Opinion ID: 2538536
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Kavajecz's Age

Text: On its own initiative this Court has raised the question of whether the district court had the authority to try Kavajecz where the evidence indicates that he was apparently thirteen years old when much of the sexual contact occurred with the victim. The charges in the amended complaint state that the lewd conduct occurred from November 1993 to February 1995. Kavajecz's birth date is August 9, 1980, which means during over half of this period of time, from November 1993 until August 8, 1994, Kavajecz was thirteen years old. Because the victim was so young at the time of the molestations she could not recall specific dates or months when the incidents took place and the prosecution had to reconstruct the timeline of sexual conduct using dates and events that adults in the victim's life remembered, such as her parents' honeymoons, other trips out of town by her parents, and other such events when the victim was left overnight at the Kavajecz home. The prosecution established at trial that the victim began spending time at the home where Kavajecz was living (the Kavajecz home)almost always staying overnightsoon after her mother and the defendant's uncle were married in November 1993. The victim's mother and stepfather went on two honeymoons: a short one-night trip in November 1993 and a weeklong trip to Hawaii in April of 1994. In addition, testimony indicated the victim spent a good part of her summer that year at the Kavajecz home and during unspecified periods during these fifteen months she was there sometimes as frequently as every other weekend. Having established that the victim was exposed to Kavajecz during this time period, if Kavajecz molested her during any of these times, he would have been thirteen years old when doing so. Because the victim also couldn't recall when specific sexual contacts took place relating to each separate count against Kavajecz, the prosecution had to relate the evidence for each count alleging sexual contact using events that had taken place during individual visits, without being able to specify dates or months when those sexual contacts occurred.