Thornton v. State

Full title: THORNTON v. THE STATE

Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia

Date published: Sep 13, 2010

701 S.E.2d 533 (Ga. Ct. App. 2010)

701 S.E.2d 533

Opinion

No. A10A1811.

DECIDED SEPTEMBER 13, 2010.

Aggravated child molestation. Lee Superior Court. Before Judge Sizemore.

Kevin Kwashnak, for appellant.

Plez H. Hardin, District Attorney, for appellee.

JOHNSON, Judge.

After a jury trial, Alex Thornton was convicted of aggravated child molestation for placing his penis into the vaginal area of his ten-year-old cousin. The trial court denied a motion for new trial, and Thornton appeals. In his sole enumeration of error, Thornton claims that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction because there was no direct evidence linking him to the crime. The claim is disproved by the record.

At trial, the state presented two witnesses who testified that the victim identified Thornton as the person who molested her. Moreover, the state also introduced evidence of Thornton's admission to police that he committed the alleged acts of molestation. Specifically, Thornton admitted that he knew the victim was only ten years old, and that on two separate occasions he pulled down her underwear and rubbed his penis against her vagina. Thus, contrary to Thornton's claim, the victim's identification of him as the perpetrator, as well as his own inculpatory statements, constituted direct evidence of his guilt.¹ Indeed, his confession of guilt is direct evidence of the highest character.² Having reviewed all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, we conclude that "[t]he evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find [Thornton] guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the [aggravated child molestation] for which [he] was convicted. [Cit.]"³ Judgment affirmed. Miller, C. J., and Phipps, P. J., concur.

1 See Daniel v. State, 285 Ga. 406, 407 (2) ( 677 SE2d 120) (2009); Bell v. State, 284 Ga. 790, 791 (1) ( 671 SE2d 815) (2009) (direct evidence of guilt included appellant's inculpatory statement to investigators and witness identification of him as perpetrator).

2 Hargrove v. State, 289 Ga. App. 363, 365 (1) ( 657 SE2d 282) (2008).

3 Wright v. State, 285 Ga. 428, 433 (3) ( 677 SE2d 82) (2009).

JOHNSON, Judge.

DECIDED SEPTEMBER 13, 2010.