Opinion ID: 1444834
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: insufficiency of the evidence on five counts

Text: Richard's first argument on appeal is that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of all ten counts. The standard of review for sufficiency of the evidence upon appeal is whether the jury, acting reasonably, could have been convinced of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Edwards v. State, 90 Nev. 255, 258-59, 524 P.2d 328, 331 (1974). Where there is substantial evidence to support the jury's verdict, the verdict will not be upset on appeal. Bolden v. State, 97 Nev. 71, 73, 624 P.2d 20, 20 (1981). Richard argues that the victim only testified with particularity to four incidents of sexual assault and therefore six of the convictions should be vacated. Our reading of the record indicates that the victim testified with particularity to five incidents, not four. The first incident occurred while the child was watching television and the second incident occurred the next day. The third incident occurred when Richard called her into his bedroom. The fourth and fifth incidents occurred on the Saturday and Sunday of the weekend before Richard permanently left the family residence. What concerns us is the victim's testimony regarding the remaining five counts. When the child was asked at trial how many times Richard assaulted her, she answered, Ten or more. When asked how she knew that was the number, she replied, Because he was doing  I don't know. I know it's ten or more because he was doing it up until he left. When she was asked later if she was absolutely sure how many times it happened, she answered, No, I'm not absolutely sure. That's why I said ten or more. It is important to note that during oral argument before this court, the State conceded that there was insufficient evidence to convict Richard of all the counts and stipulated to vacating five of the ten counts of conviction. We have repeatedly held that the testimony of a sexual assault victim alone is sufficient to uphold a conviction. See, e.g., Deeds v. State, 97 Nev. 216, 217, 626 P.2d 271, 272 (1981); Henderson v. State, 95 Nev. 324, 326, 594 P.2d 712, 713 (1979). However, the victim must testify with some particularity regarding the incident in order to uphold the charge. We are cognizant that child victims are often unable to articulate specific times of events and are oftentimes reluctant to report the abuse to anyone until quite some time after the incident. Cunningham v. State, 100 Nev. 396, 400, 683 P.2d 500, 502 (1984). We also understand that it is difficult for a child victim to recall exact instances when the abuse occurs repeatedly over a period of time. We do not require that the victim specify exact numbers of incidents, but there must be some reliable indicia that the number of acts charged actually occurred. In this case, the child's testimony consisted of her speculation that it must have happened at least ten times. Something more is required to support a conviction. If the victim in this case had testified that the incidents occurred every weekend for the period of time Richard resided in the family home or that he assaulted her nearly every weekend, we might view this case differently. Here, however, the victim's testimony consisted of mere conjecture regarding five of the counts. We agree with Richard that the victim's testimony regarding five of the counts was not supported by sufficient evidence and hereby vacate five of the convictions.