Osborne v. Commonwealth

The defendant, Dale Clinton Osborne, was indicted, tried before a jury, and convicted of statutory rape, Code § 18.1-44, of his fifteen-year-old stepdaughter. The trial court sentenced him to serve a term of 20 years in the state penitentiary, the penalty fixed by the jury.

We granted a writ of error to review the defendant’s claim that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of privileged communications between him and his wife contrary to the provisions of Code § 8-289.

The evidence of the prosecutrix established that the defendant engaged in sexual intercourse with her on at least six…