People v. Trapps

PETERS, P. J. Defendant, Johnny Trapps, after a trial before the court without a jury, was found guilty of rape. He appeals from the judgment of conviction and from the order denying his motion for a new trial. The sole contention made is that the evidence is insufficient to support the judgment because, so it is claimed, the testimony of the two major prosecution witnesses, Geraldine Porter and Betty Joyce Lewis, is inherently improbable, and, for that reason, should not be believed. There is no merit to the contention. Although there are inconsistencies in the testimony of the complaining witness, Mrs. Porter, and although her story, in some respects, is somewhat unusual, the trial judge, the Honorable James Agee, saw and heard this witness. It was his duty to pass upon her credibility. This he did by stating, at the conclusion of the trial, that he found that she made a “nice appearance,” and appeared “to be a respectable person.” He was not impressed with the story told by the defendant. These were matters for the trial court to decide and are not matters that may successfully be urged on appeal.

Mrs. Porter and Mrs. Lewis, both of whom were separated from their husbands, lived together on the second floor of a house at 32nd and Ettie Streets in Oakland. A male relative of Mrs. Lewis also lived on that floor, and tenants lived on the first floor. Shortly after midnight on May 22, 1956, Mrs. Porter left the house to make a telephone call and to get some cupcakes. She first went to a liquor store about three blocks from her home. There she found the telephone booth was occupied. She then went to Moton’s, a combination café and bar, located nearby. Here she found that the place was so noisy that it was impracticable to use the telephone. She sat at the end of the bar, bought some cupcakes and ordered and paid for a bottle of beer or ale, and started [415]to play some records on the record player. After she had consumed the first bottle of beer, the proprietor of the establishment, John Moton, introduced her to a friend of his, a Mr. Hamilton, and told Mrs. Porter that Hamilton wanted to buy her a drink. At first Mrs. Porter declined, but, upon being assured by Moton that there were no “strings attached,” she accepted, and a second bottle of beer was placed before her. She consumed about half of this bottle. Then another bottle of beer was placed before her. She testified that she had no idea who purchased this bottle. She then asked Moton for a bag and put in it the full bottle of beer, the half empty bottle of beer and the cupcakes. She then went back to the liquor store and made her telephone call. Then she started towards her home. It was now about 2 a. m. "When she reached 32nd and Helen Streets, a man she identified as defendant Trapps, whom she testified she did not then know, “jumped out” from behind a hedge. He had an open knife in one hand. He grabbed her with the other hand and said, “You’re going with me.” He then pushed her down Helen Street and into the garage of a house. Mrs. Porter testified that she was terrified and tried to talk defendant out of assaulting her. She managed to get out of the garage and back to the intersection of 32nd and Helen Streets. Here defendant slapped her face, and said to her: “You don’t seem to realize I mean business; you’re going with me.” Then, still carrying the open knife in his right hand, he pushed her across the street where an automobile was parked, and slapped her twice again. Then he pushed her into the back seat, put the knife to her throat and told her: “It’s nothing for me to cut your throat, you’re going to be mine ... I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.” She testified that she pleaded with him to let her go and offered him $50 which she had in her purse, but he refused. He then had sexual intercourse with her. Then he started to smoke a cigarette. She pleaded with him to let her go and started to cry. He told her to “stop crying” because “he couldn’t stand to see anyone cry.” He then, against her will, had a second act of intercourse, and then told Mrs. Porter that he was going to “walk her home.”