Opinion ID: 2303190
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction

Text: Initially, the Defendant asserts that the verdict of guilty is not supported by sufficient evidence to allow it to stand. This ground on appeal has been correctly preserved by the Defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of all the evidence. M.R.Crim.P., Rule 29(a); e. g., State v. Sawyer, Me., 314 A.2d 830, 832 (1974). However, a review of the evidence demonstrates there is no basis to the Defendant's claim. The jury heard testimony to the effect that the Defendant, although divorced from his first wife, Mrs. Betty Worrey, was living with her sporadically in the spring of 1972. On a Friday evening in late May, 1972 Julie Worrey, the 13-year-old daughter of the Defendant and Betty Worrey, attended a concert with a girl friend. The two girls came home and went to bed in separate beds in Julie's bedroom. Meanwhile Julie's parents had gone to a friend's house where extensive drinking took place. They arrived home very early on Saturday morning. Julie's mother testified that as soon as she went to bed in her bedroom the Defendant seized her and said he was going to have sexual intercourse with Julie. He threatened to kill the mother if she interfered. Mr. Worrey, physically much larger than his ex-wife, forced her to go into Julie's bedroom. He woke up his daughter and told her to come into the other room. The girl's mother told Julie to run, but she stumbled and fell and could not get away. The Defendant took both mother and daughter back to the mother's bedroom forcibly. She said he told both females to lie on the bed and threatened them with death if they disobeyed. The Defendant, now nude, placed himself on top of his daughter with his arm around her mother's neck. Julie testified that her father forced himself into her as he held down her mother. Both females were crying and trying to escape. According to Julie, her father performed two acts of sexual intercourse during this episode. When the father finally left the scene, the girl's mother noted that she saw blood and semen on the bed sheet. The father then announced that he was going to run and leave the state. Julie went back to her room and put on her clothes. Still crying, she then heard a loud bang. Her mother yelled to Julie and her friend and told them to get out the window onto the roof. Mrs. Worrey testified that she pulled a loaded gun from her drawer in her room and shot the Defendant in the back as he combed his hair. He fell to his knees, and his ex-wife tried to shoot again, but the gun would not fire. She said the Defendant then arose and pursued her, getting as far as the kitchen where he collapsed near the refrigerator. Mrs. Worrey then proceeded to call the police. Mrs. Worrey said the rape was not reported to the police until about two months had passed because of her reluctance to bring the sordid incident to the public's attention. However, due to Julie's complaints about vaginal bleeding, Mrs. Worrey sent her daughter to a doctor two days after the incident. He testified that his examination indicated that Julie had displayed black and blue marks and small tears of the posterior half of the hymenal ring. Julie's girl friend testified that Mr. and Mrs. Worrey woke the girls and asked Julie to leave her bedroom. The friend heard Julie screaming No, don't, daddy, don't and said that Julie was crying when she came back into the room where the two girls were staying. The Defendant testified at the trial and denied all aspects of the alleged rape incident. He explicitly denied ever going into Julie's bedroom that night and having sexual intercourse with his daughter. He said that the shooting took place in the kitchen, not in the bedroom, and that Mrs. Worrey had shot him after they had quarrelled because he had announced his intention to leave her and return to his present wife. The Wells police chief testified for the prosecution in rebuttal. He came to the scene of the shooting at about 4 a. m. and found a small pool of blood near the refrigerator, a large pool on the bedroom floor, and a spent .22 cal. cartridge on that floor. No other bullets were found, either used or unused, in the entire apartment. Mrs. Worrey had a .22 cal. derringer in her hand and admitted shooting Worrey, the Chief testified. Betty Worrey was arrested for the shooting of Mr. Worrey but the charges were not prosecuted by the State. The defense suggests that the entire prosecution story is incredible and concocted because two months elapsed before any word of the rape was reported to the authorities. The defense also claims that the rape allegation emerged only when Mrs. Worrey needed a defense to her charge of shooting Mr. Worrey. The prosecution asserts that embarrassment, social stigma, and other unpleasant factors could easily account for the delay. In judging the sufficiency of the evidence we do not sit to retry the case and substitute our impressions of the facts for those of the jurors. Rather, we must determine if the jury was warranted in finding for the State in this case. E. g., State v. Northup, Me., 318 A.2d 489 (1974). Leaving the resolving of weight and credibility of witnesses to the jury, we must ascertain if there was sufficient evidence presented to justify the verdict of guilty. We are fully satisfied that there was. The mere fact that two months passed by before any mention of the rape reached the police does not negate the jury's verdict. Of course, that fact was proper for the jury's consideration of weight and credibility. We take judicial notice of the fact that many rapes go unreported due to the social stigma attached to the victim of such a crime. Much of the testimony of the Defendant contradicted that of the alleged victim, her girl friend, and mother. The prosecution presented evidence which, if believed, would sustain a conviction for statutory rape. The jurors obviously believed the prosecution witnesses and not the Defendant. The Defendant relies in his brief on State v. Field, 157 Me. 71, 170 A.2d 167 (1961). The rape conviction in Field was overturned because the uncorroborated testimony of the victim failed to disclose that force was used upon her as required under the forcible rape statute. In contrast, the present case contains believable, corroborating evidence of the victim's assertions, including medical testimony. [3] Furthermore, force is not an element in statutory rape and thus Field has no persuasive bearing on this case.