State v. Hatfield

• Decision Date: 31 October 1880
• Parties: THE STATE v. HATFIELD, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

72 Mo. 518

THE STATE

v.HATFIELD, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1880.

Appeal from Dallas Circuit Court.--HON. R. W. FYANN, Judge.

AFFIRMED.

The indictment was as follows: The grand jurors for the State of Missouri, summoned from the body of Dallas county, empanelled, charged and sworn, upon their oaths present that William Hatfield, late of the county aforesaid, on the 17th day of October, 1878, at the said county of Dallas, State aforesaid, did, in and upon a certain woman, viz: one C. D., unlawfully, violently, forcibly, willfully and feloniously, make an assault, and her, the said C. D., then and there, in the said county of Dallas, unlawfully, violently, willfully and feloniously, and against her will, feloniously ravish and carnally know her, the said C. D., contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State.

Smith and Brush for appellant.

J. L. Smith, Attorney-General, for the State.

NORTON, J.

Defendant was indicted at the April term, 1879, of the Dallas county circuit court, in which he was charged with the crime of rape, and of which he was convicted at the October term, 1879, of said court, and his punishment assessed at five years imprisonment in the penitentiary. The cause is here on his appeal.

I. The motion to quash the indictment was properly overruled, as it sufficiently alleges every fact necessary under the statute to constitute the crime therein charged.

II. The court did not err in declining to issue attachments, as prayed for by defendant, for witnesses Brown and Conn, inasmuch as it appeared to the court that if issued they could not have been served at that term of the court, and would have been ineffectual in accomplishing the purpose they were designed for, viz: to bring the absent witnesses to court during the term.

Nor was any error committed in refusing to await the execution of an attachment which had been issued for Mrs. Wheeler, as it appeared from a return made upon it that she was too sick at her home to be brought into court. Nothing could have been accomplished by waiting. Besides this, the defendant had the full benefit of what he expected to prove by these witnesses. In his two applications for continuances based on their absence, he set out fully what they would swear to if present, and it was admitted by the attorney for the State that such would be their evidence if called as witnesses.

III. This admission having been made by the prosecuting attorney, it afforded a sufficient...