People v. Lawrence

MUSSELL, J.

Defendant was charged with the crime of inflicting a corporal injury upon a child in violation of section 273d of the Penal Code. He entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. The latter plea was withdrawn, and a jury trial on the plea of not guilty resulted in a verdict finding the defendant guilty as charged. He was sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison and appeals from the judgment of conviction.

On August 14, 1955, the defendant and his wife, together with her daughter, Lucille, aged 2 years, were living in a trailer in Carlsbad. Donald Walden and his wife also lived in the trailer. They occupied the bedroom. Defendant and his wife slept in the living room and Lucille slept on a bed made up on a dresser in the bedroom. At about 10 o ’clock in the morning, Lucille had “messed her pants” and Donald Walden picked her up out of her bed, put her down on the floor, and sent her out into the living room, where defendant and his wife were in bed. Defendant hit the child three or four times on her face and head with his hand, and when Mrs. Lawrence attempted to hold his hand back, he turned on her. The blows thus inflicted on Lucille caused bruises above one eye, on her cheek, and a swelling on her lip. A few moments thereafter defendant and his wife arose and dressed and defendant took the child to the shower, a short distance from the trailer, to clean her. Approximately one-half hour later defendant brought Lucille back to the trailer. She was crying and when she sat down to eat breakfast, Mrs. Lawrence and the Waldens observed she had a red mark on her back. When asked what had occurred, defendant stated he had scratched her on a doorknob. Defendant then took the child to the beach, a short distance from the trailer, and approximately 30 minutes later returned with her to the trailer. He then started to remove the child’s training pants and the skin of her buttocks came off with the pants. Her flesh was

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raw and “near bleeding.” On the afternoon of August 14, Mrs. Walden asked the defendant how the child was injured and he stated that he “hit her hard and fast so that it blistered.” On the same afternoon defendant told his wife that he “had hit the child real hard and fast with his hand,” and when he was asked why he did it, he said, “If he couldn’t train her one way, he was going to train her another.”