People v. Richie

• Decision Date: 18 June 1925
• Docket Number: No. 16554.,16554.
• Citation: 148 N.E. 265,317 Ill. 551
• Parties: PEOPLE v. RICHIE et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

317 Ill. 551

148 N.E. 265

PEOPLE

v.RICHIE et al.

No. 16554.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 18, 1925.

Error to Circuit Court, Madison County; J. F. Gillham, Judge.

Murrell Richie and Emmett Courtway were jointly convicted of rape, and they bring error.

Reversed.R. W. Griffith and Wesley Lueders, both of Granite City (Jesse Peebles, of Carlinville, of counsel), for plaintiffs in error.

Oscar E. Carlstrom, Atty. Gen., Jesse R. Brown, State's Atty., of Edwardsville, Merrill F. Wehmhoff, of Decatur, and I. H. Streeper, of Alton, for the People.

DE YOUNG, J.

Murrell Richie and Emmett Courtway were jointly indicted at the May, 1924, term of the circuit court of Madison county for the rape of Elsie Tucker. By the jury's verdict they were found guilty and the punishment of each was fixed at 15 years in the penitentiary. Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were made and overruled and they were sentenced to the penitentiary. They prosecute this writ of error to review the judgment.

At the time of the trial Elsie Tucker, the prosecutrix, was 20 and both plaintiffs in error were 21 years of age, and all were unmarried and resided in Granite City. The prosecutrix lived with her five sisters and was employed in a real estate office. Richie worked for his father, who was a general contractor. Courtway was employed in a rolling mill. On the afternoon of August 27, 1924, Clyde Cottrell, a young man with whom the prosecutrix had been acquainted two or three years, called at her place of employment and invited her to attend a house party to be given that evening in East Granite. She accepted the invitation and he called at her home shortly after 7:30 o'clock in an automobile driven by Roy Koesterer, its owner. Two young women, Verna Webb and Pearl Dodson, accompanied them. The prosecutrix entered the car, and a little later a third young man, Henry Cuban, also joined the party. They drove to Niedringhaus and Madison avenues, where they met Richie in a Ford coup?e. He was a stranger to the prosecutrix. A conversation between the members of the company followed, in which it was stated that the house party would not be given, but it was suggested that they go to a private house in the country. After unsuccessfully seeking another young woman to accompany them in order that the party might have an equal number, they left for the country; Richie and the prosecutrix riding in the Ford coupé and the others following in Koesterer's car. They drove several miles from Granite City to a club or roadhouse called ‘Pete's Place.’ After arriving there, they sat on the front porch for a while, and later certain members of the party, if not all, went inside the house and danced and played musical instruments. Beyond this point the evidence is in conflict.

The testimony of Elsie Tucker, the prosecutrix, is, in substance: After the dancing had progressed for some time, one of the young women and Koesterer suggested that they return to Granite City. The five members of the party who had come in Koesterer's automobile returned in it. Richie and the prosecutrix followed in his coupé, but he soon stopped on the side of the road. She asked him to drive on, but he, despite her protests, took certain liberties. The endeavored to defend herself and succeeded in stepping upon the running board of the car, but he grabbed her by the hair, drew a gun and said if she stepped from the running board he would kill her. He dragged her back in the car, beat her, and then ravished her. She tried again to leave the automobile, but Richie held her and drove her back to Pete's Place. When they arrived there, Courtway, the other plaintiff in error, with whom she was not acquainted, came out of the roadhouse and told her that Richie said he would not take her home, but that he (Courtway) would do so. She told him she would walk, but he assured her he would take her back and assisted her to the seat in the coupé and started driving toward Granite City. She soon discovered Richie's revolverbehind the seat and threw it toward some water on the side of the road. When they approached a railroad crossing Courtway turned the car around, stating as his reason that Richie would object to his car being out so long and that he was going to take her back to the roadhouse. She tried to jump out of the automobile, but Courtway held her and drove into a side road, where he stopped. She asked him why, and he replied that he stopped for the same reason that Richie had done so. She resisted and succeeded in getting out of the automobile and started down the road, but Courtway pursued and overtook her, dragged her by the hair back to the car and threw her on the ground. She regained her feet, but he struck and pinched her and twisted her arms. While they were struggling, a truck approached, and as it passed he held his hand over her mouth and his arm around her neck to prevent an outcry. After the truck had gone, he threw her on the cushion which he had taken from the car and ravished her. She arose and started away, but he held her, put her back in the car and returned to Pete's Place. When they reached the roadhouse, Richie was in the yard. Courtway alighted from the car and Richie entered it and said he was going to take the prosecutrix home. She asked him to permit her to go, but he refused and started back with her. When they had gone a short distance, Richie reached back of the seat for his revolver, and, failing to find it, immediately returned to the roadhouse. Upon their arrival Courtway and Joseph Shadler were standing in the yard, and one of them inquired the cause of their return. Richie replied that his gun was gone and that he wanted it. A prolonged discussion followed, in which both plaintiffs in error sought to compel the prosecutrix to inform them where the gun could be found, but she refused. Courtway, Shadler, Pete, the proprietor of the roadhouse, Richie, and the prosecutrix started down the road to search for the revolver, the first three in one automobile and the other two in Richie's coupé. The search proved fruitless. Richie then said that he would take the prosecutrix home and report the loss of the gun, because it was insured and he had used it while employed by the federal government. When they approached Granite City, he stopped his car and forced the prosecutrix to submit to another attack. She inquired whether he subjected every girl to such treatment, and his reply was that he did. He then took her to her home, which they reached about 12:30 o'clock a. m. She entered the house and told her sister what had happened. On the following morning she returned to work, but was taken home at noon, after which she remained in bed for a week. The dress and undergarments which she testified she wore on the night in question were torn, and the latter showed blood stains, which she said resulted from the assaults. Late in the afternoon of the next day Dr. L. D. Darner was called.

Dr. Darner testified that he examined the prosecutrix and found several bruises on her wrists, arms, limbs, and things. The prosecutrix appeared to him to be in a very nervous state. He ordered her to rest and prescribed a sedative for her.

On behalf of the plaintiffs in error, Cottrell, Koesterer, Cuban, and Pearl Dodson testified that Richie remained at Pete's Place from the time of his arrival continuously until they left, shortly before 11:30 o'clock. These same witnesses and Shadler, Richie, and George Pool, formerly a police officer and deputy sheriff, testified that they did not see Courtway at the roadhouse on the night in question. Pool further testified that on the same evening he went to Pete's Place with a young woman named Marie Hart, who was looking for Shadler. They arrived about midnight and found Shadler there. Pool did not leave his automobile. He saw Richie, who was in his coupé with the prosecutrix and they were ready to leave. Richie asked Pool if he was going to town and whether Shadler could ride with him, and, upon receiving an affirmative answer, Shadler enteredPool's car. Richie started and said to Pool, ‘Follow me.’ He followed Richie closely all the way to Granite City, did not lose sight of him at any time, and saw him stop in front of the prosecutrix's home, where she left the car and entered the house. Pool drove slowly while Richie stopped to permit her to alight from his car, but Richie overtook him about a block and a half away. When the prosecutrix reached her home, she appeared the same as at the roadhouse. She had not been crying at that place, her hair was not disheveled, nor was her clothing torn.

Shadler testified that he arrived at the roadhouse on the evening of August 27, at about 7 o'clock, and remained there until midnight. After the party arrived, Richie sat on the porch and talked with him most of the time. He saw Richie and the prosecutrix leave in the former's coupé about 12 o'clock, and he corroborates Pool's testimony with reference to the return trip to Granite City, including Richie's stop at her home.

Richie testified that he had never visited the roadhouse before. The prosecutrix directed the way, and after reaching the house he spoke to her only infrequently, because he did not dance. He remained on the porch and did not go inside. His coupé was parked in front of the steps from the time he arrived until he left, at 10 minutes after midnight. At that time the prosecutrix came to him on the south end of the porch and asked, ‘Did they run off and leave me?’ Richie inquired, ‘Ain't they here?’ He then departed with her in his coupé. Pool's car followed all the way to Granite City and passed Richie as he stopped at the home of the prosecutrix to leave her there. He did not follow Koesterer's car on its return to Granite City, nor did he have a gun, nor did he ever assault the prosecutrix.

Courtway testified that on the night in question he visited Helen Hunt, a friend, who was ill at her home in St. Louis. He...