A jury convicted Johnny Wilkerson of aggravated child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, and aggravated sodomy based on evidence of acts committed against D. M., a six-year-old boy. The jury also convicted Wilkerson of child molestation based on evidence of acts committed against D. P., Wilkerson’s great-nephew. Wilkerson appeals from the verdict and sentence entered thereon. On appeal, Wilkerson alleges that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the verdict and that the trial court erred in failing to merge the aggravated child molestation offense with the aggravated sodomy offense. When viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict,1 the evidence shows that D. M. was a neighbor of Wilkerson’s. After the death of Wilkerson’s wife, D. M.’s mother often went to Wilkerson’s home to cook dinner for him and took D. M. with her. Wilkerson would take D. M. for walks in the junkyard that was beside Wilkerson’s house. D. M.’s mother testified that in August 2002, after she prepared dinner for Wilkerson, she stepped outside the house to smoke a cigarette. When she walked back inside, she saw Wilkerson and D. M. laying in the living room recliner. They both jumped when they heard her come in. D. M.’s hand appeared to be inside Wilkerson’s pants. When she walked by the recliner, Wilkerson’s shirt was pulled up and his sweat pants were pulled down below his stomach and he was trying to pull them the rest of the way up. Upon questioning, D. M. told his mother that “he Wilkerson had touched me. And he has put his thing in my behind.” D. M. further stated that this had happened on many occasions, starting in the summer of 2000, after Wilkerson’s wife died.
D. M.’s mother testified that she did not go back to Wilkerson’s house again. For the next two weeks she was indecisive over what to do, but finally decided to report the incident to police. D. M. stated to Detective Lamar DePratter of the Brantley County Sheriff’s Office that he was touching Wilkerson’s “private parts” when his mother walked into the living room. D. M. further stated that Wilkerson had run his hand down into D. M.’s pants and that Wilkerson had placed his “private” in D. M.’s “butt.” D. M. stated that this had occurred in an old trailer located in Wilkerson’s junkyard. Lori Moody of the Brantley County Department of Family and Children Services who sat in on Detective DePratter’s interview with D. M. confirmed that D. M. stated that Wilkerson took him to an old trailer in the back of the junkyard and that Wilkerson put his “private” in his “behind.”
