People v. Darr

McLAUGHLIN, J.

The defendant stands convicted of rape upon a girl thirteen years of age. He appeals from the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial.

His principal contention is that there was no evidence to warrant the verdict of the jury. After a careful, painstaking examination and analysis of the evidence contained in the record we are convinced that it is sufficient to support the verdict and judgment. That some person committed rape on this mere child is evidenced by the birth of a son when she was but one month over fourteen years of age. And we think the admissions of the defendant clearly point to him as the man who committed the particular act upon which the prosecution elected to rely. His rehearsal of the conver

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sation with Pendegast is very damaging, and his story touching statements made to members of the family and in the presence of the officers dovetails with other evidence in the same behalf. In fact, his testimony confirms that given by most of the witnesses to whom he proclaimed his responsibility for the ruin of this unfortunate child. He differs with some of them, but in no instance does he deny having had conversations with the witness for the prosecution whose testimony as to admissions he disputes. On the main vital fact there is a sharp conflict, but in designation of times and places, and in minor details of the conversations, his testimony is strikingly corroborative of theirs. The explanations offered to excuse the admissions not denied by him are far from satisfactory. _ Having admitted that he was at her bedroom window, and that he opened the window, and placed a stick under it, the jury were not bound to accept his version of what subsequently transpired. They were authorized to believe that he spoke from experience, and to accept the verity of his boast that he could go to that bedroom and have intercourse with the prosecutrix at any time, without her parents hearing him or having knowledge of the fact. It is said that these admissions were the mere mouthings of a drunken prevaricator. But many of them were made when he was sober, and the

corpus delicti

having been established by independent evidence, such admissions alone were sufficient to prove guilt. It is difficult to imagine how an innocent man, even when drunk, could confess an infamy branding him as the author of lasting sorrow, ruin, and shame to this child. And it is still more difficult to conceive how any man, in his cups or otherwise, could so closely connect his maudlin story with surrounding circumstances and incriminating evidence unless there was a modicum of truth in what he said. But be that as it may, it is dangerous to boast of bestial and shameless acts, to the commission of which the law attaches a penalty. Many have gone to the gallows to forfeit a life for a life through the medium of their own admissions, and we can see no reason why such evidence should not be as potent in cases where the punishment is less severe, though in the sight of heaven the crime is more atrocious.