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Thornton v. State

The victim's identification of defendant as the molester and the defendant's own admission that he committed the acts of molestation were sufficient to support his conviction for aggravated child molestation.

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After a jury trial, Alex Thornton was convicted of aggravated child molestation for placing his penis into the vaginal area of his ten-year-old cousin. The trial court denied a motion for new trial, and Thornton appeals. In his sole enumeration of error, Thornton claims that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction because there was no direct evidence linking him to the crime. The claim is disproved by the record. At trial, the state presented two witnesses who testified that the victim identified Thornton as the person who molested her. Moreover, the state also introduced evidence of Thornton’s admission to police that he committed the alleged acts of molestation. Specifically, Thornton admitted that he knew the victim was only ten years old, and that on two separate occasions he pulled down her underwear and rubbed his penis against her vagina. Thus, contrary to Thornton’s claim, the victim’s identification of him as the perpetrator, as well as his own inculpatory statements, constituted direct evidence of his guilt.1 Indeed, his confession of guilt is direct evidence of the highest character.2 Having reviewed all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, we conclude that “the evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Thornton guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the aggravated child molestation for which he was convicted. Cit.”3

Judgment affirmed. Miller, C.J., and Phipps, P.J., concur.

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