Hamer v. State

• Decision Date: 08 July 1912
• Parties: HAMER v. STATE
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

150 S.W. 142

104 Ark. 606

HAMER v. STATE

Supreme Court of Arkansas

July 8, 1912

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Appeal from Jackson Circuit Court; R. E. Jeffery, Judge; affirmed.

STATEMENT BY THE COURT.

Appellant Vol Hamer, was indicted for the crime of rape, alleged to have been committed upon the person of Charlie Holder, a seventeen-year-old girl. She was the half-sister of appellant's wife, and had been living with them since she was a small girl. His wife was sick and away from home at the time, leaving there appellant, Charlie Holder, and two of the children.

On the morning of the day upon which the rape was committed, in the evening, appellant sent these two children to the home of Will Beard, the brother of Charlie Holder. She went to church with Crawford Blakeley and Jesse Churchill, in a buggy, and returning in the afternoon, got out of the buggy at appellant's home at about 5 o'clock. Blakeley left his coat with her to be called for on his return, as he had to take the buggy to town and walk back, after taking Miss Churchill home. She went from there to the McNeeces to take supper with them, and appellant was also there. They ate supper, and then went back to appellant's house after sundown. She put away the milk and let down the windows and shut the doors on account of a storm approaching and then went to the room occupied by her regularly to retire. Appellant said he believed he would go to bed and went to his room.

The prosecuting witness said that, after she had gone to bed appellant came into her room in his night shirt and asked her to scratch his back, giving no reason why, but she knew he had been hauling logs and thought he had gotten chiggers on him. She got up and was sitting on the side of the bed, and he was kneeling down by the side of it, and she scratched his back. He said nothing afterwards, but grabbed her and threw her back on the bed, and then got on the bed with her. She remonstrated with him, begged him to turn her loose, reminded him of his wife and children, and told him that he ought to be ashamed of himself, and he said, "Damn them, I don't care anything about them or anybody else." He was over her at the time, and had hold of her hands, and she was lying on her back and fighting him and trying to get away. After the struggle, she turned faint and sick, and he carried her out into a little hall, and put her in a chair and went to his room for some camphor. She tried to get out of the front door, but he heard her and came back and jerked her loose from the door, and set her down in the chair, and then carried her on to the back porch. He rubbed the camphor on her face, and when she felt better he carried her back into his room, threw her on the bed and ravished her again. She stated that she resisted and fought all she could, and was trying to scream and make an outcry during the whole time, and "when I said he raped me I meant he had sexual intercourse with me. Yes sir, a part of his person entered my person. I finally got away from him, and went out into the little hall, and he asked me if I was going to tell it. I told him I didn't know but what I would. He said, 'Are you going to tell Will?' and before I had time to answer he said: 'If you tell anybody, I will kill you,' and told me to go to bed. Will Beard is my half-brother. I went back to bed in my own room because I was scared not to, stayed in there a few minutes, went back on the back porch to get a drink of water, and thought I would run off to Will's. He wanted to know who it was as I went by the door, and I told him. He asked what I was doing, and I told him I was getting a drink of water, and he told me to go back to bed. I went back to bed, and later got up and went out in the hall, and stood there a while and listened until he was asleep, and then went out in the back yard and on over to Will's. I didn't have on anything, except some stockings and my night gown." She passed two other houses in going to her brother's, and upon arrival there appeared very much agitated, and told her brother and his wife that Vol had ruined her. Will Beard and his wife, and Crawford Blakeley who was staying at Beard's house, and the prosecuting witness went to Frank Parrish's, where she stayed, while the others went to town. She remained in bed until Tuesday afternoon. She stated: "The places where I was hurt when Vol Hamer was trying to have sexual intercourse with me were a place on my right arm up above my elbow, a blue spot on my throat where he choked me, and a blue spot over my left breast up above the breast, and some of my ribs on my right side were fractured, and my left hand was hurt, and my female organs were hurt."

Doctor Willis testified that he had been in the practice for twenty-six years, and had known Charlie Holder since she was a little girl; that he examined her on Monday morning, July 18; her pulse was 109, the normal being 72 to 74, and her temperature was below normal. "She was cold. I found a bruise over her left breast. It was blue, swollen and discolored some. After getting a history of the case, when I started to make an examination of the genital organs, I noticed there was some blood running from them. I examined inside the vagina by using the speculum, and there I found lacerations in the lining of the vagina; it was torn and bloody, and back in the vagina I found some semen that I removed, and examined some of it under a microscope and found it contained male spermatozoa. Yes, sir; there was something there to indicate sexual intercourse: the male spermatozoa and the lacerated condition of the lining of the vagina. I believe the left side was bruised. She complained of considerable pain in the left side. The hymen was perforated and open. On the 20th her temperature was still above 100, and her pulse 98. Upon a closer examination, I found a fracture of the sixth rib on the same side as the breast was bruised on." The doctor said some of the spermatozoa was still alive, he thought.

Will Beard's wife stated that she and her husband returned home Sunday night, with Hamer's two little girls, shortly after the night service, about 10 or 11 o'clock, and found Crawford Blakeley in bed. That, while Will was still at the barn unhitching the horses and she was just ready to go to bed, Charlie Holder came in. That she was in her night gown, and looked like she was scared nearly to death. She reported what had taken place. The next morning Mrs. Beard examined her clothes, and found what looked to be three or four spots of blood.

Appellant testified that he and Charlie Holder ate supper at the McNeeces's on Sunday evening. That he had taken his two children to Will Beard's that morning to go to church with them, and that soon after supper Charlie Holder remarked that they would better go home and let down the windows, and McNeece and his wife said that it would be a good while before the storm broke, and they stayed and talked for something like an hour. That she persisted in going, and got up and started to go, although Mrs. McNeece insisted on her staying all night, to which she replied that she couldn't; that she had to go home and get breakfast, "and I said that she could stay all night if she wanted to, and I would get breakfast myself or could come down there. She wouldn't stay; so we went home, and when we got there she asked me if I had a match, and I got one and lighted the lamp in her room. I then lighted the lamp in my room. It was thundering and lightening, and I disconnected the telephone to keep it from burning out the batteries, and then went to my room, and pulled off my shoes and clothes, and went to bed, and the next thing I knew I heard some one knocking on the door at sunrise. I told them to come in, and, as my pants were lying on the trunk at the right of the door as you come into my room, I got there and looked around the corner, and saw Mr. Neal. I knew he was the sheriff, and I couldn't imagine what he was doing there unless it was to summon me for a witness in the Will Beard and Annie Beard case. And pretty soon after I looked out Will Beard drawed a gun on me, a pistol, and I didn't know what to think about it. I stood there a moment, and I saw he was going to shoot. I jumped or dodged back, and as I stepped back he shot, and the bullet went into the door facing even with my ear, and Sheriff Neal came on up to the door, and I asked him what was the matter, and he told me to consider myself under arrest, and I told him: "All right." I was not in Charlie Holder's room any more after I lighted the lamp. Did not go in there and ask her to scratch my back. Did not go in her room any more that night. Did not ravish her or take her in my room and ravish her at that time or at any time during the night. Did not grab her and throw her back on the bed and rape her. Did not carry her out in the hall or bathe her face with camphor, or pull her back from the front door. If she tried to get out of the front door, I did not know anything about it. I didn't know she was up at all. Did not have anything to do with Charlie Holder in the way of carnal knowledge or intercourse that night or any time. Was not off the bed at all from the time I went to bed until the sheriff came. Never had sexual intercourse with her. Did not take hold of her, or choke her, or put my hand over her mouth, or tell her not to holler."

Some remarks of the prosecuting attorney were objected to and objections were also made to the testimony of Charlie Holder that she made complaint of the crime to her brother's wife and stated that Vol Hamer had ruined her.

The jury returned the following verdict: "We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of assault and attempt to rape and fix his punishment at ten years in the penitentiary. G. H....