Syllabus by the Court
1. "A conviction may be lawfully had upon a free and voluntary confession though the same be not otherwise corroborated than by proof of the corpus delicti." Wimberly v. State, 105 Ga. 188, 31 S.E. 162.
2. Here the evidence authorized a finding that there was a free and voluntary confession; and the confession was corroborated, not only by proof of the corpus delicti, but also by other circumstances among which was the identification, by the victim of the assault with intent to rape, of the defendant as the person who committed the same upon her.
3. The evidence authorized the verdict.
Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; Frank A. Hooper, Judge.
E. C. Largin was convicted of assault with intent to rape, and he brings error. Affirmed.
The defendant, E. C. Largin, was indicted and convicted of the crime of assault with intent to rape. He made a motion for a new trial on the general grounds only. This motion was overruled and to this judgment he excepted.
The victim of the alleged assault with intent to rape testified on direct examination: "I am now twelve years old. I go to Humphries School at Orchard Knob, and went to school there last November. I saw this boy right here [referring to the defendant] that afternoon [November 20, 1946]. I don't know his name. I saw him when he got me on Brown Mill Road. I had my book satchel and books. This man was driving a light green automobile. He said, 'Get in and shut up, ' and I got in. I ran to get in a driveway but I didn't get to the driveway. He put me in the car and started out. I said I didn't want to ride and he said, 'Shut up.' Then he made me slip over next to him and put my books on the other side. He got vaseline out of the
pocket and put it on my privates and made me lie down in the car--told me to lie down and put vaseline on me. He drove over there close to the school; all around the block. He did not put any of this vaseline on hisself. After he put this vaseline on me he sucked my privates. That was down below the schoolhouse. Before that he put his hand under my dress. After that we went on down the road and turned up the dirt road. I don't know the name of the road we stopped on first; it is close to the schoolhouse. I don't know the name of the road we stopped on the next time--the dirt road. I showed the two officers the roads out there. When he got on the dirt road he stopped his automobile again. I couldn't get out of the car when he first picked me up because he didn't have any handle on the door. On the second stop, on the dirt road, he done put his mouth on my privates. He never got out of the car. I saw his private parts. Then he told me to get up on his lap, set on it; I don't know why and he didn't tell me why. I told him, 'No, ' and he just said, 'Shut up.' Then he opened the door and let me out. I looked around and ran down the road and come to Mrs. Dykes' house and told her to call mother. I was crying then. I fell on the porch step. My father came after me. The first and second time he stopped he put his private parts between my legs. I saw the officers when they came up to the house. I don't know when they were called. I think Mrs. Dykes' sister called them. I don't know when it was I went with the officers to show them where all this occurred. My father went with me and the officers on this trip. The upholstering was torn around the handle. I don't know what type of automobile it was. I told the officers about the condition of this door of the automobile."
On cross-examination she described the locality in which the defendant picked her up and the route he took on the occasion in question and testified further: "He [the defendant] was on the opposite side of the street from what I was on. * * * He said, 'Come here.' I said, 'No.' He said, 'Come here and shut up.' * * * I crossed the road, * * * He was fixing to stop the car. I guess I was scared be-cause he talked so smart--he told me to get in and shut up. * * * I don't know what made me run across Brown Mill Road to get in the car. * * * I told the police officer who came out there that afternoon, when I was describing the man, the kind of clothes he was wearing, told them how old I thought he was, and how tall I thought he was and what he looked like. * * * When I was telling the two uniformed officers that came out there that afternoon how this man looked and how old he was I saw them writing down what I said, and my father was there at the time. I told the officers at that time that the man that picked me up was between thirty and thirty-five years old. My father is thirty-eight. The man that picked me up didn't look quite as old as my father. * * * Two officers showed me some pictures up at the police office. * * * I didn't identify anybody from those pictures here at the courthouse. Later some officer had a picture out at the schoolhouse. * * * I saw one picture that I thought looked like the man that picked me up. [This picture was not the defendant.] [Brackets ours.] * * * I remember at the time that I rode in the defendant's automobile that the handle was off the door on the right-hand side, " She identified a picture of the inside of the car of the defendant as being the car in which he picked her up on the occasion in question and identified a picture of the.inside of a right-hand automobile door, which showed the upholstering torn and which had the handle missing, as being that of the car in question.
Upon the child being released from the car, she, nervous and crying, went to a neighbor's house and told what had happened to her. The neighbor notified the child's father who came and took her in his arms, carried her home and sent for the mother. Both the father and mother said that she was crying and nervous. The mother examined the child and found vaseline upon her private parts as stated by the child in her testimony.
Lt. J. W. Gilbert of the Fulton County Police Department, who was sent to investigate the assault with intent to rape
stated that he carried the child to Grady Hospial for an examination, and testified: "She was nervous and upset. * * * She said there was a man in a faded out green automobile or old automobile had picked her up at the corner of Cleveland and Brown Mill Road and we took her with her father in the car. She showed us the route he had taken, out Brown Mill to Mc-Williams Road, out McWilliams Road to Jonesboro Road, back Jonesboro Road to Orchard Knob and back by her school-house, and stopped about one hundred yards below the school. I asked her what he did. She said he put vaseline on her and put vaseline on hisself; that he tried to set her down on his privates and tried to push it in her. * * * The little girl told us the color of his hair as dark, sandy hair. She was excited and I tried to get the best description I could. He had on army pants but she wasn't certain about the shirt. She said he was driving an old dilapidated green automobile. * * * We had a lookout put out for a dark brown haired man. She said dark brown or sandy hair. * * * [She] said it was combed straight back, I think."
Miss Judy Jones, sworn for the State, testified as follows: "I am eleven years old. [On or about December 1, 1946.] a grown man offered me and group of other little girls two dollars to come there. That was out near Judge Moore's old home. It was just a little dirt road we were playing on. I see that man in the court room that said something to us--the red-head right there [referring to the defendant]. This was in the afternoon. He was driving a dark green car. He didn't have his car with him. He came out of the woods as we left and followed us on this dirt road a little piece. He offered us two dollars to come there, and I wasn't quite sure about what he said to us, except that he offered us two dollars and said something about working or coming there or something. I didn't do anything when he offered us the two dollars. The little ones wanted to go there and I wouldn't let them. I made them go home. None of the children went to him when he offered the two dollars. One went a little piece and I made her go back. Hedropped some of the money on the ground. He was quite a fur piece from us. I saw some police officers out there that day. They were turning around on the end of the road when he was talking to us and they stopped us when we got almost home and we talked to them. This defendant ran off in the woods when he saw them, at least he walked off. I didn't see whether he went back to his automobile or not. * * * There were about five other children there. [One 9, one 7, one 5, one 3, and one 2, years old.] We were all together. The defendant never got any closer to us than the back of this court room at any time. * * * I identified this defendant when I saw him in the custody of the police officers."
On December 1, 1946, following the incident above testified by Judy Jones, the defendant was immediately carried to the County police office, and was questioned by Captain of Detectives P. F. Bradford of the Fulton County Police,...
