Snyder v. State
| Decision Date | 11 May 1915 |
| Docket Number | 14614 |
| Citation | 110 N.E. 644,92 Ohio St. 167 |
| Parties | Snyder v. The State Of Ohio |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
Criminal law-Indictment of rape with consent-Defendant may be convicted of assault, when-Charge to jury.
1. Upon trial on an indictment charging that the defendant, being a male person of the age of eighteen years, carnally knew and abused a female person under sixteen years of age with her consent, an instruction by the court that the indictment includes the offense of assault is not erroneous.
2. Where the evidence warrants, a conviction of assault in such case will be sustained.
Facts stated in opinion.
Mr. A M. McCarty and Mr. Russell J. Burt, for plaintiff in error.
Mr. H C. Pontius, prosecuting attorney, for defendant in error. BY THE COURT.
Christian Snyder was indicted at the September term of the common pleas court of Stark county in the year 1912 for the crime of rape with consent, the indictment, omitting its formal parts reading as follows: "That Christian Snyder, late said county on or about the 4th day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and ten, at the county of Stark, aforesaid, said Christian Snyder being then and there a male person of the age of eighteen years and upward, did then and there unlawfully and knowingly carnally know and abuse one R. P., with her consent, she, the said R. P., then and there being a female person under the age of sixteen years, to-wit, of the age of fourteen years contrary to the statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the state of Ohio."
He was tried on this indictment at the January term of common pleas court of Stark county of the year 1913. The judge of the court of common pleas, among other things, charged the jury in substance that the indictment included the crime of rape with consent, the crime of assault and battery and the crime of assault. The jury returned a verdict as follows: "We the jury impaneled and sworn to well and truly try and true deliverance make between the state of Ohio and the prisoner at bar, Christian Snyder, do find the defendant not guilty of carnally knowing and abusing R. P. with her consent as he stands charged in the indictment, and not guilty of assault and battery, but we do find the defendant guilty of assault as he stands charged in the indictment."
The defendant did not file a motion for a new trial, but filed a motion asking the court to discharge the defendant on a number of grounds, all based upon the contention, however, that the crime of assault is not contained within said indictment. The motion was overruled by the court of common pleas, error was prosecuted to the court of appeals of Stark county and the holding of the common pleas court was affirmed.
The manner of presentation of the question the court is called upon to determine does not bring before us the record; hence the evidence upon which the trial court and jury acted is not here for consideration. In no manner therefore, are we advised as to what acts of the defendant were disclosed by the evidence upon which the trial judge based his instructions to the jury and upon which the jury, applying those instructions, returned its verdict. In the absence of a bill of exceptions showing the contrary it must be presumed that the proceedings in the trial court were in every respect regular. We are informed by briefs of counsel that the trial court charged the jury that the indictment included within its term the crime of rape with consent, the crime of assault and battery and the crime of assault. The only complaint made by plaintiff in error is that under an indictment charging him...
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