State v. Greer
| Decision Date | 09 June 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 46154,No. 1,46154,1 |
| Citation | 313 S.W.2d 711 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Everett Clifford GREER, Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
No appearance for appellant.
John M. Dalton, Atty. Gen., George E. Schaaf, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
On December 11, 1956, defendant Everett Clifford Greer was convicted in the Jackson County Circuit Court of statutory rape and a jury assessed his punishment at 50 years' imprisonment in the State Penitentiary. The trial judge reduced the punishment to 35 years. Motion for new trial was overruled and defendant was sentenced. From the judgment entered, he appealed.
Defendant has not filed a brief in this court so we shall look to the motion for a new trial for assignments of error. A number of alleged assignments are insufficient to preserve any question for review. Others are not supported by the record. We shall ignore these and consider only the points preserved for review.
Defendant, in his motion, assigned error to the ruling of the trial court in refusing to direct a verdict of not guilty. The alleged offense was charged to have been committed on October 4, 1956. The State's evidence was that on the afternoon of that day, defendant's wife went to a show, leaving the defendant at home with the children. It was defendant's day off from work. When defendant's wife returned home, she found one of the girls, the prosecutrix, 8 years old, in the bathroom with defendant. She was bleeding and defendant was attempting to stop it. The mother took the child to a hospital where she remained for several days. A doctor who attended the child testified that he observed a laceration of the vaginal wall and that prosecutrix had lost a considerable amount of blood. The child testified to a state of facts which justified a finding that defendant had had sexual intercourse with her. The wife of the defendant testified that when she returned home about 7:30 p. m., she found the defendant and the child in the bathroom; that when she noticed how the child was bleeding, she took her to a hospital.
Defendant's evidence was that the child fell down a flight of steps while playing, causing her to bleed, and that he was trying to stop that bleeding when his wife came home. Defendant further testified that he had been sexually impotent for many years. However, his evidence was very vague on this subject. In answer to some questions, he would say that his wife's children were his; then, in response to another question, he would say the children could not be his. No medical evidence was offered to support defendant's claim. In the circumstances, it was a question for a jury and the State's evidence was ample to support a verdict of guilty. It is evident from the record that defendant was of low mentality. That is the only fact in the record, which in our opinion, could have been a reason for the trial court's action in reducing the punishment.
Defendant, in his motion for new trial, says the court erred in permitting the wife of appellant to testify on behalf of the State. The court restricted the evidence of this witness to what she found when she returned home and found defendant and the child. The question presented was reviewed at length by this court en banc in the case of State v. Kollenborn, Mo., 304 S.W.2d 855. We need not again consider the question. However, we quote from State v. Woodrow, 58 W Va. 527, 52 S.E. 545, 2 L.R.A.,N.S., 862, the following which we deem appropriate and which was quoted...
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State v. Swinburne, 46829
...'to show the condition of the girls' clothing following the attack.' This exact question was ruled against the defendant in State v. Greer, Mo. 313 S.W.2d 711, 713, a statutory rape case, the court saying that the exhibit 'tended to support the State's case.' See, also, State v. Brannan, 20......
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State v. Vincent, 46849
...exhibits in evidence. State v. Shawley, 334 Mo. 352, 67 S.W.2d 74, 83; State v. Swiney, Mo.Sup., 296 S.W.2d 112, 115(6); State v. Greer, Mo.Sup., 313 S.W.2d 711, 713(5); State v. Miller, 364 Mo. 320, 261 S.W.2d 103, 106(4); State v. Schmittzehe, Mo.Sup., 3 S.W.2d 235, 238 (5, 6, 7). Since t......
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State v. James
...record before us. The reports should not be burdened with setting forth all the lengthy assertions in defendant's motion. State v. Greer, Mo., 313 S.W.2d 711, 712. A number of assignments in defendant's motion for new trial, some of which are insufficient to preserve any issue for review un......
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State v. Wolfe
...that the punishment is 'exorbitant and grossly excessive under the evidence and similar cases reviewed by this court,' citing State v. Greer, Mo., 313 S.W.2d 711, and State v. Turner, Mo., 274 S.W. 35. These cases are merely examples of where lesser punishment has been assessed for the offe......