People v. Bowles

• Decision Date: 24 February 1960
• Docket Number: Cr. 1516
• Citation: 178 Cal.App.2d 317,2 Cal.Rptr. 896
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Willie Daniel BOWLES, Defendant and Appellant.

Page 896

2 Cal.Rptr. 896

178 Cal.App.2d 317

PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Willie Daniel BOWLES, Defendant and Appellant.

Cr. 1516.

District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, California.

Feb. 24, 1960.

Monroe & Chula, George H. Chula, James C. Monroe, Santa Ana, and Dean G. Mitchell, for appellant.

Stanley Mosk, Atty. Gen., and William E. James, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

GRIFFIN, Presiding Justice.

Defendant was charged in an information with six counts of incest and statutory rape committed upon his minor daughter on three separate occasions. He pleaded not guilty as to all counts and, after a jury trial, was found guilty as charged. Defendant's motion for a new trial was granted as to four counts occurring on January 3, 1958 and July 3, 1958 and denied as to the other two counts. An appeal was taken from the judgment of conviction as to the two remaining counts which were for incest and statutory rape alleged to have occurred on July 6, 1958.

The prosecutrix testified that when she was about ten years old she lived in Stockton with her father and stepmother and at that time her father, the defendant, asked her if she wanted to learn how to make money for new clothes. He told her that by acting as a prostitute she could get money the easy way. The defendant then had intercourse with his daughter and thereafter assisted her in the practice of prostitution and collected the money she thereby earned. This conduct continued for about two years. The defendant procured an abortion for the prosecutrix when she was twelve years old. Later defendant moved his daughter and her stepmother to Riverside County where they engaged in prostitution with the defendant's assistance. The prosecutrix then lived with other relatives in another state for a period of time but in 1957, when she was almost sixteen years old, she returned to live with defendant in his home in Santa Ana. At that time defendant told her that he would not touch her again but about two months later, at his insistence, she submitted to him and thereafter defendant had sexual relations with his daughter about twice a week. She testified that she remembered having sexual intercourse with defendant on January 3, 1958, July 3, 1958 and July 6, 1958. In January 1958, the prosecutrix discovered that she was pregnant, and upon discovering this, defendant sent the stepmother to Stockton to locate an abortionist. In May or June 1958, defendant rented an apartment in Long Beach where his daughter lived for a time. He told the landlady there that they were 'Mr. and Mrs.' and when the landlady asked if they had any children he replied, 'No, not yet.' The defendant told the witness Woods, a neighbor in Long Beach, that the prosecutrix was his wife. During a brief visit to the apartment early one Sunday morning, this same neighbor observed defendant on the bed, partially dressed, while prosecutrix was wearing a nightgown. During the conversation with the neighbor, defendant lay down on the bed and kissed the prosecutrix.

Shortly before July 3, 1958, prosecutrix returned to defendant's home in Santa Ana where prosecutrix testified he had intercourse with her on July 3 and July 6. The incident on July 6 was preceded by defendant's drinking a considerable amount of liquor, after which he became angry and discharged a firearm in the kitchen while his daughter was standing nearby.

On the next day, after a conversation with a neighbor, the prosecutrix complained to the police. An investigation by the police disclosed that a bullet had passed through a table leg and into the kitchen wall.

The defendant testified that he had never had intercourse with his daughter or assisted his daughter in prostitution. He testified that he was at a card party on the evening of July 3, 1958. Defendant also stated that his daughter sometimes lied and was not a good girl as far as boys were concerned. A police officer stated in rebuttal that on July 10, 1958 defendant told him that his daughter didn't lie and that she was a good girl and stayed home. The prosecutrix' stepmother testified that she had never seen defendant in bed with his daughter and that she had never seen them having intercourse. She also testified that the prosecutrix was familiar with servicemen and older men and that the defendant objected to this conduct. The stepmother's testimony was impeached by testimony of a policewoman and former deputy district attorney who stated that on July 10, 1958, at the district attorney's office, the stepmother had stated that defendant had intercourse with prosecutrix in Stockton in 1954, and that since November 1957 the defendant had been having intercourse with the prosecutrix. The stepmother had also said at that time that on July 6, 1958, she had seen them in bed together. It also appeared that at the municipal court office on the same day the stepmother had signed a verified complaint charging defendant with these same offenses.

Defendant makes six assignments of error: (1) that the trial court erroneously admitted evidence that defendant placed his daughter in prostitution; (2) that evidence of acts of incest other than those charged should not have been received; (3) that the prosecution committed prejudicial misconduct in cross-examining the stepmother; (4) that the court gave erroneous instructions concerning election of offenses; (5) that the court erred in instructing the jury that the defendant was prosecuted in the interests of the People of the State of California and not in the interests of any person injured; and (6) that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict.

In urging that the trial court erroneously admitted evidence that the defendant had assisted his daughter in acts of prostitution and received money earned thereby, defendant relies upon People v. Benoit, 1893, 97 Cal. 249, 250, 31 P. 1128. In that case the court held that evidence that a father received part of his daughter's earnings as a prostitute was entirely irrelevant at his trial for incest.

In People v. Sykes, 44 Cal.2d 166, 170, 280 P.2d 769, 770, the general test as to the admissibility of evidence of other offenses in a criminal case were stated to be:

"* * * does it tend logically, naturally, and by reasonable inference, to establish any fact material for the people, or to overcome any material matter sought to be proved by the defense? If it does, then it is admissible, whether it embraces the commission of another crime or does not, whether the other crime be similar in kind or not, whether it be part of a single design or not."

People v. Peete, 28 Cal.2d 306, 169 P.2d 924; People v. Moore, 48 Cal.2d 541, 546, 310 P.2d 969.

In People v. Sykes, supra, the defendant was charged with furnishing a minor with narcotics. Evidence that he had recruited the minor to commit acts of prostitution was held admissible as showing the motive for his gifts of narcotics to her. The dissenting opinion questioned the admissibility of the evidence of prostitution because there was insufficient evidence to show that the two ordinarily unrelated courses of criminal conduct were part of a common scheme or plan. This would also appear to be the rationale of People v. Benoit, supra.

In the instant case the evidence clearly shows that, at its inception, defendant's incestuous conduct was a part of a scheme or plan to induce or recruit his daughter to engage in prostitution for defendant's profit. Evidence of defendant's assistance in prosecutrix' acts of prostitution was therefore admissible.

Defendant's contention that the evidence of acts of incest other than those charged was improperly received is similarly without merit. Defendant cites People v. Smittcamp, 70 Cal.App.2d 741, 161 P.2d 983, in support of his contention that the evidence should not have been admitted. That case holds that it is error to instruct the jury that evidence of other acts of sexual intercourse between the prosecutrix and defendant was admissible to prove greater probability of the commission of the offenses charged where the prosecutrix' testimony as to other acts was uncorroborated. Here the prosecutrix' testimony of prior acts of...