Case Name: Charles Perryman v. State
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Arkansas
Decision Date: 1967-05-01
Citations: 242 Ark. 461
Docket Number: 5234
Parties: Charles Perryman v. State
Judges: 
Reporter: Arkansas Reports
Volume: 242
Pages: 461–462

Head Matter:
Charles Perryman v. State
5234
414 S. W. 2d 91
Opinion delivered May 1, 1967
No brief for appellant.
Joe Purcell, Attorney General; Don Langston, Asst. Atty. General, for appellee.

Opinion:
George Rose Smith, Justice.
The appellant was convicted of having indecently exposed himself to a girl under the age of sixteen. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-1127 and -1129 (Repl. 1964). The jury fixed his punishment at imprisonment for six months. 'The testimony of the prosecuting witness and of another high school student who was present when the incident occurred was amply sufficient to support the verdict.
The court did not err in allowing the fifteen-year-old prosecutrix to testify. In criminal cases the trial judge is given wide discretion in determining the competency of a minor as a witness. Harris v. State, 238 Ark. 780, 384 S. W. 2d 477 (1964). There was no abuse of discretion here. Quite the opposite, the record suggests no basis for questioning the competency of this witness. Nor did the court err in refusing to permit defense counsel to delay his opening statement to the jury until the State had rested its case. That exact point was decided in McDaniels v. State, 187 Ark. 1163 (mem.), 63 S. W. 2d 335 (1933).
Affirmed.