State v. Young

• Decision Date: 19 February 1930
• Docket Number: No. 30130.,30130.
• Citation: 24 S.W.2d 1046
• Parties: STATE v. YOUNG.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

24 S.W.2d 1046

STATE v.YOUNG.

No. 30130.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

February 19, 1930.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Butler County; Chas. L. Ferguson, Judge.

Hiram Young was convicted of incest, and he appeals.

Affirmed.

Thos. H. Henson, of Poplar Bluff, for appellant.

Stratton Shartel, Atty. Gen., and Carl J. Otto, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

WHITE, J.

Defendant appeals from a conviction in the circuit court of Butler county, April 9, 1928, on a charge of incest.

Defendant lived in the house with his brotherAmos Young, the wife of Amos, Flora Young, and their daughter Ila Young, aged eighteen years.Also there were two other younger daughters of Amos Young and his wife.All these people slept in one or two rooms.The defendantHiram Young was fifty-four years of age, and worked in the woods making ties.On the day before Christmas, 1926, he had sexual intercourse with his niece Ila, and that occurred at intervals during the year 1927.Ila's mother at one time saw the act.Ila herself testified against the defendant.She admitted on the stand that she had, at the preliminary hearing, denied anything of the kind had occurred, but said she had testified falsely at that time.She said further that she had been promised by the prosecutor that the case against her would be dismissed if she would tell the truth at the trial.

She became pregnant and an abortion took place at the Smith Hospital in Poplar Bluff.Defendant denied having had improper relations with Ila.He introduced several witnesses who testified that he had a good reputation in the community as a truthful, moral, law-abiding citizen.There was some evidence also that Mrs. Flora Young, the mother of Ila, and Ila had bad reputations for veracity.They were the principal witnesses on whose evidence the case was made out.

Only two assignments of error appear in the motion for new trial.

I.The first alleged error complained of was in admitting the testimony of a witness, Mrs. Williams, wife of Dr. Williams, regarding the contents of a statement sent by Dr. Anna Smith, who, it appears, attended Ila while she was in the hospital at Poplar Bluff.The bill of forty dollars for that attendance was sent by Dr. Anna Smith to Hiram Young, defendant.Numerous questions about the matter were asked and answered without objection from the defendant.The defendant's counsel then cross-examined the witness at some length on the subject.After the completion of the cross-examination, defendant's counsel moved to strike out the testimony on the ground that the witness was telling what was contained in a written...