Hicks v. State

The trial court did not reversibly err in allowing approximately 45 tenth through twelfth grade students to remain in the courtroom during child molestation trial since the students obeyed trial court's instructions not to make any comments or overt emotional demonstrations.

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Wayne Hicks appeals his convictions of five counts of child molestation, two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree, and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes, contending that the trial court should have excluded approximately 45 high school students from the courtroom, that it should have directed a verdict in his favor on one of the child molestation counts and on the enticing count, and that the latter count should have been merged into the former. Finding no error, we affirm.

1. Hicks’ initial contention is that the trial court should have excluded from the courtroom approximately 45 students in the tenth through twelfth grades whose presence, according to Hicks, “caused a sympathetic environment towards the alleged victims.” At a bench conference after voir dire of the jury, Hicks’ counsel objected to the presence of the students on the ground that “it would violate my client’s right to an impartial jury,” noting that the students were aged “anywhere from fifteen to perhaps eighteen” and that their presence “might create a sympathy atmosphere.” In denying Hicks’ motion to exclude the students, the court stated that it had been “explained to them that they can make no comments, no facial movements whatsoever, that in the event they do, this Court . . . would excuse them from the room.” Moreover, Hicks makes no claim that the students failed to obey the court’s admonition to “make no comments or facial movements whatsoever,” unlike Glenn v. State1 where the widow of the victim was “audibly and visibly weeping.”

Hicks v. State

The trial court did not reversibly err in allowing approximately 45 tenth through twelfth grade students to remain in the courtroom during child molestation trial since the students obeyed trial court's instructions not to make any comments or overt emotional demonstrations.

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