Adams

The defendant was convicted of the crime

of rape, alleged to have been committed September 22, 1924, and sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison. He has appealed from the judgment of conviction and the order of the court denying his motion for a new trial.

The prosecutrix was born April 6, 1914. In the following November her mother married a man who is not the father of the child. The issue of the marriage is a daughter, born in May, 1915. On the twenty-ninth day of February, 1924, the superior court of Sonoma County granted the wife an interlocutory decree of divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty. She was given the custody of the daughter of the parties during the school months of the year, the father to have her custody during school vacations. Of course, the mother had the natural right to the custody of the prosecutrix. The mother was employed as a teacher in one of the public schools of Sonoma County and after the entry of the interlocutory decree she and her younger daughter resided on a farm adjoining that of her husband. The mother endeavored to induce the prosecutrix to live with her, but the prosecutrix refused and during the months of “March, April, May and…