Opinion ID: 1782064
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: The victim, her parents, and her fiancee, accompanied by a group of friends and business acquaintances, traveled from Houston to attend the Crawfish Festival at Breaux Bridge. Arriving at the festival grounds around noon, the victim and her companions enjoyed the festivities while she consumed a disputed amount of alcoholic beverages. [1] In the late afternoon, the victim became separated from her friends. She met defendant and his companion, Todd Aubrey, on the festival grounds. After a few minutes of conversation, she accepted their offer to accompany them to a convenience store to purchase additional beer. The ensuing events were disputed. According to the victim, she was an innocent young woman who naively believed no harm could come by accompanying two strangers on a quick trip to buy some additional beer for herself and her friends at a cost lower than the price of beer sold at the festival. She became suspicious when they passed several stores which obviously sold beer. After the men ignored her requests to return to the festival and made uninvited advances, she became frightened. She was eventually forced to engage in sexual intercourse and oral sex with both men. Although she resisted and even tried to run away at one point, she was overtaken and forcibly restrained. She was afraid to display more resistance because of threats of death. After a period of about six hours, the men released her, taking her jewelry and clothes and leaving her with only a torn shirt and a paper sack to cover her body. She then ran to a house where she called police and relatives. Information provided by the victim led the detectives to suspect defendant and Aubrey. The victim then made photographic identifications of both of them from a high school yearbook. Defendant and Aubrey were indicted for aggravated rape and second degree kidnapping. A trial of Aubrey alone resulted in a mistrial when the jury could not reach a verdict. At the second trial, defendant and Aubrey were tried together for aggravated rape and second degree kidnapping. Their attorneys urged that the sex acts were consensual. After completion of the evidence, the trial judge granted the prosecutor's motion under Article 814C to exclude the statutory responsive verdicts of simple rape and attempted simple rape. [2] The court noted that these verdicts were responsive to the charged offense, but were not responsive to the evidence. Both defendants were convicted of the lesser offenses of forcible rape and simple kidnapping. Each defendant appealed separately. [3] Defendant's conviction and sentence were affirmed by the court of appeal. 615 So.2d 507. On the responsive verdict issue, the court concluded that the trial judge had correctly excluded the responsive verdicts of simple rape and attempted simple rape, stating that the record contained no evidence which would reasonably support guilty verdicts on those offenses. We granted defendant's application for certiorari, being principally concerned with the responsive verdict issue in the rape conviction. 629 So.2d 372. While we affirm the simple kidnapping conviction, concluding that the court of appeal correctly decided the assignments of error pertaining to that conviction, we reverse the forcible rape conviction and remand for a new trial.