State v. Stitz
State v. Stitz
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of tbe court was delivered by
John Stitz was convicted of having illicit intercourse with Ella Davis before she was eighteen years of age. He appeals.
He first complains that evidence of other like offenses was introduced before the jury and that the court erroneously refused to
The refusal of the court to give an instruction that the defendant could not be convicted of the offense charged and relied on by the prosecution unless the county attorney had knowledge of that particular offense when the complaint and information were filed is assigned as error. There is nothing substantial in this complaint. The county attorney who verified and filed the charge had-been informed of numerous acts of illicit intercourse between the parties covering the period in which the act relied on for a conviction was committed. This general information was sufficient to overcome the objection of defendant, but it further appears that while Ella Davis was in the office of the county attorney she related at length the
There is a further complaint, of the refusal of requested instructions to the effect that the charge against the defendant fixed the occurrence of the offense on June 3, 1920, and that unless the unlawful act was committed on that day the jury must acquit the defendant. In this connection the "defendant claimed and undertook to prove that he was not in Shawnee county upon that day, and the court was asked to instruct the jury that if they found he was not in the county on June 3, 1920, the verdict must be an acquittal. Under the evidence it would have been improper to have limited the inquiry and result to the particular day mentioned. When the state was required to elect on'what unlawful act it would rely, it elected the offense committed in the evening about June 3, 1920, on the North Kansas avenue road^.about four miles north of Topeka. In her testimony Ella Davis was not definite in fixing the date of the offense, but she testified that it was about the 3d of June, 1920. The court recognized that the- time was somewhat indefinite, but that it was identified by its occurrence at a certain time of the day and at a certain place, and in respect to the time, the jury wére informed that the state had elected to rely on the act committed “early in June, 1920, about the 3d of June, 1920, on the North Kansas Avenue road,” and the court then advised the jury that they must find that the particular offense had been committed and that he could not be convicted for an-unlawful act on any other occasion. The identity of the offense was shown in part by the time fixed by the witnesses and also by the place and circumstances of its commission. In her testimony, Ella Davis related the circumstantial details of the offense and testified that it was committed about the time named, when the defendant took-her in an automobile to a place on a certain road about four miles north of Topeka. The offense we think was sufficiently shown, and in this state of the evidence the instructions given by the court corresponded with the proof and no error was committed in refusing those requested by the defendant. An instruction appropriate to the defense of an alibi was fully and correctly given by the court.
Although the sufficiency of the evidence is challenged it is regarded to be fully adequate to sustain the verdict of the jury.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The State of Kansas v. John Stitz
- Cited By
- 22 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- SYLLABUS BY THE COURT. 1. Statutory Rape — Other Acts of Sexual Intercourse of Defendant and Prosecutrix Competent. In a prosecution for statutory rape, evidence of prior and subsequent acts of intercourse, may be admitted to show lustful disposition of the defendant as «well as the existence and continuance of the illicit relation, as these may tend to explain the offense charged and to corroborate other testimony of the prosecution. 2. Same — Information—Knowledge of JCouniy Attorney of Particular Offense Charged. The contention that the defendant could not be convicted of the illicit act charged because the county attorney who filed the information did not have knowledge of the .particular offense when the information was filed is sufficiently met where it appears that the county attorney at the time mentioned was informed of numerous acts of illicit intercourse covering the period in which the act', relied on for a conviction was committed. 3. Same — No Error in Instructions. The instructions of the court as to the proof necessary to sustain a conviction, of -the defendant examined and held to be without error. 4. Same — Evidence—Verdiet. The evidence in the case is held to be sufficient to sustain the verdict of the jury. . • 5. Same — Trial—Absence of Formal ‘Arraignment — Waiver by Defendant. The absence of a formal arraignment and plea of the defendant was effectually waived by the acts of the defendant in going to trial without objection and submitting the question of his guilt to the jury impaneled to try him, contesting every question in the case as fully as if there had been a formal arraignment, and not\ raising any objection as to the nonobservance of the formality until the verdict of the jury was returned."