Court Opinion

ID: 9574047
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:01:56.368268+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:43:59.881568
License: Public Domain

Fletcher, Justice.
Jimmy Danuel (“Danuel”) was convicted of two counts of aggravated sodomy and sentenced to two consecutive terms of twenty years. He appeals and we reverse.1
In 1990, Danuel’s then 19-year-old daughter, Lisa Teems (“Teems”), and her husband had temporarily separated. There was discussion between the couple and their immediate families concerning a divorce and a custody battle over the couple’s infant daughter. In fear of losing custody of her infant daughter, Teems had her mother contact Danuel concerning financial assistance for such a legal battle. Danuel, however, refused to get involved in the marital squabble between his daughter and son-in-law.
Shortly thereafter, Teems informed her husband and, later, law enforcement authorities that Danuel began sexually molesting her 11 years ago, in 1979, when she was 8 years old. She indicated that the molestation went on until 1986 when her parents separated.2 At the time of the separation, Danuel moved just across the state line into Tennessee where he has lived up until the time of trial.
In November of 1990, Danuel was arrested for incest, statutory rape, and child molestation all arising from Teems’ statements to the authorities. However, when the indictment against him was returned on March 4, 1991, Danuel was indicted for two counts of aggravated sodomy, one which was alleged to have occurred between November 1, 1980 and June 1, 1981, some ten to eleven years before, and one which was alleged to have occurred on or about July 2, 1985, some six years before.
1. At the time of the act alleged to have occurred between 1980 and 1981, Teems would have been between nine and ten years old. OCGA § 17-3-1 (c) provides that:
*350prosecution for felonies committed against victims who are at the time of the commission of the offense under the age of 14 years must be commenced within seven years after the commission of the crime.
To have been prosecuted within the statute of limitation, prosecution as to this particular act would ordinarily have to have been begun prior to June 1, 1988.
However, OCGA § 17-3-2 (1) provides:
The period within which a prosecution must be commenced under Code Section 17-3-1 or other applicable statute does not include any period in which . . . [t]he accused is not usually and publicly a resident within this state. . . .
Relying upon the language of OCGA § 17-3-2 (1), the state successfully argued in the trial court that the statute of limitation had been tolled in 1986 when Danuel moved to Tennessee because Danuel had not “usually and publicly” been a resident of Georgia since that move. Over Danuel’s repeated objections, the trial court permitted the state to proceed with prosecution of the act alleged to have occurred between 1980 and 1981 and charged the jury on the statute of limitation as follows:
Under our laws, prosecution for [aggravated sodomy] must be started within seven years after the offense is committed, unless it is alleged and proved that the offense comes within one of the legal exceptions to the law. I instruct you, as it applies in this case, that the period within which a prosecution must be commenced, under our laws, does not include any period in which the accused is not usually and publicly a resident of this state.
At trial, the evidence was uncontroverted that since his separation from Teems’ mother in 1986, Danuel has lived just across the state line in Ooltewah, Tennessee and that Danuel’s Tennessee residence is just 12 miles from both the home he had shared with his ex-wife in Georgia and the Catoosa County Courthouse in Ringgold, Georgia where he was ultimately indicted and tried. It was also uncontroverted that Teems, Teems’ mother, husband, and husband’s family all knew exactly where Danuel had been living since 1986; that Teems had visited Danuel in Tennessee at both his home and his place of business; that Danuel was frequently in Georgia on both personal and business matters; that he frequently spoke with Teems by telephone, sometimes calling her and sometimes being called by her at both his home and his place of business; and that Danuel never *351attempted to conceal his whereabouts in such a manner as would have obstructed his arrest and/or extradition to Georgia to face any criminal charges that may have been brought against him.
2. From 1859, until the adoption of the Official Code of Georgia in 1982, Georgia law provided:
If the offender shall abscond from this State, or so conceal himself that he cannot be arrested, such time during which he has been absent from the State, or concealed, shall not be computed or constitute any part of said several limitations.
(Emphasis supplied.) Cobb 1859, 609, § XXXI; Code of 1861 § 4551; Code of 1867 § 4571; Code of 1868 § 4571; Code of 1873 § 4665; Code of 1882 § 4665; Code of 1895, Part III, § 30; Code of 1910, Part II, § 30; Code of 1926, Penal Code § 30; Code of 1933 § 27-601; Code Ann. § 27-601.
In 1961, the Criminal Law Study Committee was created to make a thorough study of Georgia’s laws relating to criminal law and procedure and to revise those laws. Ga. L. 1961, p. 96. The committee’s comments indicate that, of the three principal sources upon which its’ work was based, the first was Georgia’s law as it existed in 1961 and the great wealth of court decisions interpreting that law. The Criminal Law Study Committee Foreword also indicates that one of their fundamental rules was to retain as many of the existing laws as possible and that “[t]he form and arrangement might be changed to meet modern conditions, the words may be changed for the sake of uniformity, but the substance was retained wherever possible.” Tentative Draft of the Proposed Criminal Code of Georgia, Criminal Law Study Committee Foreword, reprinted in Ga. Code Ann. Title 26, pp. 2-3 (1988).
Effective July 1, 1969, the legislature enacted what was then Ga. Code Ann. §§ 26-502; 26-503; and 26-504. The notes of the committee concerning those sections state:
These sections substantially restate the former Ga. Code Ann. provisions on limitations with the exception of subsection (c) of § 26-503, which is new.3
Ga. Code Ann. § 26-502 committee notes (1988). In State v. Shepherd Constr. Co., 248 Ga. 1, 4 (281 SE2d 151) (1981), this court recognized and gave effect to the legislative intent expressed in that committee note when we concluded that those three Code sections essentially *352track the provisions of former Ga. Code Ann. § 27-601.
From 1969 until the adoption of the Official Code of Georgia in 1982, Ga. Code Ann. §§ 26-502; 26-503; 26-504; and 27-601 were in effect simultaneously and, as a result, for that period of time, Georgia had two sets of virtually identical statutes setting forth the statutes of limitation and exclusions therefrom for criminal actions. Other than the rearrangement of the one statute: Ga. Code Ann. § 27-601, into three separate statutes: Ga. Code Ann. §§ 26-502; 26-503; and 26-504, the difference between the two was the modernization of the language used in the three new statutes as compared to that of the older statute.
When the Official Code of Georgia was adopted in 1982, Ga. Code Ann. § 27-601 was omitted and Ga. Code Ann. §§ 26-502; 26-503; and 26-504 became OCGA §§ 17-3-1; 17-3-2; and 17-3-3. The meaning of the code sections did not change, however, and OCGA § 17-3-2 (1) continued to enunciate what has been the law in Georgia since 1859:
If the offender shall abscond from this State, or so conceal himself that he cannot be arrested, such time during which he has been absent from the State, or concealed, shall not be computed or constitute any part of said several limitations.
(Emphasis supplied.) Ga. Code Ann. § 27-601.
3. “Abscond” is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, as follows:
To go in a clandestine manner out of the jurisdiction of the courts, or to lie concealed, in order to avoid their process. To hide, conceal, or absent oneself clandestinely, with the intent to avoid legal process. Postponing limitations. [Cit. omitted.] Fleeing from arresting or prosecuting officers of this state.
The state urges that OCGA § 17-3-2 (1) should be construed to mean that whether the applicable statute of limitation is tolled depends solely upon the legal residence of the alleged offender. On the other hand, Danuel contends that such an interpretation violates the equal protection clause of both the U. S. and the Georgia Constitutions. Assuming, without deciding, that Danuel is correct in this regard, we will not interpret OCGA § 17-3-2 (1) in a manner which causes it to be unconstitutional when there is another interpretation for the statute which is long standing, logical, and constitutionally sound. Accordingly, we reject the interpretation of OCGA § 17-3-2 (1) urged by the state and hold that the subsection’s meaning tracks the portion of former Ga. Code Ann. § 27-601 set forth in Division 2 of this opinion.
4. Because the evidence at trial was uncontroverted that Danuel had not absconded, there is no question that, prior to the March 1991 *353indictment, the statute of limitation had run on any criminal act alleged to have occurred between November of 1980 and June of 1981. Accordingly, the trial court erred in permitting the state to present evidence of that alleged act to the jury and Danuel’s conviction for that act is reversed.
5. The second act for which Danuel was convicted was alleged to have occurred on or about July 2, 1985. At that time, Teems would have been between 14 and 15 years old. The statute of limitation for that act is set forth in OCGA § 17-3-1 (b) which provides that prosecution for a crime, other than murder, that is “punishable by death or life imprisonment must be commenced within 7 years after the commission of the crime.”4
As the indictment against Danuel was returned in March of 1991, there is no problem with the running of the statute of limitation as to the offense alleged to have occurred in 1985. However, there was no evidence presented at trial to support a conviction for an act of aggravated sodomy occurring after 1982.5 Accordingly, Danuel’s conviction for the 1985 act must also be reversed.

Judgment reversed.

All the Justices concur, except Bell, P. J., who concurs specially, and Sears-Collins, J., who concurs in the judgment only.

 This court has jurisdiction over the case only because Danuel challenges the constitutionality of OCGA § 17-3-2 (1).

 Teems’ parents were subsequently divorced.

 Subsection (c) of Ga. Code Ann. § 26-503 concerned the tolling of the statute of limitation for government officers or employees.

 OCGA § 16-6-2 (b) provides: “[a] person convicted of the offense of aggravated sodomy shall be punished by imprisonment for life or by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 20 years.”

 Danuel was tried only for two counts of aggravated sodomy. He was not tried for rape, incest, statutory rape or child molestation.