State v. Lorton

• Decision Date: 05 June 1925
• Docket Number: 26093
• Parties: STATE v. LORTON
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

274 S.W. 383

STATE v. LORTON

No. 26093

Supreme Court of Missouri, Second Division

June 5, 1925

Robert W. Otto, Atty. Gen., and J. Henry Caruthers, Asst. Atty Gen., for the State.

OPINION

Statement.

RAILEY, C.

On August 30, 1922, the prosecuting attorney of Lincoln county Mo., filed in the circuit court of said county a verified information, charging therein that defendant, Emmett Lorton on June 26, 1922, in Lincoln county aforesaid, raped Mary Rehg, a female child under 16 years of age, to wit, of the age of 15 years, etc. The defendant waived a formal arraignment, and entered a plea of not guilty. On defendant's application for a change of venue, the cause was transferred to St. Charles county, Mo., and tried in the circuit court of said county before a jury. On December 21, 1923, the jury returned the following verdict:

'We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of rape, as charged in the information, and we assess his punishment at a term of fifteen years in the penitentiary.

'John W. Miller, Foreman.'

Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were filed and overruled. Thereafter allocution having been granted defendant, judgment was rendered, and sentenced pronounced upon him in accordance with the terms of said verdict. In due time, defendant was granted an appeal to this court.

Counsel for the state have made a fair and correct statement of the case, which we adopt as follows:

'The testimony on behalf of the state tended to prove the following:

'That on the 26th day of June, 1922, in the county of Lincoln, state of Missouri, Mary Rehg was living with her parents near Davis in said county. Mary was born May 31, 1907, and was therefore 15 years of age on said date. On that day, which was Monday, prosecutrix went to Davis in the afternoon and saw one Charley Cox, who asked her for a date to a party to be had that night at the farm home of Doug Morris. Prosecutrix told him she would see her mother, and he asked what time he should come for her, and she suggested 6 o'clock, and he came between 6 and 7. Cox and the prosecutrix left her home about 7:30, walking to the party, going across a wheat field to the railroad track at Famous, and from there north on the track to a certain pond, where they turned off and went east through a field and out through a gate at Pickey Broyles' to the county road. After traveling north a short distance they entered a field belonging to Doug Morris which they crossed to his house. There they saw the defendant, Emmett Lorton, and Frank Hutchens. Those two young men, together with her escort, Charley Cox, were all the prosecutrix knew among those who attended the party.

'About 11 o'clock the party broke up and the people left. Prosecutrix and Charley Cox were the last ones to leave; hence they followed the crowd which was in front of them, one among whom carried a lantern. When prosecutrix and her escort came to the gate near the Broyles house they found the defendant, Emmett Lorton, Carl Norton, and Frank Hutchins waiting there. Cox opened the gate, whereupon Frank Hutchens shoved him through and held the prosecutrix on the inside. Defendant and Norton went through, and when prosecutrix asked Hutchens to let her through the gate he said, 'G -- d -- you, if you want through you crawl over or under' Defendant was right on the other side of the gate at the time prosecutrix told Hutchens she wasn't going to do either, and after a little while he opened the gate, and her escort took her arm, and they walked on about 250 yards, when Frank Hutchens and defendant, Lorton, and Carl Norton walked up in front of them, and Hutchens said, 'Mary, this would be a nice night to f -- , wouldn't it?' Prosecutrix did not answer, whereupon Hutchens said to her, 'G -- d -- it, you have been screwed before' Prosecutrix replied, 'I haven't done no such thing,' whereupon Charley Cox, her escort, said, 'Frank I brought this girl; I am going to take care of her,' and he said, 'G -- d -- it, you don't think you are running her, do you?' and Cox said, 'Yes. Hutchens said, 'Emmett you stay first' Hutchens took Cox on away, and defendant stayed. Thereupon he and the prosecutrix commenced tusseling, and he grabbed hold of her, and she grabbed him with her hands in his cuffs, and as long as she held to him had the advantage, until he finally broke her hold upon him, and then he had the advantage, and threw her on the ground. Prosecutrix had on closed drawers, and defendant said, 'This ain't the G -- d -- kind of drawers women wear,' and put his hand into the placket and ripped them open down to the seam on the right-hand side. Prosecutrix said, 'Emmett, I am going to holler,' and he said, 'You big s -- of -- b -- , you had better not holler,' and thereupon had intercourse with her. She weighed about 115 pounds at the time. During the time that defendant was having intercourse with prosecutrix, she was lying on her back, and he had his arm across her neck, which tended to shut off her breathing and prevented her from hollering. This occurred in Lincoln county, Missouri.

'It was shown by the church record that prosecutrix was born on the 31st day of May, 1907, and was christened on the 9th of October, 1907, and it was shown by several witnesses aside from the church record that she was born on that date.

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