State v. Rogers, KCD
| Decision Date | 11 June 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. KCD,KCD |
| Citation | 583 S.W.2d 293 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Gerard ROGERS, Appellant. 30314. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
William F. O'Sullivan, David B. Dysart, Duncan, Russell & Bunch, Kansas City, for appellant.
John D. Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Earl W. Brown, III, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Kansas City, for respondent.
Before SHANGLER, P. J., and WASSERSTROM and CLARK, JJ.
The defendant Rogers was tried to the court on counts of forcible rape, assault with intent to do great bodily harm with malice, and the crime against nature, and was convicted on each. He was sentenced to three concurrent terms of fifteen years imprisonment.
The appeal contends there was not sufficient evidence to find guilt in that (1) the only evidence against the defendant Rogers was the uncorroborated testimony of the victim, an admitted accomplice with the defendant in a separate, but concurrent, crime, and (2) that at the time of the conduct alleged the defendant was so affected by drugs that he could not have formed the specific intent to commit the criminal acts charged.
The testimony to the court was from three prosecution witnesses; two police officers, and the female victim. On the night of the event, while the husband was at work, the victim opened the door of the residence to a knock. She was confronted by the defendant who identified himself as an undercover officer and gave a report of prowlers about the neighborhood. He had an axe handle in hand. After some discussion she allowed him entrance. He placed the axe handle against the kitchen wall and then, with the victim, went into the basement to show the windows by which children could have easy access to the interior house. After this pretext, they came up into the living room. While in the basement, however, the victim observed a bag of marihuana on the floor by the defendant which he acknowledged as his. He asked her there if she could roll a joint of marihuana; she answered she could not but was willing to try. When they resumed in the living room, she offered him a bottle of beer. She then contrived a marihuana cigarette from which she inhaled some, but not enough for effect. The defendant also smoked the substance while they conversed. He told her that he had known the people who lived in the residence before occupancy by the victim began (only some three weeks before) and visited them every night to share pot or marihuana.
After the defendant had come downstairs from the bathroom facility (which he found without direction) he resumed the seat in the living room and then, quite without warning, jumped up and commenced to throttle her with the threat that he would kill her if she did not make love. She disrobed first herself and then him according to his direction. His genital penetrated her vagina and was then taken into her mouth under his threats. After they reclothed, he commenced to beat her with his fist, with the beer bottle and with a kitchen knife, all without cause. The victim managed to escape to the people next door who called the police.
The defendant contends that the only evidence of crime, other than the testimony of the victim herself, were the blood-stained clothes worn by her and the photographs of body bruises and wounds taken by the police, which tend to prove the assault but not the rape or sodomy. From this want of corroboration, the defendant argues the charges of sexual misconduct were not proved and he must be acquitted of those counts.
This contention rests on two misconceptions: that the testimony of a victim of sexual crime requires corroboration for substantial effect and that, in...
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State v. Stearns
...does not apply to any offense committed prior to January 1, 1979. State v. Thompson, 588 S.W.2d 36, 38 (Mo.App.1979); State v. Rogers, 583 S.W.2d 293, 295 (Mo.App.1979); § 556.031.3, RSMo 1979.6 An exception to the general rule that it is impermissible to impeach the credibility of a witnes......
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State v. Broomfield, 43129
...is it a matter for the jury to resolve inconsistencies in her testimony. State v. Booth, 423 S.W.2d 820 (Mo. 1968); State v. Rogers, 583 S.W.2d 293, 295 (Mo. App. 1979); State v. Jarmon, 556 S.W.2d 469, 471 (Mo. App. 1977); State v. Dodson, 556 S.W.2d 938, 949 (Mo. App. 1977). In this case ......
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State v. Chaney
..."The testimony of a victim of ... sodomy needs no other corroboration for submission of charges against the defendant." State v. Rogers, 583 S.W.2d 293, 295 (Mo.App.1979); See, e.g., State v. Johnson, 595 S.W.2d 774, 776 (Mo.App.1980). Moreover, under defendant's reasoning any acquittal of ......
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State v. Kuzma
...to support the submission of charges of rape or sodomy. State v. Smith, 679 S.W.2d 899, 902-03 (Mo.App.1984), citing State v. Rogers, 583 S.W.2d 293, 295 (Mo.App.1979). "It is only in those cases where the evidence of the prosecutrix is of a contradictory nature or, when applied to the admi......