On June 12, 2008, Mitchell Lee Adams was indicted for child molestation and aggravated child molestation occurring on and between May 1, 2007 and March 10, 2008, “the State being unable to narrow the range of dates or charge a specific date as the crime occurred during the period of time charged and the victim is a young child unable to state a specific date . . . .” Prior to trial, the trial court denied a challenge by Adams to the constitutionality of the mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated child molestation provided in the 2006 amendment to OCGA § 16-6-4 d 1 as applied to him. During a jury trial, Adams moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the State failed to prove that the crimes occurred during the period of time set forth in the indictment. The trial court ruled that the dates alleged in the indictment were not essential averments, and subsequently instructed the jury that any of the charged offenses could be proven as of any time within the applicable seven-year statute of limitations. Adams was found guilty of both offenses with which he was charged. Several months later, the trial court entered judgments of conviction on the guilty verdicts and sentenced Adams to life imprisonment for aggravated child molestation, with 25 years to be served and the remainder of the life sentence on probation, and to a 20-year term for child molestation, with five years to be served and the remainder on probation. Adams appealed to the Court of Appeals. Because the constitutionality of the current version of OCGA § 16-6-4 d 1 is raised on appeal and has not yet been considered by this Court, the Court of Appeals transferred the case to this Court pursuant to our exclusive jurisdiction over “all cases in which the constitutionality of a law . . . has been drawn in question . . . .” See Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. VI, Par. II 1.
1. On the day that Adams was sentenced, he filed a motion to dismiss the indictment or, in the alternative, for directed verdict, which the trial court orally denied. In that motion, he asserted for the first time that, as a result of the trial court’s ruling that the alleged dates were not essential averments, the indictment permitted prosecution for offenses occurring prior to his thirteenth birthday on August 4, 2005, and that the State failed to prove that the crimes did not occur before that date. Adams contends on appeal that the time period for which he was convicted includes a period in which, because of his age, he could not be found criminally responsible.
