forced, by pulling her hair, to commit acts of oral sodomy on Delmus. Appellant committed similar acts upon prosecutrix; prosecutrix was forced to submit to an act of rectal as well as vaginal intercourse by Delmus, and on into the night. Finally, appellant and Delmus went to sleep; prosecutrix extricated herself from between them on the bed and escaped through the bathroom window. She was picked up in the vicinity of the motel as she was walking barefoot away from the City of Houston by the witness McCreight, who was on his way to work at that early hour of the morning. Prosecutrix was crying and stated she had been raped, was carried to a hospital; the police were summoned, and in the course of their investigation apprehended appellant and Delmus, in the nude, at the motel in question. The police described prosecutrix's nervous and bruised condition. This, we think, is a fair...