Stilwell

Appellant was charged by information with the crime of violating Penal Code, section 261, subdivision 2, committed on or about the 19th day of October, 1957, in Lassen County. It was alleged that the appellant committed or performed an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a female not the wife of the appellant and while said female was incapable through lunacy or other unsoundness of mind of giving legal consent. The case was tried to a jury which returned a verdict of guilty as charged and defendant appealed from the ensuing judgment.

The victim of the assault, aged 42, lived with an elderly woman who was partially paralyzed and unable to move after being placed in the bed. The victim slept in the same bed. The victim’s aunt lived two doors away and there had been a bell installed in her bedroom electrically connected with the bedroom in which the victim slept. The push button was placed near the aged paralytic. The aunt was awakened by the bell and went toward the home of the two women. Upon entering it and turning on the light she saw appellant run past her around the foot of the bed. She grabbed him, but he shook himself loose and ran out. The aunt’s husband observed…