Matthews v. State, A-11210
| Decision Date | 03 May 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. A-11210,A-11210 |
| Citation | 218 P.2d 393,91 Okla.Crim. 285 |
| Parties | MATTHEWS v. STATE. |
| Court | United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Existence of specific intent to have carnal knowledge is essential to the offense of attempted first degree rape; and it is the province of the jury to determine whether it existed in defendant's mind when he committed the assault.
2. Under Tit. 21 O.S.1941 § 1113, proof of any penetration, however slight, of the body of the female, constitutes the crime of rape.
3. The fact that accused after penetrating the vagina of the female past the labium minus, did not force entrance past the hymen, does not disprove intent to rape in that the penetration accomplished constituted rape, and intent, under such facts, is implied as a matter of law.
Harry Seaton, Public Defender, Tulsa, for plaintiff in error.
Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen., Sam H. Lattimore, Asst. Atty. Gen., for plaintiff in error.
The defendant, Dero Matthews, was charged by information filed in the District Court of Tulsa County with the crime of attempted first degree rape, second offense. He was tried before a jury on October 1, 1948, found guilty of the charge, and his punishment assessed at sixty years in the State Penitentiary.
Appeal has been perfected to this Court. Counsel for defendant argues that there was not sufficient evidence to convict the defendant of the charge, but that the evidence was only sufficient to convict him of the lesser and included offense of sexual abuse of a female child, second offense.
It was stipulated by and between the attorney for the defendant and the attorneys for the State prior to trial, and on June 10, 1948, that on September 22, 1947, the defendant was convicted in the District Court of Oklahoma County of unlawfully abusing a female child, sexually, and was in that case sentenced to serve a term of one year in the State Penitentiary at McAlester.
The victim of this case was a young girl, Juanita Louise Druge. The act was alleged to have occurred on Sunday, the 25th day of April, 1948. We regret the necessity for reciting the evidence, but the nature of the charge, the evidence itself, and the severity of the punishment require the most careful consideration. The child testified that at the time of the tragedy she was living with her mother on Main Street, Tulsa; that she was riding around on her scooter and that down at the corner at the Rexall Drug Store, which was on the block across the street from her grandmother's home, the defendant accosted her, asked her name, the grade she was in, and what church she attended, and told her that he wanted to show her something; that she told the man she wanted to play and prepared to go, and he stated to her that he also wanted to play; that she started around the block on her scooter and he started around the other way, and that they next met in the middle of the block; that defendant pointed out some church steps by the side leading off the street; that she and defendant sat down on the steps side by side; that it was about five o'clock in the afternoon; that defendant took his privates out; that she saw them; that he tried to put his privates in her, though she stated that he did not pull her over on him or get on her, and she did not state how he managed this. She stated that it started to sprinkle rain; she got up and ran down the steps and went across the street to her grandmother's, left her scooter, and got her raincoat and started to go to her mother's place and it had stopped sprinkling and the defendant was on the porch of a vacant house across the street from her grandmother's and that the defendant beckoned for her to come over and she did, and he showed her an open window and wanted her to get in; that she attempted to duck under his arms and get away but he put her through the window, took her hand and led her in the kitchen and made her lie down on the floor, and that he got on top of her and put his private parts inside hers, but at first did not take off her panties, but did after a while; that it hurt when he put his weight on her, but did not hurt her much when he put his private parts in her; 'that after a while he wondered why something was not working, or something, and went to the bathroom.' She went with him and they came back down stairs and he again laid down on top of her; that she felt something against her private parts and that he put his private parts inside hers. That she then after a time told the defendant that she wanted to get up and go see what time it was, and he asked her to come back if it was not time for her to go. On cross-examination she stated that she had never seen a man's private parts prior to that day, and that they looked 'long and hairy.' She testified that she did not understand what an erection was.
On re-direct examination witness identified a dress, rain coat and panties as those worn by her at the time of the acts of defendant related, and that the dirt and black marks got on them on account of the dirty floor defendant laid her on.
Dr. Monty V. Stanley testified that he was a physician and that on the evening of April 25, 1948, at 6:15, he examined Juanita Louise Druge at the city jail at the request of the Policewoman on the Morals Squad. He testified, in part, as follows:
'
On cross-examination he testified, in part:
Mrs. Florence Druge testified that she was the mother of Juanita Louise Druge; that on Sunday, April 25, 1948, they lived at the Longfellow Apartments, 1019 South Main, Tulsa, that the Rexall Drug Store was about one-half a block distant; that the child's grandmother lived in the Tulsa Apartments, 9 West Ninth; that at about six o'clock in the afternoon of the day in question her daughter came in their apartment and that she noticed that her raincoat was quite dirty and that when her daughter took it off, she noticed that her dress was also dirty; that she questioned her as to the cause and was told by her that a man took her into the house where the Crows formerly lived, which was right across the street from 9 West Ninth; that witness immediately took the child and began a search for the man; that she went up to the old house and then started back home and just as they got across the street from the apartment her child said: 'That is the man.' She then identified the defendant as being the man pointed out by her daughter. The mother stopped the defendant and asked him whether he accosted her daughter and he said that he only spoke to her. She further testified that some of her neighbors talked with defendant until she got the police; that she thereafter went to the police station to have the child examined by Dr. Stanley.
Ray Page testified that he was...
To continue reading
Request your trial
- Roberson v. State, A-10978
-
Carter v. State, A-12397
...case would have been affirmed had some witness testified that the small girl who was examined was the girl involved. In Matthews v. State, 91 Okl.Cr. 285, 218 P.2d 393, the defendant made an assault on a young girl. The medical proof disclosed a Doctor made an external vaginal examination a......
-
Matthews v. Raines, A-12932
...and no different instructions were requested, in the motion for new trial, or petition in error filed in this Court. See Matthews v. State, 91 Okl.Cr. 285, 218 P.2d 393. The sole complaint there was as to the sufficiency of the evidence. The evidence would have supported a charge of first d......
-
Parkhill v. State, F--76--537
...or bedclothes, or touching her person is usually held sufficient to convict of assault with intent to commit rape. In Matthews v. State, 91 Okl.Cr. 285, 218 P.2d 393, this Court further held that it is seldom that a case can be found where a court can, as a matter of law, determine from the......