Turner v. State
Turner v. State
Opinion of the Court
Lewis Turner was indicted, tried, and convicted in the Superi- or Court of Willces County of assault with intent to rape one Leona Jones by “violently, forcibly and feloniously” assaulting her with intent to ravish her. On the trial of the case, the prosecutrix testified that she arrived in Washington, Georgia, by bus at 10:45 on the night of January 19, 1951; that she was new in that community; that she expected her husband to meet her, but when he did not, she set out to walk to her home at 612 Whitehall Street; that the defendant came by in a taxi and asked her if she wanted a taxi; that, after hesitating, she got in, being afraid she was getting lost; that she told the defendant to take her to 612 Whitehall Street; that she observed him going the wrong way and repeated the address; that he said, “I am going to Whitehall”; that she noticed that he was continuing as he was going before, and then she again told him he must have misunderstood her, that she was not talking about the route to Whitehall but about Whitehall Street, and begged him to turn around. The witness continued: “He picked up speed then and kept going, and when he got to this dirt road, he got off the pavement; I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had to think fast. I knew I couldn’t jump out on the highway after he got on the pavement, I was afraid of being killed. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but after he went to turn in, that is when I had to jump, and just then I opened the door . . and jumped out and he put on speed. I tried to jump to my feet where I would not fall. I don’t know exactly how I fell, but anyway I was trying to jump to my feet. I kind of fell some way or another. But anyway, I was getting up, and when he found out I had jumped he put on brakes. I had already got out and went to get up when he attacked me, and some way or another I was on my feet and,got loose from him and ran to the highway. He backed out and when I got up the highway a little piece he drove along slow and asked me an unfair question. He told me if I would give him some . . he would take me back to town. I told him I was going straight to town and report him.” The witness further testified that, after saying this, she was afraid the
1. The first ground of the amended motion for a new trial contends that the judge committed error in his charge, in that, after the jury had deliberated for some time after they returned and requested instructions on the question “as to whether this woman had been touched by this man or not,” thereupon the court charged that an assault is an attempt to commit a violent injury on another; that contact is not essential to the commission of the assault; that the elements of the crime are assault, intent to have carnal knowledge, and purpose to effect such intent forcibly and against the woman’s will, and that the assault may be made with or without contact. It is contended that this was erroneous, in that it might have led the jury to believe that they would be compelled to find the movant guilty if they found that he used mere words, without threats or intimidation, whether or not there was any evidence that the defendant intended to commit a violent injury on the person. of the prosecutrix. From an examination of the language used by the court, this contention would appear without merit, it appearing that the court, while directly replying to the jurors’ question charged them that contact was not essential, and further charged again the elements of the crime, including the purpose to effect the intent forcibly.
As stated in Jackson v. State, 91 Ga. 322, 329 (18 S. E. 132, 44 Am. St. R. 25): “No actual touching of the woman’s person is necessary to complete the assault. There need be nothing more than the intention to accomplish sexual intercourse presently by force, and the active prosecution of that intention until a situation of immediate, present danger to
2. The second special ground complains that the law of assault and battery was not charged. While it is error, even in the absence of request, on a trial of one charged with assault with intent to rape, to fail to charge the lesser offense of assault and battery, where the elements thereof are included in the indictment and there is evidence which would authorize a finding of guilt of that offense (see Fields v. State, 2 Ga. App. 41 (3), 58 S. E. 327; Barton v. State, 58 Ga. App. 554, 199 S. E. 357; Reeves v. State, 78 Ga. App. 126, SO S. E. 2d, 640)—nevertheless, there may be an assault with intent to rape without committing a battery on the female assaulted (Goldin v. State, 104 Ga. 549 (1), 30 S. E. 749), and where no battery is charged in the indictment, a conviction of assault and battery will not stand. Davis v. State, 41 Ga. App. 466 (153 S. E. 436). The indictment here charges merely that the defendant “violently, forcibly, and feloniously, did make an assault with the intent, on her, the said Leona Jones, then and there forcibly and against her will to feloniously ravish and carnally know.” No striking or beating is charged, and, since the elements of assault and battery are not present in the indictment, the court correctly omitted to charge this offense. It should be noted, however, that the indictment does embrace the lesser offense of assault, and had error been assigned on the failure of the trial court to charge this offense, reversal of the trial court would have been demanded. See Smalls v. State, 6 Ga. App. 502 (2) (65 S. E. 295).
3. In considering the general grounds of the motion for a new trial, attention is called to the case oí-Dorsey v. State, 108 Ga. 477 (34 S. E. 135), in which the elements of proof necessary to sustain a conviction of assault with intent to rape are most lucidly set out, and to Parker v. State, 72 Ga. App. 302 (33 S. E. 2d, 739), a recent case holding the evidence insufficient to prove the elemént of intent to commit a rape, as opposed to an intent equally to commit some other crime, and numerous cases cited therein. Since in every case of this kind the details vary according to the event, an analysis must be made, and a judgment based thereon, as to whether the proof offered, construed in its light most favorable to upholding the verdict, authorized the jury to find (1) an assault, (2) an intent to have carnal knowledge of the female, and (3) to have a purpose to .carry into effect this intent with force and against the consent of the female. As to the assault, the evidence of the prosecutrix was that the defendant "attacked” her. As to his intent, there is the evidence of the prosecutrix that, after she fled from the car and began walking down the road toward town, the defendant drove by and told her that he would drive her back to town if she would have sexual relations with him; also his statement to the police officer that his purpose had been to have intercourse with her. As to his purpose to carry this intent into effect by force and without her consent, there is the evidence of the prosecutrix, corroborated by circumstantial evidence, that the defendant ignored her directions to him to drive her to her home, but on the contrary drove in another direction out into
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.