John Powell, Jr., the appellant, Odell Jackson and Bernard Smith were charged by Information with having carnal knowledge of one Arlester Darragh, age 14, on March 23, 1959. They were tried on April 16, 1959, convicted of carnal abuse and sentenced to one year in' the penitentiary. From that judgment John Powell, Jr. prosecutеs this appeal.
On March 23,1959 the three persons above mentioned attacked Arlester Darragh, a negro girl 14 years of age. Appellant drew a razor and threatened Arlester in order to force her to carnally know one of the other boys. Appellant preserved numerous assignments of errоr in his Motion for a new trial including insufficiency of the evidence.
Sufficiency of the Evidence. Arlester and. her father testified that she was only 14 years of age whеn she was attacked. She said the three assailants came to the door of her home and asked for-a drink of water; that Jackson started wrestling with her whеn appellant pulled a razor and threatened her, thereby forcing her to carnally know Jackson without her consent; that she promptly called her father and they went to the police and reported the incident. The Chief of Police stated that he apprehended the three assailants who admitted to being in the house with Arlester but denied the specific charge; that appellant admitted to having the razor in front of Arlester and that he attеmpted to force her to carnally know one of them. The razor was later recovered on information given by appellant. The doctor tеstified that he examined Arlester and detailed certain evidence to support the charge of carnal knowledge.
Arkansas Statutes § 41-3406 provides: “Every person convicted of carnally knowing, or abusing unlawfully, any female person under the age of sixteen years, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for a period of not less than (1) year nor.more than twenty-one (21) years.” Also there is other testimony, as indicated above to corroborate Arlestеr’s story, however, since she was not an accomplice, no such corroboration was necessary. See Bond v. State,
It is apparent from the above, therefore, that there is substantial evidence in the record to support the jury verdict. Especially is this true since it is our duty to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the State. See Daniels v. State,
Appellаnt argues several assignments of error based on certain statements made by the trial judge concerning the credibility of witnesses; on the Judge’s action in sustaining the State’s objection to a question asked the prosecuting witness by appellant and on the admission of answers to several questions. We will not, howevеr, consider the merits-of these assignments for the reason that no proper objections and exceptions were made in "these particular instances. See: McKinley v. Broom,
On cross-examination of the prosecuting witness the defendant asked her this question: “Did you have any trouble with your sisters becausе they were objecting to you running around and leaving home and having the police to look you up?” The objection by the State was sustained by the Court and this is assigned as error. Clearly the Court was right. Not only did'this question call for a conclusion but it was immaterial because of the age of'Arlester. On direct examination the State asked one of its witnesses this question: “Q. In your conversation with the prosecutrix did you learn the identity; of anybody you later picked up?” In response to appellant’s objection to the question the Court-stated: “He (the witness) can say whether or not she-described some people and whether- or not he made an investigation.” This did not constitute reversible error. See Trotter v. State,
The officer, Lammers, was allowed over the objections of the defendant to testify that appellant told him that hе told the prosecuting witness she was going to have intercourse with one of them and that he had a razor and had it up in front of her. This was admissible .as an admission tending to connect appellant with the crime for which he was charged. See Dearen v. State,
After the State and the defense had closed their case .and after each had so announced, appellant moved for .a mistrial because of certain questions asked by the Prosecuting Attorney on the previous day during the trial. We have examined the questions complained of .and find nothing in them to call for a mistrial. Moreover, an objection tо be effective must be made at the first opportunity to do so,' or appellant must move for exclusion. See Clardy v. State,
Appellant objected to sevéral remarks made by the State’s attorney in his' closing1 argument, but we think any possible error was cured by the court’s cautionary instructions to the jury. The Court instructed the jury not to consider certain statements the State’s attorney .had made. In the case of Hicks v. State,
Finally, appellant argues that the cause should be reversed because of the alleged error committed by the trial court in refusing to give appellant’s Requested Instruction No. 1 which reads as follows: “Even if you should find one of the defendants had, on some priоr occasion to that mentioned in the information as having occurred March 23, 1959, had intercourse with the prosecutrix and that she was under 16 years of age, you would still not be justified in convicting for carnal abuse on any such prior occasion.” We think this instruction was properly refused because our search of the record fails to reveal any basis for the giving of such instruction, and appellant has not called our attention to any. This Court has uniformly held that where the evidence does not support an instruction it should be refused. See Sims v. State,
Therefore, finding no reversible error the judgment of the trial court should be, and it is hereby, affirmed.
Affirmed.