Guzman v. State

The victim's out-of-court statement to a therapist was admissible under the circumstances, since the statement was reliable and was cumulative of other properly admitted testimony about similar statements.

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A Murray County jury convicted Arcadio Guzman of three counts of aggravated sodomy and three counts of aggravated child molestation.1 Guzman appeals challenging the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions and alleging error in the trial court’s denial of his motion for continuance and in the trial court’s admission of child hearsay evidence. Because these claims of error are without merit, we affirm. Viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, Phoukphanh v. State, 256 Ga. App. 580 569 SE2d 259 2002, the evidence shows that on the morning of February 18, 2002, the child victim, then age 5, told his mother that his stepfather, Guzman, whom he called “Poppy,” had forced him to “suck his thing” the previous night. The child said that the incident occurred in the couple’s bedroom while his mother worked on the computer in an adjacent room.

Following this initial disclosure of abuse, the child’s mother called her sister who lived nearby. When the sister arrived, the child, without being prompted, repeated the claim that he had made to his mother. The mother then called the police, and in a videotaped interview conducted by a forensic interviewer with The Greenhouse “Greenhouse”, a child advocacy center serving Whitfield and Murray counties, the child again stated that Guzman made him “suck his thing.” The child described Guzman’s penis as soft at one point, but sticking up at another. The child stated that Guzman’s penis tasted like potatoes; that Guzman also had sucked his penis; and that Guzman had put his penis in his butt.

Guzman v. State

The victim's out-of-court statement to a therapist was admissible under the circumstances, since the statement was reliable and was cumulative of other properly admitted testimony about similar statements.

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