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Cantrell v. State

The defendant failed to prove that the trial court committed plain error in its jury charge.

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After a jury trial, Christopher Cantrell was convicted of child molestation, incest, and statutory rape. On appeal he challenges the trial court’s charge to the jury that it could “consider outcry statements made by a child as corroborative evidence.” He did not object to that charge at trial, so his burden here is to show plain error. He cannot carry that burden because his challenge to that charge entails a challenge to the soundness of existing case law which supports it. Accordingly, we affirm.

OCGA § 16-6-3 a provides that “a person commits the offense of statutory rape when he or she engages in sexual intercourse with any person under the age of 16 years and not his or her spouse, provided that no conviction shall be had for this offense on the unsupported testimony of the victim.” Cantrell argues that to allow outcry statements to corroborate statutory rape defies the plain meaning of the statutory rape law. Therefore, he argues, the trial court committed plain error by instructing the jury that the victim’s outcry statements were corroborative evidence.

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