Osborne v. State

The defendant waived any error in the trial court's failure to merge his fornication and statutory rape convictions for the purpose of sentencing when he knowingly and voluntarily pled guilty to each of the charged crimes after the trial court declined his merger request.

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Chase Osborne entered a guilty plea to misdemeanor charges of statutory rape,1 fornication,2 and battery.3 Prior to sentencing, Osborne requested that the trial court merge the statutory rape and fornication offenses for the purpose of sentencing. After the trial court denied his merger request, Osborne proceeded to plead guilty to all three offenses. The trial court sentenced Osborne under the provisions of the First Offender Act4 to three consecutive 12-month sentences on probation, with the first 12 months to be served on house arrest. On appeal, Osborne contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to merge the offense of fornication with the offense of statutory rape for the purpose of sentencing. Osborne also enumerates as error the trial court’s decision to impose consecutive sentences for each offense. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

The undisputed facts indicate that all of the charges in this case arise from a single sexual encounter between Osborne, then 17 years of age, and the victim, then 15 years of age. On the date of the incident, Osborne went to the victim’s house to retrieve a pair of flip-flops. The victim was the only one home at the time. Once inside the house, Osborne sat down next to the victim and asked her if she wanted to have sex. When the victim said no, Osborne got on top of her, grabbed her arms, and had sexual intercourse with her. During this encounter, the victim suffered visible bruising to her arm.

Osborne v. State

The defendant waived any error in the trial court's failure to merge his fornication and statutory rape convictions for the purpose of sentencing when he knowingly and voluntarily pled guilty to each of the charged crimes after the trial court declined his merger request.

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