Case Title: Williams v. State

Citation: 254 Ind. 4, 256 N.E.2d 913

Docket Number: 569S103

State: indiana

Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Date: 1970-04-13T00:00:00Z

Document:
254 Ind. 4 (1970)
256 N.E.2d 913
WILLIAMS
v.
STATE OF INDIANA.
No. 569S103.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed April 13, 1970.
Rehearing denied June 4, 1970.
Palmer K. Ward, of Indianapolis, for appellant.
Theodore L. Sendak, Attorney General and Murray West, Deputy Attorney General for appellee.
HUNTER, C.J.
Appellant was charged by affidavit in two counts with having offered to commit for hire acts of sexual intercourse and sodomy. Trial before the court resulted in a finding of guilty and sentence on both counts to the Indiana *5 Women's Prison for not less than two nor more than five years.
It is appellant's sole contention that the evidence is insufficient to uphold the conviction. A review of the evidence most favorable to the appellee discloses the following: the chief prosecuting witness, one Fred Cipriani, a police officer assigned to the vice squad, saw appellant and four other female subjects standing on the corner of the second hundred block of East Twenty-Fourth Street. Cipriani had stopped in his car for a stop sign when he was approached by one Diane Hamilton who asked if he wanted "to party." Upon inquiry as to the type of party, Miss Hamilton indicated that for ten dollars she would indulge in a "half and half." Cipriani was then asked if he wanted a "two-girl party" at which time Miss Hamilton called appellant to the car. Upon learning of the offer and purported acceptance by Officer Cipriani, appellant took the parties to her house on North Talbott. On the way to the house appellant informed Cipriani that he need not worry about the police as they had not yet discovered the fact that she was using the place for such "parties." Once inside the house Miss Hamilton began undressing but appellant refused to do so until she received the ten dollars agreed upon. Cipriani asked her what the money was for, to which she responded that it was for the same thing Miss Hamilton said she would do. At this point both women were placed under arrest.
As noted, appellant's only challenge to the conviction is that the evidence was insufficient. More particularly, appellant asserts that there was no offer on her part to commit acts of sexual intercourse or sodomy. Such an offer, however, can clearly be implied from her actions in conjunction with those of Miss Hamilton. Appellant and Miss Hamilton appeared to be loitering on a street corner. Miss Hamilton approached Cipriani and asked him if he wanted "to party" and that it would cost ten dollars for a "half and half." Upon the agreement of Cipriani, appellant came along to afford a "two-girl *6 party." She told Cipriani that for her ten dollars she would do the same thing that Miss Hamilton had offered to do.
A "half and half" is defined in Wentworth and Flexner, Dictionary of American Slang 688 (1967) as follows:
Webster's Third New Unabridged Dictionary (1961) defines fellatio as "the practice of obtaining sexual satisfaction by oral stimulation of the penis." Such has been held to be sodomy. Glover v. State (1913), 179 Ind. 459, 101 N.E. 629; Estes v. Estes (1964), 244 Ind. 691, 195 N.E.2d 471.
The evidence and all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom clearly shows that appellant offered to commit acts of sexual intercourse and sodomy. Surely it can not be said that to constitute a violation of the statute (Ind. Ann. Stat § 10-4220 (1969 Supp.)), the offer must be express and in precise statutory language. The offer was implicit in appellant's words and actions when taken in the context in which they occurred. As was said in Burton v. State (1952), 232 Ind. 246, 111 N.E.2d 892, this court should not be ignorant as judges of what we know as men.
For the foregoing reasons the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Arterburn and Givan, JJ., concur; Jackson, J., dissents with opinion in which DeBruler, J., concurs with opinion.
JACKSON, J.
I am unable to concur in the majority opinion herein and dissent thereto.
Appellant was charged by affidavit in two counts with having offered to commit for hire acts of sexual intercourse and *7 sodomy. This prosecution was instituted pursuant to Burns' Statute § 10-4220 (1969 Supp.), which reads as follows, to-wit:
The affidavit charging the offense in pertinent part reads as follows:
*8 Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 18th day of DECEMBER, A.D. 1967.
This case was tried to the Court without the intervention of a jury on a plea of not guilty, on January 31, 1969. At the conclusion of the trial the court made the following finding:
Thereafter the court entered the following judgment:
The defendant by counsel filed Motion for New Trial.
The evidence of the prosecuting witness in this case in question and answer form appears at pages 22 to 27 inclusive of the transcript, and reads as follows:
Following the testimony of the prosecuting witness is the testimony of Officer Gigure relative to this matter. His testimony appears in transcript pages 29 to 31 inclusive. His testimony may be summarized by saying he had no conversation with appellant on the 15th of September, 1967, and that as far as he knows "Miss Williams is a female."
The State then rested and the defense rested at which time the defense moved for a discharge "For the reason that there has been no testimony by Mr. Cipriani, or also by Sergeant Gigure, that Josephine Williams at any time offered to commit an unlawful act of sexual intercourse or sodomy as covered by the affidavit, it was some other person."
It appears to me that there is a total lack of evidence of probative value to sustain the judgment in this case.
In passing it might be well to take a look at two sections of the Constitution of our State, namely Section 16 which reads as follows:
Section 18 of the Constitution of this State reads as follows:
We find many instances where crimes of far greater magnitude are punished by considerably lesser imprisonment than that fixed for violation of this particular law.
I am sure Cotton Mather and his fellow witch-hunters will welcome Indiana's joining their blue-nose society.
The judgment herein should be reversed and the cause remanded *13 to the trial court with instructions to sustain appellant's motion to dismiss for lack of evidence.
DeBruler, J., concurs with opinion.
DeBRULER, J.
I dissent from the majority opinion and concur in Judge Jackson's dissenting opinion. The utterances of this appellant under the circumstances shown are insufficient to support the judgment of the trial court. Glover v. State (1969), 253 Ind. 121, 20 Ind. Dec. 338, 251 N.E.2d 814; Acts 1963, ch. 220, § 1, being Burns' Annotated Statute § 60-908.
NOTE.  Reported in 256 N.E.2d 913.