State v. Chandler, 46451
| Citation | 314 S.W.2d 897 |
| Decision Date | 14 July 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 46451,No. 2,46451,2 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Marvin CHANDLER, Appellant |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Missouri |
Earl E. Roberts and Paul L. Bell, Steelville, for appellant.
John M. Dalton, Atty. Gen., Paul N. Chitwood, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
Defendant was found guilty of forcible rape as charged in the information and his punishment assessed at two years in the penitentiary. After the overruling of his motion for new trial, the defendant was sentenced in accordance with the verdict and has appealed.
Pauline Robbins, a single woman residing in the City of St. Louis, was 20 years old at the time of the offense alleged to have been committed upon her. On Saturday, October 20, 1956, she went to Cherryville in Crawford County to be with her boy friend, Rainey Godbey, and to stay at his family home over the weekend. She arrived about 5:00 p. m. and shortly thereafter she went to Blue Haven, a dance hall, in the company of Rainey Godbey, Orville Cassidy, the defendant Marvin Chandler, and a girl named Marcella Garrett. After staying at Blue Haven 10 or 15 minutes, the young people left and went to the Spider, another dance hall, located on Missouri Highway No. 8. When they got there Pauline Robbins and her companions sat in the automobile and talked until a fight occurred, which was participated in by Rainey Godbey and the defendant. Godbey then instructed her to get into Cassidy's car, which she did, and later she got into the defendant's car along with Cassidy, Marcella Garrett and the defendant. Godbey was a musician and played at the Spider sometime during the evening. Around 12:00 or 12:30 Pauline Robbins, Marcella Garrett, Godbey, Cassidy and the defendant left the Spider and drove to the Chandler home in the defendant's car. Defendant's folks were away that weekend. When they arrived Godbey 'was passed out,' so Pauline stayed in the car with him. Eventually Cassidy and the defendant 'carried Rainey in' and placed him on a bed in the living room where he remained, oblivous of all that happened during the remainder of the night.
After a while the defendant and Cassidy went outiside. When they returned they locked the door and turned out the lights. The defendant grabbed Pauline by the arm and started twisting it backwards. She 'started hollering' at Godbey, her boy friend, 'and pulled his hair trying to wake him up, but he wouldn't even grunt.' The defendant pulled Miss Robbins into a bedroom, twisted her arm and threw her on the bed. He told her to take off her pants which she did because she was afraid he would kill her. She was protesting all the time, begging him to turn her loose and let her go. As a result of her resistance her arms and knees were scratched and her neck was injured in addition to the skin on her arms being bruised and her dress torn. In spite of her resistance the defendant had sexual intercourse with her. The evidence tended to show that thereafter Cassidy also raped her.
While it was still dark Miss Robbins escaped from the house and walked along the road until she reached the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Doss, about a quarter of a mile east of the Chandler home, where she arrived about 4:30 Sunday morning. Miss Robbins told Mrs. Doss that she had been raped by the defendant Marvin Chandler. She appeared to be frightened and exhibited a place on the back of her leg that was bleeding. At Miss Robbins request Mr. and Mrs. Doss took her to the Godbey home in Cherryville and then to the home of Mont Turnbough, then Chief Deputy Sheriff of Crawford County, where they arrived between 5:30 and 6:30 a. m. Miss Robbins informed Deputy Turnbough that she had been raped in the Chandler home and requested the arrest of the defendant and Orville Cassidy. Miss Robbins exhibited to Mr. Turnbough the wounds on her throat and arms, the skinned places on her knees, the bruised places on both wrists and on her nose and also her torn dress. The deputy sheriff directed Miss Robbins to go to the prosecuting attorney. Later in the morning the deputy sheriff assisted in the arrest of Marvin Chandler, the defendant.
At 11:55 a. m., October 21, Dr. William H. Robey, an osteopathic physician, examined Miss Robbins and found contusions on both her wrists, such as results from twisting of the arms; multiple bruises on the backs of both hands; an abrasion on the right elbow about the size of a dime and fairly deep; two scratches about 2 inches long behind the left knee; and a contusion more or less on the center line across the bridge of her nose. Examination of Miss Robbins' genital organs disclosed abrasions and the presence of spermatozoa.
In his testimony the defendant admitted that he had intercourse with Miss Robbins on the occasion in question, but asserted the act was accomplished without force and with her consent. Other testimony on behalf of the defendant was calculated to prove that Miss Robbins made no outcry or show of resistance on the night in question and could have escaped from the bedroom and the Chandler home if she had been inclined to do so.
Since the defendant has filed no brief on appeal, we shall examine each of the thirteen assignments of error in the motion for new trial. Insofar as the first four specifications have any standing, they charge that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict 'because complainant made no resistance but took off her clothes herself and no force was necessary.' Such was defendant's theory of defense, but it was contrary to the state's evidence which the jury accepted. We have stated enough of the evidence to disclose that it was sufficient to support the verdict.
Grounds five and six of the motion charge that the wife of a juror, Arthur Grayson, and the defendant, Marvin Chandler, were related in that each had the same great-grandfather as shown by an affidavit attached to the motion, and that Arthur Grayson was, therefore, an incompetent juror within the purview of Section 546.120 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., which provides that no person of kin to the prosecutor or defendant shall serve as a juror on the trial of the cause. Assuming without deciding that a relationship exists within the meaning of the statute, there appear to be two good reasons why the defendant cannot claim prejudice in this situation.
First, the...
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