Case Name: John Edwards v. The State
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1897-02-10
Citations: 37 Tex. Crim. 242
Docket Number: No. 1252
Parties: John Edwards v. The State.
Judges: 
Reporter: Texas Criminal Reports
Volume: 37
Pages: 242–244

Head Matter:
John Edwards v. The State.
No. 1252.
Decided February 10th, 1897.
Motion for Rehearing Decided March 3rd, 1897.
1. Assault With Intent to Commit Rape—Evidence Sufficient.
See, evidence stated in the opinion, which the court holds sufficient to support a verdict and judgment of conviction for assault with intent to commit rape.
ON MOTION EOR REHEARING.
2. Assault With Intent to Rape a'Female Under Fifteen Years of Age— Indictment.
An indictment, for assault with intent to commit rape, which alleges that the female is under the age of fifteen years, to be sufficient, must further allege that the female was not the wife of the defendant.
Appeal from the Criminal District Court of Harris. Tried below before Hon. E. D. Cavin.
Appeal from a conviction, for assault with intent to rape; penalty, six years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary.
The opinion states the case.
W. J. Howard, for appellant.
Mann Trice, Assistant Attorney-General, for the State.

Opinion:
HURT, Presiding Judge.
Appellant was convicted of an assault with intent to rape, and his punishment assessed at six years in the penitentiary, and he prosecutes this appeal. The indictment charges the offense to have been committed on a female under the age of fifteen years. The evidence shows that appellant was sleeping at the house of the prosecutrix, in the kitchen; that the prosecutrix, who was ten years of age, was sleeping in an adjoining room, and her parents in the front room. The door between the kitchen and the room in which the prosecutrix was sleeping was bolted, and there was no mode of ingress into said room from the kitchen, except by climbing over a partition wall. The evidence indicated that the entry had been made by that means. Some time in the night, the mother of the prosecutrix, hearing a noise in her daughter's room, went in, and saw the defendant on top of the prosecutrix. He had his drawers pulled down, and had unbuttoned her drawers, and appeared to be about to copulate with prosecutrix. The prosecutrix had not been aroused from her slumber. The mother gave the alarm, and her husband rushed in, and seized appellant. Appellant at first claimed to be walking in his sleep, but subsequently said he had done wrong. The charge of the court was pertinent to the issues as presented by the testimony, and we think the evidence showed the use of such force as to establish the specific intent of the defendant to have carnal intercourse with the prosecutrix. The judgment is accordingly affirmed.
Affirmed.