Opinion
No. 28,788.
February 19, 1932.
Rape — conviction sustained.
Evidence in a carnal knowledge case held so consistent with the hypothesis of guilt as to sustain conviction.
Defendant was convicted in the district court for Olmsted county of the crime of carnal knowledge of a female under the age of 18 and appealed from an order, Gates, J. denying his motion for a new trial. Affirmed.
Christensen Ronken, for appellant.
Henry N. Benson, Attorney General, James E. Markham, Deputy Attorney General, and Richard Manahan, County Attorney, for the state.
A jury having found defendant guilty of the crime of carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of 18, he appeals from the order denying his motion for a new trial.
There is presented only a question as to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict. The commission of the offense was well proved. The remaining issue was whether one Sweeney was the sole offender or was aided by defendant as principal or accessory. The crime was committed in the automobile paint shop of defendant at night, where the unfortunate girl remained from between 9:30 and 10 p. m. to 12:35 a. m. When she first arrived with Sweeney she was given several drinks of liquor, which she says was procured and "mixed" by defendant. Her testimony is that they told her "to drink it down fast"; that she immediately lost consciousness and did not come to until hours later, when she was at home under the treatment of physicians. Their testimony indicates the effect of some stupefying drug.
The record is such, particularly as to the condition in which the girl was found, that, the evidence for the state having been believed by the jury, there is abundant support for the verdict. It agrees entirely with the hypothesis of defendant's being at least a more or less active accessory, a conclusion reinforced by his "jumping" his bail bond and remaining a fugitive from justice for some three years.
Order affirmed.