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Dumas v. State

The defendant was entitled to a new trial after a jury convicted him of rape and child molestation, because he received ineffective assistance of counsel when his trial counsel failed to object to the prosecutor's improper closing argument, in which she commented on the defendant's post-arrest silence.

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Gregory Dumas appeals the denial of his motion for new trial after a jury convicted him of rape and child molestation. On appeal, he asserts that the trial court erred in denying his claim that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel. We agree and reverse.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict,1 the evidence showed that for a four-month period between 1999 and 2000, the victim lived with her mother, sister, and Dumas, who was her mother’s boyfriend at the time. On one occasion, when the victim was around seven years old and her mother was at work, the victim woke up with gum in her hair and went to Dumas for help. Dumas cut the gum out of her hair and told her to stop crying. He said he would make her feel better and took her into her mother’s bedroom where he folded a sheet over her face, pulled down her pants, and put his penis on the outside of her vagina. The victim then felt a sharp pain and told Dumas it hurt, but he kept going. Dumas stopped when the victim’s little sister came into the house from outside. When Dumas left the room, the victim went to the bathroom and discovered blood running down her leg. Afterward, on a number of occasions, when the victim’s mother was at work and her sister was outside, Dumas touched the victim’s vagina with his fingers and his penis.

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