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Williams v. State

The admission of the child victim's hearsay statements did not violate the defendant's Confrontation Clause rights, since the victim was present at trial and available for cross-examination.

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A Bryan County jury convicted Clifford Lee Williams of child molestation. Williams appeals the trial court’s denial of his motion for new trial, asserting several errors with respect to the admission of child hearsay testimony. He also contends that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of his similar criminal acts against the victim, that the prosecutor made improper comments during closing argument, and that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict,1 the evidence shows that Williams molested his niece, seven-year-old victim, J. L., while babysitting her and her younger sister at his home. Williams coaxed the victim into his bedroom to play a game that he called “House.” When Williams and the victim were alone in the bedroom, with the door closed, they lay on the bed underneath the sheets. As part of the “game,” Williams touched the victim’s vagina and taught her how to kiss “with her tongue like grown people do.” The victim’s aunt walked into Williams’s bedroom unannounced and observed Williams and the victim together on the bed.

The victim looked at her aunt with “a funny face like something had been going on and she had gotten caught.” The aunt informed her husband and the victim’s father and stepmother of her observations. The victim later told her father that Williams had “put his hands in her panties and touched her where she pees out of.” She also stated that Williams warned her not to tell anyone about the incident because they would both get in trouble.

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