Opinion ID: 1786705
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: whether insufficient credible evidence exists to support a jury verdict of guilty.

Text: ¶ 19. Milton argues that there is no credible evidence to support the jury's verdict of guilt in this case, given the contradictory statements of the child victim. Milton contends that the victim's testimony is lacking in credibility because she made out-of-court declarations that he had anally penetrated her and then testified at trial that Milton had vaginally penetrated her. ¶ 20. When the legal sufficiency of the evidence is challenged, we must take the view of the evidence most favorable to the State and must assume that the fact-finder believed the State's witnesses and disbelieved any contradictory evidence. We will reverse only where reasonable and fairminded jurors could only find the accused not guilty. McClain v. State, 625 So.2d 774, 778 (Miss.1993). ¶ 21. Based upon four independent interviews, close in time to the abuse, four different adults testified with consistent details to the victim's report of Milton's anal penetration. The victim's mother testified that the victim told her she had been anally and vaginally penetrated by Milton. Although the victim testified at trial only to Milton's vaginal penetration of her, there is substantial evidence otherwise. Given the tender age of the victim at the time of the offense, the trauma of such victimization, the multiple perpetrators, and the anxiety of testifying in open court, it is understandable that the victim may have testified somewhat inconsistently about Milton's criminal sexual acts against her. It is only reasonable that the victim's memory was more accurate at the time the statements were made, given the passage of two years before her testimony at trial. We reject as untenable Milton's argument that the victim's testimony, along with the hearsay testimony and the clear medical evidence of anal penetration, is not sufficient to warrant the jury verdict of guilty. ¶ 22. The weight and credibility to be accorded the evidence are to be resolved by the jury. Neal v. State, 451 So.2d 743, 758 (Miss.1984). Only in those cases where the verdict is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that to allow it to stand would sanction an unconscionable injustice will this Court disturb it on appeal. Pleasant v. State, 701 So.2d 799, 802 (Miss.1997). It is the jury's domain to determine witness credibility, and the victim's contradictory statements were considered by the jury, along with the other evidence, and found to be sufficiently credible to justify a guilty verdict. No unconscionable injustice occurs by allowing the jury verdict to stand given that the overwhelming weight of the evidence in this case establishes that the victim was indeed a victim of sexual battery by Milton. This claim is without merit.