Opinion ID: 1988716
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Elements of Offense

Text: This Court must determine de novo whether any rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, could find [a] defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. [5] A conviction of Rape in the Fourth Degree requires the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intentionally engage[d] in sexual penetration with another person... [who] has not yet reached his or her sixteenth birthday. [6] Accordingly, the State's evidence must establish intent, sexual penetration, and that the victim was less than sixteen years old. Sexual penetration is defined by statute as: The unlawful placement of an object ... inside the anus or vagina of another person .... [7] The term object includes any part of the body. [8] A person acts intentionally with respect to an element of a criminal offense when it is the person's conscious object to engage in conduct of that nature or cause that result.... [9] A person is guilty of Attempt to commit a crime if the defendant [i]ntentionally does or omits to do anything which, under the circumstances as the person believes them to be, is a substantial step in a course of conduct planned to culminate in the commission of the crime by the person. [10] The term substantial step is defined as an act or omission which leaves no reasonable doubt as to the defendant's intention to commit the crime which the defendant is charged with attempting. [11]