State v. Mitchell

TITUS, Chief Judge.

A jury found defendant guilty of forcible rape (§ 559.260 RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S.) but could not agree upon the punishment. Subsequent to post-trial proceedings, the court assessed a sentence of 12 years. Rule 27.03, V.A.M.R. Defendant appeals.

The 20-year old prosecuting witness (we shall call her “X”) was sleeping on a living room sofa in her parents’ Bolivar home at 7 o’clock on a Sunday morning in September 1971. Two small children were ostensibly asleep in a nearby bedroom; the parents were absent from the residence. X awakened and saw a man, whom she identified as the…