Title: Burke v. State
Citation: 238 N.E.2d 1, 250 Ind. 568
Docket Number: 867S62
State: Indiana
Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court
Date: June 24, 1968

250 Ind. 568 (1968)
238 N.E.2d 1
BURKE
v.
STATE OF INDIANA.
No. 867S62.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed June 24, 1968.
*569 Work &amp; Kimbrough, of Gary, for appellant.
John J. Dillon, Attorney General, and Dennis J. Dewey, Deputy Attorney General, for appellee.
JACKSON, J.
Appellant was charged by affidavit with the crime of rape, waived arraignment and trial by jury and entered a plea of not guilty. At the conclusion of the State's evidence appellant moved for a directed verdict. The court *570 reserved ruling on the motion. Appellant submitted evidence. The State submitted additional evidence, and both parties rested. Arguments were heard on appellant's motion for directed verdict and on the evidence presented. Thereafter the court found appellant guilty as charged. From such finding and judgment thereon stems this appeal.
The affidavit, in pertinent part, reads as follows:
The finding and judgment of the court, in pertinent part, reads as follows:
*571 Appellant's Motion For New Trial, omitting heading and formal parts, reads in pertinent part as follows:
Q. What was your physical condition on October 8th, 1965?
James L. Hilton, a Detective Sergeant with the Gary Police Department who investigated the complaint on October 9, 1965, testified that he obtained a warrant for the appellant's arrest. When the police arrested appellant, they searched his apartment and found a loaded pistol on the couch. Hilton identified State's Exhibit No. 1 as the pistol he found in appellant's apartment. He identified State's Exhibit No. 2 as a scarf which the complaining witness had given to him. It was stipulated that the scarf was examined by Sgt. Keith Young of the Indiana State Police Laboratory and that the test results showed male semen.
Dr. Clarence Boone, an Obstetrician and Gynecologist, testified that he saw the complaining witness twice on October 8, 1965. The first time he saw her was about 6:15 p.m. in his office where she had come for a follow up examination after surgery, a hysterectomy, he had performed on her in August, 1965. He advised her to refrain from having intercourse until she saw him again. He saw her again about 11:05 p.m. at Methodist Hospital. At that time she had an abrasion of the lower lip in the left corner. There was a swelling on the exterior portion of the lip in the same area. There was a milky discharge noted in the vestibule. A speculum examination revealed a milky discharge on the vaginal walls and in the posterior portion of the vaginal vault. Slides of the secretions were stained with Corbolfuchsin Stain which revealed spermatozoa present within the smear. Some of the secretion was placed in a saline solution. When examined under the microscope it also revealed spermatozoa present.
*578 The appellant took the stand in his own behalf. He admitted the commission of the acts of sodomy but denied the use of force. He contended the prosecuting witness voluntarily submitted for money, twenty-five dollars. He admitted that he attempted to have intercourse with her, but he claimed he had been unable to accomplish penetration.
Under proposition 1 of his argument he argues grounds 1, 2 and 3 of his Motion for New Trial. We will discuss them in inverse order.
The prosecuting witness testified her name was Jean Williams Dear, that she was not married to Mr. Dear but had lived with him as his wife for 5 or 6 years. She also testified she had known both appellant and his wife since 1959 and became acquainted with him through her former husband L.C. Williams. She further testified she was the same Jean Dear who appeared as the person raped in this affidavit. Under these circumstances the appellant could not have been misled by any variance in the name of the complaining witness. Appellant's testimony on the witness stand by which he asserted the witness voluntarily submitted to him for money and his admission of the acts of sodomy and his admission of attempted acts of sexual intercourse with the complaining witness, would in the opinion of the writer, estop him from claiming a variance in the name or names of the witness. In effect appellant is pleading, in this ground, confession and avoidance and he thereby admits the acts with the complaining witness, whatever her name, but claims the acts are not criminal under the averments of the affidavit on which he was tried as the element of force was lacking.
The grounds cited at 1, 2 and 3 of appellant's motion for a new trial relate primarily to the weight and sufficiency of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses. These questions are to be determined by the trier of the facts and unless there is a total lack of evidence on an essential element of the crime charged the verdict below will *579 not be disturbed. Reid v. State (1967), 249 Ind. 247, 231 N.E.2d 808; Davis v. State (1968), 249 Ind. 373, 232 N.E.2d 867; Beatty v. State (1963), 244 Ind. 598, 194 N.E.2d 727; Wojcik v. State (1965), 246 Ind. 257, 204 N.E.2d 866.
Appellant's Proposition II as presented in his brief raises no question here as it has been answered as part of the answer to appellant's first proposition. Appellant made no denial of the complaining witness' statement that she had known him since 1959 while married to her former husband, Williams, nor to her testimony that she for 5 1/2 or 6 years lived with Nathaniel Dear as his wife and had been known as Jean Williams Dear. As previously stated his defense of confession and avoidance, under the circumstances as they exist in this case estop appellant. In view of the evidence in the record we conclude that neither the State nor the appellant was harmed or helped by the "rebuttal evidence" appellant objected to.
Appellant's Proposition III as presented in his brief relates to the admission in evidence of State's Exhibit No. 1 and State's Exhibit No. 2. The prosecuting witness identified both exhibits, State's 1 and 2, as shown by the following questions and answers:
The question on cross examination may have confused the witness as to whether State's Exhibit No. 1 was a gun or a pistol but no where and at no time did the cross examination contradict or impeach the testimony of the prosecuting witness on direct examination that she had seen State's Exhibit No. 1 in appellant's apartment on October 8th, 1965, and that she "saw him having held on you" State's Exhibit No. 1.
We are of the opinion the appellant was not harmed by the admission of State's Exhibits Nos. 1 and 2 or either of them. The question of force and the willingness or unwillingness, or consent, of the prosecuting witness in submitting to the acts of the appellant is in issue. Lack of consent and force constitute the gravamen of the offense charged. The evidence in the record is that she testified appellant hit her in the mouth with his fist. The medical evidence of the doctor corroborated her testimony relative to the blow. She testified appellant persisted in his intent to have sexual intercourse with her in spite of her pleas to let her *581 alone, her tears, her information to him that she had recently undergone surgery and her statement to him that her doctor told her not to have intercourse at that time. There was evidence of probative value, in the record, from which the court could have and did believe that appellant's objectives were consummated over the objections and without the consent of the prosecuting witness. Credibility of witnesses and weight of evidence are for the trier of the facts. Davis v. State, supra.
The fourth and last proposition raised by appellant in his brief is to the testimony of Dr. Boone who examined the prosecuting witness at Methodist Hospital about 11:00 p.m. on October 8, 1965. The basis of the objection is summarized in the heading of appellant's argument under this proposition as follows:
In support of the above proposition appellant cites Gay v. United States (1941), 118 F.2d 160 and Warren's (sic) Criminal Evidence Vol. 2, Sec. 693 at page 680. The above cited authority is to the effect that an x-ray plate was the best evidence of what said x-rays revealed and that a physician could not testify as to his interpretation of the plate without its introduction and acceptance into evidence.
We do not find appellant's argument in support of this proposition persuasive. In the first place the witness is the doctor who took the "vaginal wash," who prepared the "saline solution," who made the slides and applied the stain thereto, and who testified as to the presence of the spermatozoa as a result of such activities. The doctor testified as to what he did, what he observed and to the presence of the spermatozoa. This is quite different than "reading an x-ray picture" taken by some one else. Here the doctor was testifying to the results of his own work. Further, in the *582 opinion of the writer, the objection if such it be, came too late, the objection should have been made when the doctor testified on direct examination and followed by a motion to strike the answer instead of waiting until cross examination. Finally the doctor's testimony relative to spermatozoa, was only cumulative, and would not tend to show whether or not the sexual intercourse was voluntary or involuntary and by force. The appellant admits he attempted intercourse but contends it was voluntary and for money, in view of this fact it is immaterial whether spermatozoa was or was not present in the wash, solution or slides.
We fail to see how the defendant's rights would be prejudiced, in the case at bar, even if the court erred in admitting the doctor's testimony. Brown v. State (1964), 245 Ind. 604, 201 N.E.2d 281.
Finding no prejudicial error the judgment below is affirmed.
Lewis, C.J., and Arterburn and Hunter, JJ., concur; Mote, J., not participating.
NOTE.  Reported in 238 N.E.2d 1.