State v. Baker
| Decision Date | 04 October 1898 |
| Citation | 76 N.W. 509,106 Iowa 99 |
| Parties | STATE v. BAKER. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from district court, Story county; B. P. Birdsall, Judge.
The defendant, having been accused and convicted of assault with intent to commit rape, appeals. Affirmed.J. F. Martin and Funston & Gifford, for appellant.
Milton Remley, Atty. Gen., and Hubert Remley, for the State.
The evidence warranted the jury in finding that some one assaulted Bertha McVey, with purpose of committing rape, on the morning of May 28, 1896. She identified the defendant as the guilty party. He insists, however, that she is not corroborated by other evidence tending to connect him with the commission of the offense. The statute does not fix the quantum or kind of evidence required, nor is its sufficiency to be determined by excluding the evidence of the injured party. State v. McLaughlin, 44 Iowa, 85. If, considered in connection therewith, the other evidence tends to identify and single out the accused as the perpetrator of the crime, it is of that character contemplated by the statute, and its sufficiency is to be passed upon by the jury. State v. Watson, 81 Iowa, 380, 46 N. W. 868;State v. French (Iowa) 65 N. W. 156;State v. Moore, 81 Iowa, 578, 47 N. W. 772;State v. Mitchell, 68 Iowa, 116, 26 N. W. 44;State v. McLaughlin, 44 Iowa, 82. The assault was committed near a school house, a few minutes after 8 o'clock a. m., and the defendant left the farm house of Halteman, where he ate breakfast, 1 1/2 miles west, 20 minutes before 8. A man was seen on the track about a mile east of the school house about one-half hour later. The defendant might have reached the scene of the crime, attempted the outrage, and gone east, as stated by Bertha McVey. He is shown to have taken dinner with Myers, about five miles north, at 2 o'clock p. m., and an hour later to have hired out to work for Mortz one month. The prosecutrix, a girl of 13 years, testified that the man who assaulted her wore striped pants and a checkered shirt, and that she scratched his face and hurt his eye. When arrested, on the same day, other witnesses testify the defendant was so clothed, and that his face appeared to have been recently scratched and his eye bruised. He manifested ignorance of the condition of his face and eye when his attention was called to it, but explained, on the trial, that, in chopping wood for his breakfast that morning, a stick flew and struck him in the face. Other evidence tended to show that, after he finished chopping and before eating, he washed his face, and it was uninjured. These circumstances...
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State v. McCool
... ... The court, however, held in that case that there was other ... corroborative testimony sufficient to sustain the judgment ... Nor do the cases cited by respondent sustain its contention ... in this respect. For instance, in State v. Baker, ... 106 Iowa, 99, 76 N.W. 509, it is said: 'If, considered in ... connection therewith, the other evidence tends to identify ... and single out the accused as the perpetrator of the crime, ... it is of that character contemplated by the statute, and its ... ...