Boardman

Defendant was convicted of the crime of rape. The appeal is from the judgment of imprisonment and from an order made denying a motion for a new trial.

It was charged in the indictment that the act complained of was accomplished with defendant’s daughter, who was, at the time, of the age of fourteen years. To sustain a conviction the people relied upon the testimony of John Board-man, a brother of the defendant, and Hazel Boardman, the daughter referred to. The evidence shows that the defendant was the father of three children, all girls, the youngest being Hazel, the one named in the indictment; that for about ten years prior to the commission of the alleged offense the wife of the defendant and mother of these girls had been confined in an insane asylum; that the custody and care of the children had devolved upon the father, who worked at common labor in the support of the family. At the time in question he was living in the county of Kern near the town of Wasco. The quarters available at that place for sleeping purposes were meager, being of shed-like construction, and the father and three girls slept in the same room, which was in part an open-air affair. In this room there…