State v. Roddy
| Decision Date | 07 June 1943 |
| Docket Number | 38247 |
| Citation | 171 S.W.2d 713 |
| Parties | STATE v. RODDY |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Roy McKittrick, Atty. Gen., and W. J. Burke, Asst. Atty. Gen for respondent.
Conviction for rape wherein the punishment was assessed at life imprisonment. Defendant was charged under the habitual criminal statutes [ss 4854, 4855, Mo.R.S.A.], the information alleging two prior convictions for sodomy, his due imprisonment in the Missouri Penitentiary in accordance with said sentences, and his discharge upon compliance therewith. However, on this branch of the case, the jury made no finding.
We have not been favored with a brief on the part of defendant, but looking to his motion for a new trial we find he assigns as grounds therefor: (1) A challenge of the sufficiency of the evidence, and (2) alleged error in refusing his requests to discharge the jury during the voir dire examination. The record fails to show any such requests as those just referred to, and for that reason said assignment cannot be noticed.
The facts: The offense is alleged to have occurred in the City of St. Louis on January 17, 1941. The defendant is a Negro. The prosecutrix, a white woman, 39 years of age, was en route from her place of employment, a laundry, to her home. At about 7 p.m., she alighted from a street car at Pendleton and Hodiamont tracks. It was dark at the time. It had been snowing that day, but at the time she got off the street car 'it was sleeting, with a light snow.' She was alone and started walking south on the east side of Pendleton. As she did so, she saw no one on the street. When she reached an alley intersection, she testified a man took hold of her right arm, put a knife against her throat, and pushed her against a fence. He told her he wanted her pocketbook and her money, and for her to keep her mouth shut, or he would cut her throat. He also told her of his intention to have intercourse with her. He forced her down the alley, and to a woodshed. In the meantime he had taken her pocketbook, but continued to hold the knife against her throat, and had hold of her arm. When they reached the shed, he kicked her feet out from under her, and proceeded to have sexual intercourse with her. While so doing, he continued to tell her, 'Keep your mouth shut, or it will be the end of you.' After the act was completed he threw her pocketbook to the ground, and started out of the alley, saying to her, 'Stay here.' She saw him go north on Pendleton, and then she got up, and went through the alley to the street, and asked a passing motorist to follow the man, saying, in explanation, he had robbed her. The man escaped, but she...
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