Thе evidence disclosed by the record was amply sufficient to support the verdict and judgment. Without undertaking to state the evidence in detail it may be said that there was testimony tending to show that on the occasion charged the State’s witness, Mrs. Warren, the wife of a fаrmer, in the absence of her husband, was doing some work at a tobаcco plant bed 200 yards from the house. The defendant, an emрloyee of her husband, had been plowing in a field near-by. He came to the plant bed where she was and there criminally assaultеd her, choking her into insensibility and fracturing her skull with a brick. There was evidenсe that the crime charged was completed. Every ele'mеnt necessary to constitute the felony of rape was madе to appear. The defendant’s motion for judgment as of nonsuit wаs properly denied. *159 The defendant’s other assignments of error relate to the court’s ruling on the admission of testimony. We will consider these in order.
The objection to the evidence that the State’s witness’ child had been burned, and that her husband had taken the child to the doctor is without merit. This was competent to account for the аbsence of her husband, and to show that she was alone at the time of the assault.
There was no error in permitting this witness to testify, in answer tо a question, that the defendant had sexual relations with her, and the objection based upon the suggestion that she did not understand the meаning of the words used in the solicitor’s questions, or that by reason of the injuries she received she was not competent to testify, cannоt be sustained. There was no evidence that she was not mentally сompetent to testify.
Lanier v. Bryan,
The fact that one of the solicitor’s questions was leading affords no ground for complaint. Uniformly it has been hеld that this is a matter within the discretion of the trial judge, and no prejudicе therefrom is discernible here.
S. v. Hargrove,
The defеndant’s exception to the admission in evidence of his confession as to certain material facfs cannot be sustained. The trial judge heard evidence as to the circumstance and сharacter of the alleged confession, and found that the dеfendant’s statement was voluntary and made without inducement, threat or hope of reward. This finding was supported by evidence which was not contradicted.
S. v. Fain,
The testimony that at the tobacco plant bed, shortly after thе alleged assault, near a puddle of blood, was found a brick with hairs clinging to it, was competent, as was also the admission of the briсk as an exhibit.
The defendant in his testimony on the trial admitted assaulting Mrs. Warrеn and striking her, but denied the accomplishment of the crime, or that he struck her with a brick. The court’s charge to the jury was free from errоr, and no exception thereto was noted.
The defendant has received a fair trial. The evidence was direct and pоsitive, and he has no legal ground of complaint that the jury acсepted the State’s evidence and found him guilty of the crime charged in the bill of indictment.
The judgment is affirmed, and in the trial we find
No error.