Power v. State
Power v. State
Opinion of the Court
Appellant was indicted for and convicted of the offense of an assault with intent to commit rape. Appellant is a youth of 17 years of age, -and was living with his father’s family in a tent on the farm of one Hall, in San Saba County. Mrs. Lowrance, the alleged injured female, with her husband, was also living in a tent, about 200 or 300 yards distant from the tent in which appellant and his father’s family lived. All of these parties had been engaged in picking cotton for Hall.
On the 30th day of September Mrs. Lowrance did not go to the cotton-patch to pick cotton. Neither did appellant go to the field to pick
These are the essential facts disclosed by the record in this case, and we are of opinion that while they show at least a most clear and indisputable case of aggravated assault and battery, if not a higher offense, they fail to sustain the indictment and verdict for an assault with intent to commit rape. There is not the slightest particle of testimony tending to show that appellant’s intention Avas to commit rape. Whatsoever might have been his motive for his conduct, the parties being comparatively strangers to each other, Mrs. Lowrance having only seen defendant a few times before the date of the assault, and howsoever much we may condemn his inexcusable conduct, we can not sanction the verdict and.judgment which has been rendered in this case, because they are in our opinion directly contrary to the evidence; and for this reason the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
Reversed and remanded.
Judges all present and concurring.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.