Thomas v. State

A Decatur County jury found Roderick Donnell Thomas guilty of cruelty to children, which charge arose when Thomas beat a four-year-old boy with a belt, causing serious injury to the child. Thomas appeals and, in his sole enumeration, claims error in the admission of alleged hearsay testimony concerning statements made by a child/witness to the incident, i.e., the victim’s six-year-old brother, D.C. Finding no error, we affirm. Under OCGA § 24-3-16, the “Child Hearsay Statute,” A statement made by a child under the age of 14 years describing any act of sexual contact or physical abuse performed with or on the child by another or performed with or on another in the presence of the child is admissible in evidence by the testimony of the person or persons to whom made if the child is available to testify in the proceedings and the court finds that the circumstances of the statement provide sufficient indicia of reliability. Additionally, “a child may be subject to a competency challenge based on the ground that the child does not have the use of reason, but a child is not incompetent as a matter of law based on infancy.”1

There is no assertion before this Court that D.C. lacked reason, and we find no grounds in the record for such an assertion. Certainly the fact that, during the competency hearing, the six-year-old child felt more comfortable testifying while sitting in his mother’s lap does not indicate a lack of reason. Nor do we find a basis for reversal in such action.2