State v. Dominguez
| Decision Date | 03 February 1960 |
| Docket Number | No. 1145,1145 |
| Parties | STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Erineo (Reno) DOMINGUEZ, Appellant. |
| Court | Arizona Supreme Court |
Wade Church, Atty. Gen., of Arizona, and Leslie C. Hardy, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry Ackerman, County Atty., Pima County and Fred R. Sands, Deputy County Atty., Tucson, for appellee.
Toby La Vetter, Tucson, for appellant.
Erineo (Reno) Dominguez, hereafter called defendant, was informed against for the crime of statutory rape alleged to have been accomplished with one Alice Espinoza, a female child of the age of eleven years. Defendant was tried before a jury, found guilty, and after judgment of conviction and sentence has prosecuted this appeal.
A summary of the evidence introduced at the trial reveals that the prosecutrix and her eight year old sister, on July 12, 1958, the day of the alleged offense, were employed as babysitters, in the home of the defendant, taking care of his infant child. The defendant and his wife and another child left for the purpose of shopping at a downtown store. While at the store defendant informed his wife that he had left his wallet at home and would take the child and return home. Defendant did return to his home, left the older child in the living room of his home where the prosecutrix and her sister were and entered the bedroom and called the prosecutrix to come into the bedroom. Upon her refusal to enter the bedroom the defendant went into the living room, he being in the nude at that time and picked up the prosecutrix and carried her into the bedroom and closed the door. These facts were testified to by both the prosecutrix and her younger sister. The prosecutrix further testified that the defendant after carrying her into the bedroom, placed her on the bed and forcibly removed her shorts and underpants, after which he accomplished an act of intercourse upon her.
The wife of the defendant testified that after leaving her at the store he returned in approximately thirty minutes and after spending the afternoon swimming they returned to their home about six o'clock in the evening. That she then talked with the prosecutrix and her sister and that nothing unusual was mentioned. That frequently thereafter she observed the children around her home and the events alleged to have happened on July 12, 1958, were never mentioned.
Defendant testified in his own behalf and while he admitted that he returned to his home after leaving his wife at the store, he denied that he in any manner molested or touched the prosecutrix.
The record does not contain any evidence as to when the prosecutrix first made complaint of the alleged acts of the defendant, however, the record does indicate that a complaint was filed against the defendant on the 11th day of August, 1958, and of his arrest on the same day.
On appeal the defendant complains that the trial court erred in permitting the younger sister of the prosecutrix to testify and that a new trial should have been granted on the ground that the state failed to produce corroborating evidence of the alleged offense.
The state offered the sister of the prosecutrix as a witness and objection was made on the ground that the child was only eight years of age and did not understand the proceedings. The trial judge then, very properly, examined the witness on voir dire. He was afforded the opportunity of not only listening to her responses, but also of observing her manner and demeanor while on the witness stand. She was questioned by the judge with relation to the meaning of the truth...
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