Estes v. State

A jury convicted James Michael Estes of aggravated child molestation, child molestation, and aggravated sexual battery arising from his contact with his great-nieces. On appeal, Estes argues that Georgia’s child hearsay statute is unconstitutional as applied in this case, and that the trial court erred when it admitted similar transaction evidence and when it admitted the children’s testimony without making a finding that it was sufficiently reliable. Estes also argues that trial counsel was ineffective. We find no error and affirm. On appeal from a criminal conviction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, with the defendant no longer enjoying a presumption of innocence.1 We neither weigh the evidence nor judge the credibility of witnesses, but determine only whether the evidence was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find the defendant guilty of the charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt.2

So viewed, the record shows that Estes kissed and groped both victims, who were four and ten years old at the time, in the home he shared with them. He also threatened to kill one of the victims if she told anyone about the abuse. After the jury convicted Estes of six counts of child molestation, four counts of aggravated sexual battery, and one count of aggravated sexual battery, the trial court sentenced him to forty years with fifteen to serve. Estes’ motion for new trial was denied. Estes first appealed his conviction to the Georgia Supreme Court, which transferred the case to this Court on the ground that he had waived his constitutional objection to Georgia’s child hearsay statute by failing to raise it in his motion for new trial.3