Crosby v. People

Citations

• 137 Ill. 325
• 27 N.E. 49
• 1891 Ill. LEXIS 1041

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence—whether admissible. On the trial of a man and woman for an assault with intent to murder, there was proof sustaining the declarations of the woman, made the night after the arrest, that she did not do the work, but that the man did it. In answer to the question why she did not make an outcry if she did not do the work, she replied she was afraid of her life. On motion of the man to exclude these declarations, the court ruled that the testimony was only competent as against the woman, and excluded the same as against her co-defendant, and the State’s attorney said the evidence was only offered as against the party making the declaration: Held,, that there was no error in admitting the evidence, so limited in its application.</p> <p>2. On the trial of one for an assault with intent to murder, the prosecuting witness testified that she had no personal acquaintance with the defendant, and had never spoken to him but once, when he came to her room to borrow a glass. The defendant proved by a witness, without objection, that he had been in her room three or four evenings before the assault, with another person and the defendant. The question was then put to the witness, “Just tell what you did there,” to which 'an objection was sustained. The witness then testified: “I know of my own knowledge that B. (the prosecutrix) was personally acquainted with the defendant before the occurrence of this difficulty,—he had been in her room several timesHeld, that there was no prejudicial error in the ruling.</p> <p>3. On the trial of an indictment for an assault with intent to murder, it appeared that the defendants, a man and woman, after midnight went to the room of the prosecutrix and called her out into the hall, where they made a very violent assault upon her. On cross-examination of the prosecutrix it was sought to be shown that she had been an inmate of houses of prostitution, and was, at the time of the assault, renting rooms adjoining her own for the purpose o