State v. Sparks

• Decision Date: 16 December 1914
• Docket Number: No. 29897.,29897.
• Parties: STATE v. SPARKS.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

167 Iowa 746

149 N.W. 871

STATE

v.SPARKS.

No. 29897.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Dec. 16, 1914.

Appeal from District Court, Decatur County; Thos. L. Maxwell, Judge.

Appeal by defendant from a conviction of incest. Affirmed.C. W. Hoffman and V. R. McGinnis, both of Leon, for appellant.

George Cosson, Atty. Gen., and Sharp & Parrish and Ed. H. Sharp, all of Leon, for the State.

WITHROW, J.

I. The defendant, E. C. Sparks, was tried under an information sworn to and filed by the county attorney, charging him with the crime of incest alleged to have been committed with his daughter, Erva Sparks, on or about June 5, 1912, in Decatur county of this state. There was a trial with a verdict of guilty, and judgment of imprisonment was pronounced. At the proper time objections were made to certain instructions given by the trial court, and were overruled. These objections, together with the claim that the verdict was not supported by sufficient evidence, were made the basis of a motion to set aside the verdict and for a new trial, which was overruled. The case is presented to this court on appeal on the abstract of the record and an amendment, without argument, and without other assignments of error than arise in the exceptions duly taken to the ruling against the motion for new trial. The appeal having been taken by the defendant, and the record being before us, it is our duty, under Code, § 5462, to inspect it and determine from it if manifest error was committed by the trial court.

II. Erva Sparks, the daughter, was 13 years of age at the time of the trial in the district court, which was in October, 1913. The crime is alleged to have been committed more than a year before that time. The evidence on the part of the state tended to establish the fact of illicit relations between the father and daughter, as to the fact itself based largely if not entirely on the testimony of the daughter. The parties had been living in the home of the mother of the defendant, and with her. From the evidence it appears that the child had lived in Colorado at the time of the death of her mother; and following that she was taken into another family residing in that state, where she remained for about five years, and was then sent to a state home for children. From there she was brought by the defendant to the home of his mother in Iowa; she at the time being about 8 years of age. The defendant testified that the child slept with him for about two years after she came to Iowa, and after that occupied a room downstairs. In the spring or summer of 1912 the defendant erected a tent in the yard, and this was used as a place to sleep by him, his daughter, and for a few times by his stepfather. The testimony varies as to the time the tent was erected, and this we shall later notice, as it goes to a material but not conclusive fact in the case. The daughter testified that her father had sexual intercourse with her at four different times, two of which were in the tent, and in response to a leading question fixing the last time as the latter part of August. A child was born to the daughter July 20, 1913, and at the trial she testified that the defendant was its father. On March 29th of that year, her condition being discovered, she made affidavit that her father, Edward C. Sparks, was the father of the child, and that he was the only person who had had intercourse with her.

Hazel Dodd testified as to her acquaintance with both parties; that her home and that of defendant's mother were about 60 feet apart; and that in the summer of 1912 there was a tent in the yard between the houses, about 15 or 20 feet from her bedroom window; that she knew the voices of the parties; and that one night about half past 11 o'clock she heard Erva say, “Now stop, quit, do you hear me!” and then slapped him. This occurred, as she testified, some time in July, after the 4th, and towards the last of the month. Mrs. Annie Dodd, mother of Hazel, testified in substance the same as her daughter, and also that once after that she heard the defendant say, “pull up your feet.” The date of the purchase of the tent by the defendant is fixed as June 2, 1912, by the man who sold it.

After the arrest of Sparks the girl Erva wrote a statement which s...