Weeks v. State

The defendant could not complain that the investigator bolstered the 5-year-old child molestation victim's testimony where he elicited the response in question by asking the investigator whether she had ever seen a child who was coached.

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Following a jury trial, Lamar Clayton Weeks was convicted on two counts of child molestation and one count of aggravated child molestation. He appeals after the trial court denied his motion for new trial. We affirm. The evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, shows that the victim was a five-year-old girl, who lived with her parents and one-year-old brother in Douglasville, Georgia. Weeks and his wife, who had no children, lived next door to the victim’s family. Over time, the two families became friends, and a group of neighborhood girls, including the victim, would frequently play at Weeks’s house. Weeks allowed the girls to watch videos and took them to his work and for rides on his lawnmower. Weeks and his wife once took the little girls on a picnic and then hosted a sleepover for them at their house. They also took the victim to the mall and out to eat. And on one occasion, Weeks took the child on an out-of-town visit to a relative’s farm.

On September 9, 2000, Weeks invited the victim to go to work with him. When she returned home, she played with some of the other neighborhood girls before attending a birthday party. The victim’s mother later gave permission for the child to accompany Weeks to a video rental store and to watch a movie at his house. Weeks’s wife was out of town, leaving him alone with the child. Weeks brought the victim home at approximately 9:00 p.m., and her mother noticed that the child’s behavior was somewhat unusual. The mother asked the child whether she had had a nice time, and the child responded that she and the other girls had a secret club with Weeks. The victim also said that she had a separate, secret club with Weeks that did not involve the other girls. She said that she could not tell her mother about the club because Weeks told her that if she did, they could not be friends anymore.

Weeks v. State

The defendant could not complain that the investigator bolstered the 5-year-old child molestation victim's testimony where he elicited the response in question by asking the investigator whether she had ever seen a child who was coached.

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