People v. Martínez
People v. Martínez
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
A grand jury indicted Francisco Martinez for having seduced on August 8, 1919, under promise of marriage, Isidra López, an unmarried woman of previous chaste character, with whom he had carnal intercourse. After a trial before a jury he was found guilty of the said crime and in the appeal by the defendant from the judgment of conviction he alleges in support of its reversal that the promise of marriage was not proved and that as to that and the carnal intercourse, the testimony of Isidra López was not corroborated.
It appears from the evidence that on August 8, 1919, Isidra López, a girl sixteen years old, left the house where she lived with her father and, according to her testimony, was taken by the defendant to the house of his brother where he kept her for about ten days and where they had sexual intercourse; that then he took her to the house of his wife, Inés Marín, where she remained three days, without a renewal of the sexual intercourse; that Inés Marín first left
Inés Marin testified that she was married to Francisco Martínez and had four children by him; that she was not in the house of Dionisio López on the night on which her husband was said to have been there; that she never advised Isidra López to elope with Martinez nor told her that they were divorced, but, on the contrary, she told her not to pay any attention to him because he was her husband, and that when he took Isidra to the house the witness went away.
The verdict of guilty found by the jury, who saw and heard the witnesses, shows that they believed that Isidra López eloped with the defendant on account of his promise to marry her, independently of any advice that Inés Marin
With regard to the sexual intercourse, there is no other direct evidence than the testimony of the girl, but considering the difficulty of corroborating this testimony in the majority of seduction cases' and that in this case the testimony of Inés Marín showed that her husband took Isidra López to her house, for which reason Inés left the house, we are of the opinion that that is a sufficient corroboration in this case.
For the foregoing reasons the judgment should be
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.