35 S.W. 988 | Tex. Crim. App. | 1896
Appellant was convicted of rape, and given a term of five years in the penitentiary, and prosecutes this appeal. The conviction in this case depends solely upon the testimony of Ida Crutchfield, the prosecutrix. She testified that, on the night of the 18th of January, appellant, Jim Price, and herself, went to a party at Mr. Raw-son's, whose house was situated some five miles from the house of the father of the prosecutrix, where she lived; that she and the appellant went to the party on horseback, and Bill Maltby and the sister of the prosecutrix went to the party in a buggy. They returned from the party between 2 and 3 o'clock at night. On the way back, the prosecutrix and the appellant took a road through the pasture of one Tatum, and the prosecutrix's sister and Maltby went around the pasture, which was some distance further than the road through the pasture. She narrates the circumstances attending the rape as follows: "When we had gone into the Tatum pasture, and gotten about a mile or a mile and a half of my father's house, the defendant caught my horse by the bridle, and said: We want to stop here.' He got off of his horse on the left side, and caught hold of me, and pulled me off on the left side of my horse. He was riding on the right side of the road, and I on the left, going north. When he pulled me off my horse, while I was begging and crying, he pulled out a pistol, and said for me to quit, or he would kill me. He laid it down by us. He caught both of my hands in one of his, and held both in that way until he did what he wanted to. He pilled up my clothes, and raped me. His male organ penetrated my female organ. I did all I could to keep him from raping me. I begged him, and, while he held my hands in one of his, I shoved him as well as I could with my arms. I did not kick or scratch him. He was not burised or scratched, as far as I know. My drawers were torn down one leg. He told me, if I told on him, he would kill my father." The prosecutrix testified that she went on home, appellant accompanying her, and that they arrived there a little before her sister and Mr. Maltby came; that she slept *145 with her sister that night, and said nothing about it. Said nothing to her people the next morning, and did not mention the matter until in August following, and then she mentioned it only when her sister remarked that something was the matter with her, and she then told her about the rape that had occurred in the pasture, some seven months previous. Her excuse for not telling sooner was, because the defendant threatened to kill her father if she did, and that he was a dangerous man, and she was afraid of him. On cross-examination, it was developed that, a few days after the alleged rape, she went sleigh riding with the defendant, and went again in a few days after that. The evidence shows that she continued on social relations with him, appellant living a part of the time in the neighborhood, several miles from her father's house.
All of the authorities teach that, where a case of this character rests solely upon the testimony of the prosecutrix, it is the duty of the jury to scrutinize and weigh her testimony very carefully; and in every case it is considered important as corroborative of her evidence that, soon after the alleged rape, she made complaint of the outrage. In Topolanck v. State,
Reversed and Remanded.