Court Opinion

ID: 9853801
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:55:16.61369+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:08.275875
License: Public Domain

Bernes, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully with the majority opinion, except for the conclusion in Division 1 that there was insufficient evidence of penetration to convict Connelly of the aggravated sexual battery of his stepdaughter. Nevertheless, I concur in the judgment because the aggravated sexual battery conviction must be reversed as the result of the admission of improper bolstering testimony.
Count 13 of the indictment charged Connelly with aggravated sexual battery in that he did “unlawfully intentionally penetrate with a foreign object, to wit: a replica penis, the sexual organ of [his stepdaughter] without the consent of [his stepdaughter].” In her videotaped testimony played for the jury at trial, the stepdaughter testified on direct examination that Connelly repeatedly forced her to have sexual intercourse with him against her will after she moved to Georgia. Midway into the examination the prosecutor then asked, “And, the times when he would do this, did he always use his penis, or did he ever do anything else to you?” The stepdaughter responded, “One time he used this rubber thing, it looked like a penis but he used that, and ... all the other ones he just used his d_ck.” (Emphasis supplied.)
When considered in context of the stepdaughter’s prior testimony, and when construed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the stepdaughter’s response supported an inference that Connelly penetrated her with the replica penis. “The testimony of a single witness is generally sufficient to establish a fact.” OCGA § 24-4-8. Hence, the stepdaughter’s testimony, standing alone, was sufficient to support the aggravated sexual battery conviction. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).
However, the state also was permitted to introduce the stepdaughter’s pre-trial police interview in which she expressly stated that Connelly penetrated her with the replica penis. I agree with the majority’s conclusion in Division 3 that the admission of the interview constituted improper bolstering testimony. And the admission was not harmless with respect to the aggravated sexual battery conviction, given that the only other evidence of penetration was the stepdaughter’s own testimony set forth above from which penetration had to be inferred. The aggravated sexual battery conviction thus must be reversed.
*772Decided January 28, 2009
Glynn R. Stepp, for appellant.
Daniel J. Porter, District Attorney, Julie L. Johnson, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.