Owen v. People, 20623
| Decision Date | 18 May 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 20623,20623 |
| Citation | 155 Colo. 19,392 P.2d 163 |
| Parties | Nathan Wendle OWEN, Plaintiff in Error, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Defendant in Error. |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
William L. Rice, Denver, for plaintiff in error.
Duke W. Dunbar, Atty. Gen., Frank E. Hickey, Deputy Atty. Gen., Aurel M. Kelly, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for defendant in error.
An information in three counts was filed in the district court of Larimer County against the plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, in which it was alleged that on January 10, 1961, he committed the crimes of statutory rape, incest, and taking indecent liberties with the person of a child under the age of sixteen years. The three charges involve the same child and a single incident. The defendant entered a plea of not guilty, waived a jury trial, was found guilty on all three counts by the court, and was sentenced to terms in the penitentiary which were to run concurrently.
As grounds for reversal of the judgments it is argued, inter alia, that there was no evidence presented upon the trial that any of the crimes alleged to have been committed by the defendant in fact occurred, except the statements and confession of the defendant with regard thereto, and that said statements and confession were not in any particular whatever corroborated by any other evidence admitted upon the trial.
The pertinent time table of events is as follows:
Date of alleged crimes, January 10, 1961.
Date of oral confession, February 2, 1962.
Date of written confession, February 3, 1962.
Information filed, February 6, 1962.
On May 28, 1961, Jerra Lee Owen, the fifteen year old daughter of the defendant, was found dead in her bed in the home of the defendant. She had been raped and beaten. The testimony established the cause of death to be cerebral hemorrhage and shock inflicted by some person who committed the rape. The evidence was that she died at approximately 1:30 A.M., May 28, 1961. The deceased child is the same person named as the victim in the information in this case.
The record before us does not disclose what happened in the way of investigation by the authorities immediately following the discovery of the body of the said child.
In October, 1961, a change in the administration of the local police department took place, and a new investigation of the homicide was undertaken. The defendant submitted to three separate polygraph tests conducted by the Denver police department pursuant to the request of Larimer county...
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