State v. Rorebeck

• Decision Date: 12 November 1900
• Citation: 158 Mo. 130,59 S.W. 67
• Parties: STATE v. ROREBECK.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

59 S.W. 67

158 Mo. 130

STATE v. ROREBECK.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

November 12, 1900.

ABDUCTION — TAKING AWAY FEMALE FOR PURPOSES OF PROSTITUTION.

Where on a prosecution under section 3484, Rev. St. 1889 (section 1842, Rev. St. 1899), making any one taking away any female under the age of 18 years from her legal guardian for the purpose of prostitution guilty of a felony, prosecutrix testified that, having been invited by defendant to go with him to her sister's home, she consented, and on the way submitted to sexual intercourse with him, and that he told her he wished her to do the same with her sister's husband, and that thereafter she was criminally intimate with her sister's husband, and there was no evidence that her brother-in-law had any arrangement with defendant relative to her taking away, the evidence of prosecutrix was insufficient to sustain a conviction, since it did not show that she was taken away for promiscuous prostitution.

Appeal from circuit court, Atchison county; Gallatin Craig, Judge.

Elmer Rorebeck was convicted of abduction, and appeals. Reversed.

Hunt & Bailey and C. A. Anthony, for appellant. The Attorney General and Sam B. Jeffries, for the State.

GANTT, P. J.

The defendant was indicted, tried, and convicted of the statutory crime of having, together with one John Rorebeck, feloniously taken away from her father, against his wishes, his daughter, under the age of 18 years, for the purpose of prostitution. The offense was charged to have been committed on July 3, 1897. From that conviction he appeals to this court.

The question in the case is the sufficiency of the evidence to make out a case under section 3484, Rev. St. 1889 (section 1842, Rev. St. 1899), which provides that "every person who shall take away any female under the age of eighteen years from her father, mother, guardian, or any other person having the legal charge of her person, either for the purpose of prostitution or concubinage, * * * shall upon conviction be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary." This section has often been construed by this court prior to the last revision of our Criminal Code. Beginning with State v. Gibson, 111 Mo. 92, 19 S. W. 980, it has been uniformly ruled that prostitution, in this statute, means more than a single illicit act or series of acts with the same person. It means indiscriminate sexual intercourse with men. State v. Wilkinson, 121 Mo. 485, 26 S. W. 366. We have also ruled that the sexual act is not at all necessary to the commission of the crime, as it may be done by a woman as well as a man. The gravamen of the offense is the purpose or intent with which the female is taken away from her parent or guardian or person having legal charge of her person. The evidence in the case is very meager. The prosecutrix was the daughter of John Ogden, and about 15 years old. Her sister was the wife of John Rorebeck, the uncle of this defendant. John Rorebeck lived about 11 miles from Tarkio, Atchison county, Mo. The prosecutrix had lived with John Rorebeck at different times, and defendant had met her at his uncle's house. On July 3, 1897, the defendant and the prosecutrix were in Tarkio. The 3d of July was celebrated in that city that year, instead of the 4th of July. According to the evidence of the father of the girl, he had told defendant in the forenoon of that day to let prosecutrix alone, or "he would shoot the wadding out of him." He admits that up to the time of this threat defendant had not, to his knowledge, said anything to prosecutrix, or associated with her during that day. Afterwards he saw defendant treat her to a glass of lemonade on the street. Her mother...