Following a bench trial, Dexter Lee Hanson was convicted of child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, and sexual battery. On appeal he contends the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict for enticement. He also challenges several evidentiary rulings and the failure of the court to merge Count 2 into Count 1. 1. Construed in favor of the verdict, the evidence shows that Hanson encouraged his step-daughter, who was 12 and 13 years old at the time, to watch movies that he, himself, characterized as pornographic, with him in his bedroom, and sometimes in the living room, on numerous occasions after her mother had left for work. The victim described the movies as “people having sex on TV.” Hanson also allowed her to see pornography on the computer in his bedroom. At some point during these sessions, he began to touch her inappropriately, and, over a period of time, he touched her breasts, buttocks, and vagina through her clothing. While the two were watching the films, Hanson sometimes had the victim, who was wearing pajamas or underwear, lie on her stomach and spread her legs, and he would lie on top of her. When asked if Hanson did anything at that time, the victim replied, “He would be in an up and down motion.” He was wearing boxers at the time. He also asked her to get in positions such as “on all fours” while the movie was playing. The positions were the same as those she had seen the characters in the movie doing. On these occasions, she could feel what she believed to be his erect penis against her, although there was never skin-to-skin contact. On one specific occasion, Hanson rubbed his penis against the child’s leg and ejaculated. He also asked her to touch his penis on a couple of occasions, but she refused. He once showed her a video tape of himself and her mother in which she saw Hanson’s penis. During a confrontation with the victim’s mother, Hanson admitted “touching on her.” He also demonstrated for the mother what he had done: the victim testified, “He told my mom to lay on the bed and open her legs.” He then got on top of her like he had laid on top of the victim. During cross-examination, the victim testified that she wrote of Hanson touching her in her diary.
In Count 2, Hanson was charged with enticing a child for indecent purposes in violation of OCGA § 16-6-5, which provides: A person commits the offense of enticing a child for indecent purposes when he or she solicits, entices, or takes any child under the age of 16 years to any place whatsoever for the purpose of child molestation or indecent acts. The evidence was sufficient to support a verdict on this count. Although the statute does not require proof that the enticement involved pornographic material, Hanson admitted he had watched pornographic videos together with the child after her mother had left while the child was lying on his bed. The child testified that he encouraged her to watch them, that he asked her to get into positions depicted in the films, and that he laid on her and moved up and down.
