Montresser v. State
Montresser v. State
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from a conviction of the crime of rape committed upon Emma Klapp, a female child nine years of
The testimony of the child is in many respects open to suspicion. Her tender years rendered her susceptible to the influence of malicious and designing persons, and it was shown that her father and the defendant were not upon friendly terms. She testified through the medium of an interpreter, stating that she could not speak the English language, but could only speak the German language, and yet she detailed conversations which she had had with the defendant, who, it was proved, could not speak the German language. She made no outcry when she was outraged. She made no complaint of the outrage for more than three days after it occurred. She went about and played with other children as usual. Ho traces of the outrage were discovered upon her clothing, nor did her appearance and demeanor indicate that she had been injured, except ■ that upon examination, on the fourth day after her alleged injury, her private parts were found to be swollen, sore, inflamed and somewhat lacerated, as if they had been penetrated by the male organ. The place where she located the commission of the crime was a room in the second story of defendant’s house, which house was in the city of Dallas, adjacent to other houses which were at the time inhabited, and very near also the house of her father. Defendant’s house was lightly constructed of wood, and a noise in one part of the house would pervade the whole building. She stated that the crime was committed about 4 o’clock, P. M., on Saturday, the 21st of February, 1885. During the whole of that evening defendant’s wife and a servant woman were in and immediately about the house; heard no noise up stairs — did not see the child on the premises, and did not see the defendant there from soon after dinner until supper time. So they testified.
The mother of the child did not observe that anything was wrong with the child until Wednesday, the fourth day after the alleged outrage. She noticed blood spots on the bed where the child had slept on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday mornings, but, strange to say, did not inquire into, or make any examination to ascertain the source or cause of such spots. A physician, Dr. Gibbs, made an ocular examination of the child’s private parts on the fifth day
In view of the unsatisfactory evidence of the State; the exculpatory evidence of the defendant; the singularly lenient punishment assessed, indicating that the jury were not fully satisfied as to defendant’s guilt, and the newly-discovered evidence set forth in defendant’s motion for a new trial, we think the court below erred in refusing the defendant a new trial; and because of such error the judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
[Opinion delivered November 11, 1885.]
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.