People v. Chavez

GRIFFIN, J.

Four defendants, with Pete Macias, were charged with the crime of forcible rape. All were convicted by a jury. Macias appeals and seeks a reversal first, on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict.

The one who claims to have had her person violated was a grandmother, and the mother of three children. She and her husband worked on a ranch picking cotton. Near there was a café where they went on January 6, 1950, after work and drank some beer, while awaiting the arrival of a bus to carry them home. These five defendants were in the café. Soon thereafter, the husband made arrangements with one of the defendants, for a consideration, for a ride to Firebaugh, due to the fact he was worried about his children at home. The complaining witness and her husband sat in the back seat with two of the defendants. The other three defendants sat in front. Defendant Macias was driving a 1937 Pontiac, light brown in color. The glass in the window of the rear door on the driver’s side of the ear was broken. The car carried a Washington license. The vehicle was driven to a distant warehouse. One defendant began making improper advances toward the complaining witness. The husband became angry and demanded that he and his wife be let out so they could walk. After a fracas the husband was pulled from the car and “beat up” by the two occupants of the front seat who were not driving. The complaining witness attempted to come to her husband’s aid. The defendants grabbed her, pulled a cotton sack over her head, held her down and drove away, leaving the husband beside the road. The car came to a stop on a canal bank by the river. It was nighttime and the moon was shining brightly. Defendants grabbed the complaining witness, threw a pillow over her face, tore her clothing from her and each accomplished an act of sexual intercourse with her. Another attempted to commit an act of sodomy. She remembered that the three defendants who were seated in the front seat started committing the acts first. They then took turns holding her arms and legs. They threatened to kill her if she told. After throwing her clothes to her they drove away. She went to the nearest farmhouse. Officers were called

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and she related the story and described the defendants, their ear, the broken glass and the pillow. She described one of-the defendants as wearing a khaki shirt with a torn shoulder. She described one as wearing a goatee. Defendant Pete Macias, when apprehended, was wearing such a goatee as described and was identified as the first man to violate her. The officers located a 1937 Pontiac, as described by the witness, in Firebaugh, parked in front of a furniture store. A pillow was found in it. It also had a broken glass as described by the witness and carried a Washington license plate. Tire marks, similar to the tires on the car, were discovered at the canal bank. The officers stopped two Mexican boys and asked them where the other three boys were and they stated they were around at different bars. The two Mexicans were then taken to the complaining witness’s residence and identified by her as two of the offenders. Subsequently, the other three defendants were located. Chavez, who had the key to the car, told the officers where it was left. The complaining witness later identified this ear from among several other ears present. After his arrest defendant Macias made a statement to the deputy district attorneys and it was reduced to writing. It recites that early that evening Macias was driving the car with the other four defendants in it, but that he let them out and picked up four other Mexican boys, bought some gas, and-then went to the café and there met the complaining witness and her husband; that the husband offered to pay them for a ride to Firebaugh and that after proceeding with them the four other Mexican boys “beat up” the husband and that the four boys “ordered” him (Macias) to drive on; that he drove to the canal bank where each of them, including Macias, had sexual intercourse with the complaining witness; that the complaining witness had previously offered herself to them if they would pay her money; that when she found they had no money she refused and they went ahead and completed the acts; that he drove away, went back and met the original four Mexicans, the defendants in this case, and joined them. He did not say what became of the other four Mexicans who went with him. However, he stated he had seen them before on one or two occasions but did not know their names.