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Banks v. State

The continuing witness rule did not apply to an anatomical drawing.

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Anthony Banks was convicted of child molestation by a DeKalb County jury and sentenced to twenty years to serve ten. Without challenging the sufficiency of the evidence that supports his conviction, Banks argues that his conviction should be reversed because the continuing witness rule was violated and the trial judge improperly commented upon the evidence and rebuked defense counsel. For reasons stated below, we affirm. “On appeal from a criminal conviction, we view the evidence in a light most favorable to support the jury’s verdict, and the defendant no longer enjoys a presumption of innocence; moreover, this Court determines evidence sufficiency and does not weigh the evidence or determine witness credibility.”1 So viewed, the record shows that twelve-year-old J. L. testified that her father, the defendant, would take her into her parents’ room while her mother was at work and that he would touch her. She explained that he pulled up her shirt to touch her chest under her clothes and that he touched her vagina with his fingers. J. L.’s thirteen-year-old brother, D. L., testified that he saw Banks go into his mother’s bedroom with his sister and close the door; that when he tried to enter the room to see what they were doing, they would not let him in; and that when he asked J. L. what happened, she would not tell him anything.

Dr. Danielle Levy, the program manager of the DeKalb office of the Georgia Center for Children, testified that she conducted a videotaped interviewed of J. L. on August 9, 2004. She further testified that she regularly uses anatomical drawings when interviewing children; that J. L., who was ten years old at the time of the interview, indicated that Banks had touched her inappropriately by pointing to the vagina on the diagram; and that J. L. said that Banks touched her with his hands under her clothes. The videotaped interview was played for the jury and the anatomical drawing, upon which the vaginal area was circled and the words “touched w/ hands” were written, was admitted into evidence.

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