Lang v. State, 40098
| Decision Date | 14 May 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 40098,40098 |
| Parties | Theldor LANG v. STATE. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Jeff Collins, Luther Austin, Ronald C. Brown, Laurel, for appellant.
Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., by J. R. Griffin, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Theldor Lang, a Negro man, was convicted of the forcible rape of a white woman, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the state penitentiary. From the judgment entered, he appealed.
Mrs. Edna Earle Dreding, twenty years of age, was living with her year old baby girl in a duplex apartment in the City of Laurel. Her husband was a sailor in the United States Navy, stationed in the City of Boston. According to her evidence, on the evening of August 4, 1954, she and her daughter went to a picture show, returning home about 11:45 o'clock. The door was locked as she entered the house, and the baby was placed in her crib at the foot of the bed. She then undressed and retired. About thirty minutes later, she was awakened by someone touching her on the leg. Before her stood a man with a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in the other. On asking what he wanted, his answer--vulgar and unprintable slang, sometimes seen on the walls of unkempt public urinals and toilets--demanded sexual intercourse with her. She asked him to leave, promising that she would say nothing about his being in the house, if he would do so. But he informed her that, if she did not do as he wanted, he would hurt her baby; and that his buddy had the baby in another room. He then flashed the light into the crib, and she saw that the baby was gone. Immediately she asked him to bring her baby back. He then took a step or two as if to go, but stopped and said, 'That's your choice.' Then out of fear both for herself and the baby, she consented to his demands on his promise that he would not hurt her. He told her to take her pants off; and when she did so, he got on top of her. He was holding the gun to her head with his right hand, and put the light down for a minute. After 'he got through', he got up, stood there a minute, and told her not to make any sound. When she asked him to bring her baby back, he went through the living room, got the baby, and put her in the bed. As he walked through the door between the bedroom and living room, he stopped, flashed the light into her eyes, and told her not to move or get up or try to get help because he or his buddy would be watching her. She estimated that the man was in the house from thirty to forty-five minutes. After he left, she sat on the bed for about thirty minutes and then got up and closed the door, observing at the time that a screen was off the window in the living room. At that juncture, she went to the bathroom and took a douche with the usual syringe, and lysol as medication. Afterwards she put on a pair of blue jeans and sat in the doorway of the room, giving as her reason that she was afraid because her assailant said that he would kill her or the baby, if she made an outcry. She explained that the doors into the other apartment were locked, and the knobs had been taken off; and her telephone was on the couch, near the living room window. Because of fear, she refrained from the use of the telephone or an attempt to attract the attention of the family in the other apartment. When daylight came, she took the baby and went in her car across town to the home of a brother, Petro Williams, where she made complaint as to what had occurred. She was asked why she let her assailant have intercourse with her, and she replied that she was afraid that he would hurt the baby.
Mrs. Dreding testified that the night was neither dark nor light; that a street light was only about one and a half blocks away; that she opened the window blinds after she went to bed, in order to let the breeze in; and that she was able to see her assailant. She got a good view of his profile. He was a light colored Negro man, about 5 feet 2 to 6 inches tall, weighing 130 to 135 pounds, with hair receding from his forehead, and a sort of slump in his walk. Besides he had an educated voice and a sweet strong odor as if cologne or toilet soap or something of that kind was on him. She did not see this man again until the following July near the post office, and later at the police station, when she was able to identify him by his walk, talk, features, and looking at him.
Mr. and Mrs. Petro Williams testified that when the prosecutrix got to their home about daybreak, she was extremely upset, crying, and trying to tell them what had happened to her, and that she did tell them that she had been raped. Her complaint was also made to several officers, who were speedily summoned, and they likewise observed her nervous and upset condition. The chief of police went to the apartment where he found that a screen had been removed from the window, and a water bag and douche nozzle were lying in the bathtub. Mrs. Dreding's billfold was found under a truck near the Masonite plant.
A police officer stated that he lifted fingerprints from the window, but all of them were unsatisfactory except about one. It developed that the defendant, along with several others, was picked up the next day and was fingerprinted; but after a comparison of his prints with the ones which had been taken from the window, he was released without being submitted to the prosecutrix for identification.
The defendant testified for himself, and denied any knowledge of the crime. He claimed that he worked that night on the 11:00 p. m. to 7:00 a. m. shift at the Mengel plant, which was about two blocks from the Masonite plant. It developed that he is a college graduate, and had taught school for several years. He had worked at the Laurel General Hospital from August 15, 1952 until July 3, 1953. He denied that he used perfume on his body about the time of this alleged offense, or at any time prior thereto; but admitted that, after he began working for Office Supply Company, several months later, he did use it to keep the odor down. The work records of Mengel were offered in evidence to show that the defendant worked that night on this particular shift; but the custodian thereof had no personal knowledge as to whether the defendant actually worked during those hours. He stated that sometimes an employee would exchange shifts with another. The foreman of the shift had no personal recollection as to whether the defendant worked on that particular night shift.
In rebuttal, L. O. Ritchie testified that the defendant worked under him at Laurel General Hospital for the period mentioned above; and that during that time, the defendant habitually had a sweet smelling, sickening odor of perfume about him all of the time. C. E. Pulliam testified that he worked on the 11:00 p. m. to 7:00 a. m. shift that night, and that the defendant did not work on that shift, but on the previous one, that is, from 3:00 to 11:00 p. m. Glenn Holifield,...
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