People v. Franklin

FOURT, J. This is an appeal from a judgment of eonvic- ' tion of rape (§261, subd. 3, Pen. Code).

In an information filed in Los Angeles on September 11, 1967, appellant herein was charged in count 1 with raping Valerie King on or about June 26, 1967. Counts 2 and 3 of the information referred to appellant’s eodefendant Tommy Lee Ray wherein he was charged in count 2 with having raped Valerie King at the time and occasion above mentioned. Each of the defendants pleaded not guilty. The prosecutor’s motion to consolidate the cause for trial with People v. Dizadare, No. A001504 (another forcible rape charge upon Valerie King) was granted. A jury trial was waived. Defendants were found guilty as charged. Appellant was sentenced to the state prison. A timely notice of appeal was filed.

A résumé of some of the facts is as follows: on June 25, 1967, in the evening, Valerie King upon invitation got into a car in which Franklin was riding. Thereafter the car in which appellant and Valerie King were riding was driven to the residence of Diana Hill where the latter agreed to go skating •with the group. Contrary to the first understanding that they were going to a skating rink in Hollywood the car was driven to an outlying area where ultimately and after the purchase of some liquor Miss King was asked to enter a room of a home of a relative of one of the men in the group. An effort was made by one of the men to have an act of sexual intercourse with Miss King. She resisted and finally got out of the house and into a ear which was parked outside. Ultimately after riding around in the Pacific Coast Highway area the car-in which Miss King was riding was parked in a vacant lot. [645]Shortly thereafter two other ears arrived at the lot. After different altercations between Miss King and some of the men in the group she was placed in one of the cars where with force her underclothes were removed. One of the men (Osborne) then forcibly engaged in an act of sexual intercourse with Miss King. This course was followed upon Miss King by codefendant Kay, a third man not known by Miss King and codefendant Dizadare. Appellant then with force and violence committed an act of sexual intercourse upon Miss King. A sixth man, whose name was unknown to the victim, followed similarly and had an act of intercourse with her.

Thereafter Miss King and Miss Hill were told that they were going to be taken to a motel. Miss King acted as if she was going to faint but when she saw a car coming down the street she started to run. She ran toward a house porch light and proceeded to run through a glass door of the home. She was cut going through the doorway. In the house Miss King related to the occupants what had occurred and the police were called. Miss King called her mother and the latter with the victim’s sister came to the home. The police took Miss King to a doctor where she was examined. She was sick for two weeks and was given penicillin shots for ten consecutive days. One of the occupants of the house into which Miss King ran, testified that on the night in question in the early morning hours, she heard a Negro girl crying and screaming, the girl was bloody and “pretty messed up. ’ ’