Ingram v. Com.

• Decision Date: 08 October 1951
• Docket Number: No. 3873,3873
• Citation: 66 S.E.2d 846,192 Va. 794
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: ALPHONSO INGRAM v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA. Record

Page 846

66 S.E.2d 846

192 Va. 794

ALPHONSO INGRAM v.COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA.

Record No. 3873.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia

October 8, 1951.

Reuben E. Lawson, for the plaintiff in error.

J. Lindsay Almond, Jr., Attorney General, and Frederick T. Gray, Assistant Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.

JUDGE: SPRATLEY

SPRATLEY, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

Alphonso Ingram, plaintiff in error, a young Negro man twenty years of age, has been convicted of an attempted rape, and sentenced to thirty years in the penitentiary in accordance with the verdict of a jury.Section 8-491, Code of Virginia, 1950.

He asks us to reverse the judgment against him on the sole ground that the evidence was insufficient to justify the jury in finding that he attacked the prosecutrix with the intent to commit rape.His assignments of error relating to the refusal of the trial court to give certain instructions were abandoned at the bar of this court.

The evidence of the Commonwealth shows the following facts:

On the night of August 14, 1950, Mrs. Beasley, a young white woman, eighteen years of age, was alone, except for the presence of her month-old daughter, at her home in Montgomery county, Virginia, on the outskirts of the city of Radford.Her husband, M. H. Beasley, left their home about 2:30 that afternoon to go to his employment at the Radford Arsenal, where he worked on the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift.Between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m., when Mrs. Beasley was in bed asleep, she was awakened by a knock on her front door.The knock was very soft, similar to that usually made by her husband upon his return home.Dressed in her night clothes, she arose, put on a robe, turned on the lights in her kitchen, hall and living room, and went to her front door.The rooms were closely connected and the living room opened on the front porch by means of a glass panelled door.The door was equipped with a shade, which was drawn about half-way down.She saw a man from his chest down standing in front of the door.He was dressed in a white T shirt and dark trousers.Her husband having worn a white T shirt and dark dungaree trousers when he went to work that afternoon, she assumed he was returning.Asked what took place, she testified as follows:

'* * * So when I opened the door and Alphonso Ingram was standing in the doorway.I didn't have the screen between the door and all --

'Q.No screen between you?

'A.No, sir.

'Q.All right.Now how close did he come, when you opened the door, towards you?

'A.He was standing right in the doorway, just right out on the front porch.

'Q.Was the light shining there clearly?

'A.Yes, sir; I had three lights on.The place was as light as day.

'Q.And were you facing him?

'A.Yes, sir.

'Q.Now tell the Court and jury what conversation, if any, took place between you and this party you call Alphonso Ingram.

'A.Alphonso Ingram asked me, when I opened the door, if this was where the Beasleys lived; and I said, 'Yes; that it was.'And he said, 'Does Mr. Beasley want to sell his car?'And I told him that I didn't know about that, that he would have to see my husband.And he said, 'Is your husband home at the time?'And I said, 'No,' without thinking.And I added that he would be back there in ten minutes, although I knew that he wouldn't be back for two and a half or maybe three hours.

'Q.All right.Then what happened?

'A.Immediately after I spoke telling him that my husband would not be back for ten minutes, he lunged at my throat and grabbed me with both hands and started choking me.

'Q.Did he knock you over any place?

'A.He knocked me over a chair that was sitting near the door in my living room; and I screamed once good.

'Q.Now how did he have you, and just tell the Court and jury exactly how it was.

'A.He had -- he was pressing here (indicating) and he had both thumbs pressing on my windpipe here (indicating).

'Q.Did he get his hands over your month?

'A.Yes, sir; after I screamed the first time, why, he got one hand over my mouth, but he still had me with the other hand by the neck.

'Q.After you screamed the first time he got his hand over your mouth, you say?

'A.That's correct.

'Q.Did you scream any more?

'A.Yes, sir; I screamed a muffled scream while he had his hand over my mouth; and then I screamed another time after I had freed my mouth from his hand.

'Q.All right.Then what happened; did you hear anything else?

'A.I heard my neighbor, Mrs. Tinley, that lives right across the little lane from my home, I heard her scream 'Patricia' I'll be there in a minute.'And I saw her bedroom light come on.

'Q.Was he there at the time?

'A.Yes, sir; he was there.

'Q.All right; heard Mrs. Tinley say 'Patricia, I'll be there in a minute'?

'A.That's right.

'Q.All right.

'A.And I saw her bedroom light come on, and --

'Q.And what was Alphonso Ingram doing all this time?

'A.He was choking me.

'Q.All right.

'A.And she -- and when she said, 'Patricia, I'll be there in a minute,'he -- the door was partly closed; he had pushed it open and it was partly closed at the time -- and he opened the door enough for him to run; and he jumped down off of my front porch and ran around the house.

'Q.Was that right after Mrs. Tinley had yelled, 'Patricia, I'll be there in a minute'?

'A.Yes, sir; yes, sir.

'Q.What bruises were on your face or neck, or wherever it was?

'A.There was plenty of dirt on my neck, long smears of black dirt on both sides of it.And then on this side the skin had been pulled up into a large blue and red welt (indicating) starting about the lobe of my ear and coming down to about the center of my neck.And that mark was on my neck the next morning when I came over here to swear out the warrant for Alphonso Ingram; it had turned black.

'Q.What did you do then when, or after Alphonso Ingram jumped out and left you and went off the porch?

A.Well, by that time, or in just a very short while, Mr. and Mrs. Tinley were with me; and she called the Radford Police.

'Q.Mrs. Tinley called the police?

'A.Yes, sir; I wasn't able to call them; I couldn't hardly speak

'Q.All right.And then what took place?

'A.The City Patrolmen came over, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Knowles, and I gave them the description of the man that had attacked me.'

Following Mrs. Beasley's report and description of her attacked to the police, two State troopers, the chief of police of Radford and two patrolmen, armed with a search warrant, went to the home of Alphonso Ingram, distant a mile or less from the Beasley home.The officers arrived there about 10:00 o'clock p.m. Ingram came to the door dressed in a white T shirt and dark trousers, and was promptly arrested.He denied his guilt, and then asked, 'Has somebody stole something?'He said something about getting a hat to wear and the chief of police seeing a cap hanging on the wall, told him to put it on.This was done, and Ingram was taken to the front porch of Mrs. Beasley's home.The porch light was on, and there were lights shining on the porch from cars parked near the house, so that he could be seen clearly.Mrs. Beasley was called from a neighbor's home across the street.She came to within a foot of Ingram, and positively identified him as the man who made the attack upon her.

Upon his trial the defendant denied that he had ever been to the house of Mrs. Beasley, denied that he had ever seen her, or that he knew where she lived.He sought to establish an alibi.He told the police, at the time of his arrest, that he had been at his home in bed from five or five-thirty p.m. until they arrived.The officers said that he did not have the appearance of a man who had been asleep.At his trial he testified that he returned home about seven forty-five p.m., talked for a while with his wife and some of his kindred who were present, became tired, went to bed, and remained there until the officers arrived.

The Commonwealth's evidence disclosed that about 6:05 p.m. on the evening of the attack, Ingram tried to cash a check at Smith's Store about two blocks from Mrs. Beasley's home.At that time he had on a baseball cap and a dirty white T shirt.

F. G. Stewart, a colored man, who operated a garage about 300 yards from Mrs. Beasley's home, saw Ingram in the driveway of that garage between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m.

Mrs. B. H. Reed, whose home is about 400 feet from the Beasley home, testified that the defendant, whom she had known for eight years, came to her back door about 8:30 p.m. and knocked.She was in her lighted living room with her daughter and the latter's two children at the time.She went to the back door, turned on the outside light over Ingram's head and opened the door, leaving the outside screen door closed.Ingram was dressed in a white T shirt, blue pants and a cap.Ingram asked her for a jack.She told him she did not have one, and he left.Mrs. William Roop, the daughter of Mrs. Reed, corroborated the testimony of her mother.

The husband of Mrs. Beasley said that on the afternoon of August 14, 1950, as he was waiting on the side of the road, near the home of Mrs. Reed, to get a ride to his work, Alphonso Ingram, whom he had known for two or three years, passed him in a car, looked at hime as he passed and looked back towards him after he passed.He further stated that about the last of May, 1950, he'picked up' Alphonso and another boy in his car and took them to a filling station; that Alphonso asked him if he would sell his car; and that he replied he would if he could get a good price for it.

Ingram denied being at Smith's store, Stewart's garage, or Mrs. Reed's home.He said that he did not go to anybody's house and ask for a jack; did not own an automobile; had no need for a jack; did not ride in Beasley's car in May or ask him about his car; and did not see Beasley on the afternoon of August 14th.He stated that his brother, Albert, told him he had talked to Beasley about the...