Flowers v. State

• Decision Date: 30 March 1943
• Citation: 12 So.2d 772,152 Fla. 649
• Parties: FLOWERS v. STATE.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

12 So.2d 772

152 Fla. 649

FLOWERS v. STATE.

Florida Supreme Court

March 30, 1943

Rehearing Denied April 16, 1943.

Edgar Flowers was convicted of rape, and he appeals.

Affirmed.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Hillsborough County; L. L. Parks judge.

Bryan & Bryan, of Tampa, for appellant.

J. Tom Watson Atty. Gen., Woodrow M. Melvin, Asst. Atty. Gen., and J. Rex Farrior, State Atty., of Tampa, for appellee.

CHAPMAN, Justice.

The appellant, Edgar Flowers, on May 7, 1942, was indicted for the crime of rape by a grand jury of Hillsborough County, Florida. He was placed upon trial and by a jury found guilty on June 5, 1942. His motions for arrest of judgment and new trial were denied and the defendant below sentenced to death. He has perfected his appeal therefrom to this Court. The victim is the wife of a soldier at the time stationed at MacDill Field with night duty assignments. His wife was residing at Apartment No. 10 situated at 111 South Newport Street, Tampa, Florida. She visited among friends and returned to the apartment about 11:30 P. M.; failed to lock the entrance door to the apartment and retired. Her testimony discloses that she was raped by the appellant in her bed in the apartment between 1 and 2 A. M. November 11, 1941. The appellant worked as a waiter at a restaurant at MacDill Field and was there arrested on the afternoon of April 23, 1942.

The crime was reported to the policy officers, when a description of the assailant was obtained and a search by the officers instituted for the person answering the description. The husband of the victim took many of his meals where appellant was employed but failed to identify him by the given description. The victim ate a meal with her husband at the restaurant after she was assaulted and prior to the arrest of the appellant and told her husband that 'the waiter looked like her assailant', but it was lightly considered or disregarded by her husband.

Counsel for appellant pose for adjudication six questions. Three of these go to the legal sufficiency of the evidence adduced by the State to sustain the verdict. The fourth raises the question as to the admissibility into evidence over the objection of the defendant of a shoe alleged to have been owned by the appellant and subsequently found near the scene of the alleged crime. Questions five and six challenge the voluntariness of confessions alleged to have been made by the appellant to the officers concerning the crime after he was arrested.

Questions one, two and three may be considered under one assignment as they raise the question of the legal sufficiency of the testimony adduced by the State to sustain the verdict rendered, absent the challenged confessions, and in contradiction of the evidence offered by the appellant during the progress of the trial to sustain an alibi. The answer to these questions is found in the testimony. The record discloses that the victim was awakened around 1 o'clock A. M., and testified, 'I just felt like there was somebody in the room with me and I raised up and said 'Who is it?' and nobody answered and I said, 'Who is it?' And he said 'Don't move or I will shoot.' So then I raised up in the bed and he said, 'Don't you scream', and said 'If you scream I will kill you'. And I said, 'What are you going to do?' And he said, 'I am going to kiss you and am going to walk right out the door', and I started crying, and then he came right up to the bed to me, and so then, he leaned over and kissed me and he kept saying 'don't you scream, don't you scream, if you do, I will kill you'; so then he came on up and put a gun in my side, and then he came over and got up on the bed, and I kept using every excuse that I possibly could.'

'Q. Did he have intercourse with you then? A. Yes sir.

'Q. And then after he completed that act of intercourse, go ahead and state what happened? A. I got up and I said I had to go to the bathroom and he went with me and he told me that they called him 'White Joe', and that he had just gotten in from Atlanta that day, and he said, 'Do you have fun like this all of the time?' And so then he kneeled right in front of me in the bathroom and he had a knife in his hand; and then after I kept talking to him, telling him that my husband was coming home, he asked me what he did, and I told him that he was in the Army, and he asked me if he was working at MacDill or Drew, and I told him MacDill, and he asked me what my name was and I told him my maiden name; and so, I kept talking up to him and finally got him to the kitchen door, which was unlocked and kept talking to him and he made me promise that I would meet him on Wednesday night. This was early Tuesday morning.

'Q. In other words, this was Monday night and this happened on early Tuesday morning? A. About 1 o'clock early Tuesday morning.

'Q. He made you promise that you would meet him the following Wednesday night? A. That is right, and he asked me where to meet him and I told him I didn't know, that I had just been in Tampa a little while and he said to meet me on Cass Street Bridge at 7:30, and he said if you don't meet me there, there is no use for you to come back and go to bed, because I know where you are and there is no use to pull the shades down, because I know where you will be if you don't meet me there, and he told me that if I called the Police after he left my apartment that night, that he would come back and kill me.

'Q. During all of this conversation that you were having with him, you were standing, I believe you said, near the bathroom door towards the kitchen there? A. That is right.

'Q. Was there any light on in the house? A. Yes sir, and the street lights were shining in my apartment, and if you know these Newport Apartments there is a Court that goes all around it and the lights from the court were shining in the Apartment, and I got a real good look at him, and then I told him to let me see who I am meeting, so I will know who, and he opened the door and I got almost to his face and he said, 'No, I don't believe I will', and so after he got out of the door he went to my bedroom window and stood there and called me and whistled for me, and if I could have gotten to the the telephone right then, then the Cops could have caught him when he got there.

'Q. All together then he was in the house there about how long after you awakened? A. I imagine 10 or 15 minutes.'

On cross examination she testified:

'Q. When you saw him out at MacDill Field, what was he doing out there? A. Working in the P. X. out there.

'Q. Working where? A. In the Post Exchange.

'Q. And that was some two or three weeks before he was finally arrested? A. That was on Sunday before he was caught the next Thursday week.

'Q. On Sunday before he was arrested the following Thursday week? A. Yes sir.

'Q. Did you report to anyone at the time that you saw him at MacDill Field? A. No sir.

'Q. Did you report to anyone? A. Except my husband. He was sitting in front of the table, in front of me, and we were in there eating breakfast.

'Q. You don't know whether he reported that to the Police or not? A. I don't know.

'Q. Then, you and your husband waited more than a week before you ever reported to the Police that this man was working there at MacDill Field? A. We did not report it at all.

'Q. You did not report it at all? A. No Sir.

'Q. If you knew that this was the same man why did you not tell the Police? A.

I saw him as he passed by our table, and I just got a glimpse of him, and as he went by I said, 'Charlie, that looks like the negro', and he said, 'You are just imagining things.'

'Q. Mrs. Oakes, why was it that you did not tell the Police that this man was working there at the Post Exchange if you knew that he was the same man? A. I say I didn't get a good look at him. I got just a glance at him as he went by.

'Q. Then you were not certain that he was the same man? A. Not then, because I didn't get a good look at him.

'Q. Just when did you become certain that he was the same man? A. When I saw him in the line-up at the Police Station.

'Q. When was that? A. On Friday after he was caught on Thursday. I don't know the date.

'Q. You visit the MacDill Field? Your husband works out there, does he not? A. Yes sir.

'Q. You had been in the Post Exchange there with your husband a good many times, have you not? A. Not very many.

'Q. Well, you have been there some, haven't you? A. Yes sir.

'Q. You saw quite a number of colored boys working there, did you not? A. Yes sir.

'Q. Did you ever see this boy working there before? A. No sir.

'Q. Well, if it is established that he had a regular job there at the Post Exchange and that you have been going there with your husband, and that he was waiting on tables and doing things around there, then you would doubt about this being the same man, would you not? A. I was only out there one time after it happened and that was the Sunday that he passed by our table and I said that looks like the negro.

'Q. Mrs. Oakes, you are not certain that this is the negro boy that attacked you that night, are you? A. Yes sir, I am.

'Q. You are positive of that? A. I am positive.

'Q. You are sure that you could not be mistaken? A. No sir, I could not be.

'Q. Think about the condition and the situation there, it being a dark room that he came in when you saw him, and the situation and circumstances. You know Mrs. Oakes, that this is a case that is liable to result in this boy going to the electric chair, and you ought to be certain that he is the man? A. I am.

'Q. You are? A. Yes sir.

'Q. When was the last time you went to the Post Exchange before this happened? A. I don't know because I never did go out there unless maybe some Sunday afternoon maybe Charlie...