People v. Walker
| Decision Date | 30 April 1957 |
| Docket Number | Cr. 1133 |
| Citation | 310 P.2d 110,150 Cal.App.2d 594 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of California, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Jack James WALKER, Defendant and Appellant. |
Monroe & Chula, Santa Ana, for appellant.
Edmund G. Brown, Atty. Gen., Clarence A. Linn, Asst. Atty. Gen., John S. McInerny, Deputy Atty. Gen., Robert P. Kneeland, Dist. Atty., (Orange County) and Kenneth Williams, Deputy Dist. Atty., Santa Ana, for respondent.
Defendant was accused in an Information of two counts of rape, Pen.Code, Sec. 261, subd. 4; two counts of kidnapping, Pen.Code Sec. 207; and one count of burglary Pen.Code, Sec. 459. A jury trial resulted in a verdict finding the defendant guilty on all counts. His motion for a new trial and application for probation were denied and he was sentenced to State's prison. The sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict is not questioned and defendant relies on claimed errors in the conduct of the trial as grounds for reversal of the judgment.
On March 26, 1955, the prosecuting witness, Donna Schurr, who was then about 18 years old, was working part-time at the snack bar of a drive-in theatre near Garden Grove in Orange county. At about 11:30 p. m., when she had finished work, and after having some difficulty in starting her car, she started to drive to her home in Garden Grove. When she was several blocks from her home, the defendant, who was hidden behind the front seat in the car, placed a knife at her throat and forced her to drive to a lonely road several miles from Garden Grove. During this drive, the defendant kept the knife at Donna's throat and told her where to drive the car. She tried unsuccessfully to attract the attention of a passing motorist. Defendant told her he had been watching her for a long time and had seen her in a beauty contest in Balboa. However, Donna did not know the defendant and had never been on a date with him. After he had forced her to drive to the lonely road, he forced her to kiss him while he fondled her body. He then ordered her to get in the back seat of the car and there accomplished an act of sexual intercourse with her. He drove back to the theatre, where he got out of the car, warned her not to try to follow him, and ran off into the darkness. She tried unsuccessfully to start her car to follow him and then jumped out and ran after him. She stopped a passing car and asked the woman driving it to help her catch the defendant. Donna told the woman (Mrs. Parker) that she had just been raped by the man in the car ahead. They tried to follow the defendant but were unable to overtake him. Mrs. Parker took Donna to the Orange county sheriff's office, where she reported the rape. At that time both Mrs. Parker and one of the officers noticed four or five marks on Donna's throat where the skin was broken and on one mark there was blood showing. One of the officers them drove Donna back to the theatre where her car was parked and found it was necessary to push it to get it started.
On or about October 17, 1955, at about 11:00 p. m., one of Donna's neighbors received a telephone call from her informing him that someone was prowling around her home and underneath her windows. The neighbor and his son, upon investigating, found that the prowler was the defendant, When he was discovered, defendant ran and they were unable to catch him.
On January 10, 1956, at about 9:30 p. m., Donna returned to her home after visiting friends. Her mother had gone out for the evening and when Donna got ready for bed, the 'phone rang and a man, calling himself Mr. Brewster, asked for her mother. Donna told him her mother was not at home. Donna then retired and a few minutes thereafter she heard a noise at the rear of the house. She got up to investigate and saw that the lock on the back door had been broken. Immediately thereafter the defendant swung the door open and ran at her with a knife in his hand. She ran for the bathroom window to escape and the defendant intercepted her. She reached for and grabbed the knife and cut her hand. She screamed and the defendant put his hand over her mouth and said 'Shut up or I will kill you.' Defendant than pushed her into the bedroom and told her to get her coat. He then held the knife at her throat and pushed her out of the kitchen and out of the house. As she was leaving, Donna tore the curtain on the front door and knocked a small doily off a piece of furniture in an attempt to let her mother know when she returned that she had been forcibly taken from the house.
Defendant forced Donna to get into his automobile and they drove for about 10 or 15 minutes. Donna was dressed in a flannel nightgown and a light duster. She recognized the defendant as the man who had previously attacked her and noticed that the car he was driving was a Plymouth sedan. She pleaded with him to let her go and not attack her. He warned her not to tell the police 'this time' and stopped the car in what appeared to be a tract of new houses. When Donna tried to resist defendant's advances, he hit her in the stomach, and when she tried to open the door of the car to escape, he told her if she tried it again he would kill her. He then forced her to get in the back seat of the car and had sexual intercourse with her. After the attack, defendant drove his car within a short distance of Donna's home and pushed her out. She then saw her fiance, Lloyd Brett, leaving the house and screamed at him, telling him what had happened. Brett got in his car and started in pursuit of the defendant, who was then speeding away. Donna then went into the house and reported the matter to the sheriff. The two speeding cars attracted the attention of a state highway patrol officer and he followed and overtook defendant's car, forcing it to the side of the road. Brett then arrived and ran back to the defendant's car, brandishing a revolver. The officer told Brett to drop the gun, and while the officer was waiting for assistance, Brett continuously accused the defendant of raping his girl friend. Defendant denied any knowledge of what Brett was talking about. In a few minutes other officers arrived at the scene. One of them asked the defendant if Brett's accusations were true and the defendant denied them, saying that he had spent the evening with some friends at a movie and then a bar and that he was then on his way home. He denied knowing Donna and when the officers said that they would go back to the bar where he said he had just dropped off his friends and check his story, defendant said, 'O.K. I did it.' The officer said, 'Did what?' Defendant then told them that he had just broken into Donna's house with a knife and had raped her by means of force. One of the officers then said, The defendant then admitted that he had forcibly raped Donna on the earlier occasion and stated that the rubber gloves were 'home some place'. The officers found a crude mask in the defendant's pocket and a billy club, binoculars and several other items in his car. The defendant told the officers that he used the binoculars to watch Donna's house and that the knife he had used was under the front seat of his car. The officers were unable to find the knife and defendant then stated that it might have fallen out of the car earlier. Officer Rios asked the defendant a few more questions and then returned with him to Donna's house. She there identified the defendant and he was taken to the sheriff's office where he immediately made a voluntary, full and complete confession and specifically admitted raping Donna by means of force and violence on the two occasions charged. The confession was recorded on a tape recorder by the officers, with the knowledge and consent of the defendant, and it was played to the jury during the trial.
At the trial defendant testified that he first met Donna in 1954 at an upholstery shop where he was employed and where she came to pose for photographs; that he next saw her at the drive-in theatre about March 18, 1955, and at that time they drove to a restaurant in Santa Ana; that on March 26 he met her at the theatre snack bar and she told him to wait for her in her car and to hide so that he could not be seen; that he climbed into the back seat of the car; that after they left the theatre he got in the front seat and they drove to an isolated dirt road and parked; they they engaged in an act of sexual intercourse, with Donna's consent, in the back seat of the car, and then drove back to the theatre to get his car; that he had another date with Donna in May and that in September, 1955, they drove to the beach near Corona Del Mar, where another act of sexual intercourse took place; that the next time he saw Donna was on January 10, 1956, when he called her about 10:00 p. m. and asked if he could come over to see her; that he did not arrive at her home until about 11:00 p. m.; that he knocked at the front door and when she did not answer, he went around to the back door and knocked; that he 'jangled' the door and it popped open and he saw Donna there; that she suggested they sit in his car and talk for a few minutes; that they then drove to a spot a mile or so away and there had an act of sexual intercourse in the car, to which she consented, and that they then drove to her home; that as they approached her house she said, 'There's Lloyd', jumped out of the car and told him (defendant) to 'get out of there'; that he drove rapidly away and soon noticed that he was being followed by another car; that he tried to get away, but after several miles he saw a police car which was also following him and he slowed down and stopped.
Defendant's description of the events at the time of his arrest concerning Brett's threatening him with a gun, the arrival of...
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