Following a trial by jury, Alvin Eller was convicted of kidnapping, aggravated sodomy, and simple battery. On appeal he contends the evidence was insufficient to support the verdicts and that his trial counsel was ineffective in several ways. On appeal, we do not assess the weight of the evidence or the credibility of witnesses. Instead, “the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Citation omitted; emphasis in original. Jackson v. Virginia , 443 U. S. 307, 310 III B 99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560 1979. The four-foot-eleven-inch victim had been “partying” —drinking and using cocaine —on the evening of July 3, 2003, and was hitchhiking to get home when Eller and Peggy Smith picked her up. Although she did not know them, she consented to continue partying with them. And after Eller and Smith purchased more drugs, they continued to use it outside Smith’s home, which was located near other Eller family homes. Smith went inside, and while Eller and the victim were alone together, Eller got mad because the victim refused to have sex with him. The victim decided to walk home and had begun to do so. The victim testified that Eller then “come on to me and I —my answer is no.” She continued walking but Eller, who is six feet, three inches tall and missing one arm, followed and “got me on the ground” and held her there so no one could see them. He threatened to hit her to make her keep quiet. She testified that Eller held her there for 30 or 45 minutes “and told me what he had done to another person, another woman, and I was scared. He had threatened to kill me. He had threatened to rape me and then kill me and then rape me again.” But she admitted that he did not touch, fondle or hurt her in any way at this time; he only threatened her. She screamed and two of Eller’s relatives came along in a truck with a spotlight.
The victim testified that she ran to the truck begging for help. The men in the truck told her to just keep walking, that they would keep Eller occupied. So she ran on and hid in the woods briefly before continuing down the dirt road. Although she reached the nearby paved road, Eller caught up with her. Then, as she testified, Eller “drug me by the back of my hair across the grass and drug me back into the woods, more or less. It was not too far in the woods because I refused to go into the woods. I was scared.” At this point, she took a beer from Eller and drank it. But Eller demanded that she have oral sex with him. She complied for “a minute or two” because she was scared for her life and felt threatened by his actions. The truck from earlier passed by again, and three of Eller’s relatives witnessed the oral sex. The police then arrived.
