Brown v. State
| Decision Date | 25 September 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. A89A1634,A89A1634 |
| Citation | 386 S.E.2d 903,193 Ga.App. 26 |
| Parties | BROWN v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
James E. Greene, Cartersville, for appellant.
Darrell E. Wilson, Dist. Atty., Kimberly L. Schwartz, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.
The appellant was convicted of aggravated child molestation based on evidence that he had sodomized a neighbor's child while accompanying the child and his own two minor sons on a camping trip. He brings this appeal from the denial of his motion for new trial. Held:
1. The evidence was amply sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find the appellant guilty of aggravated child molestation beyond a reasonable doubt. See generally OCGA § 16-6-4(c); Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. The appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress as evidence a collection of slides and photographs of nude male children which had been seized from his home several months after the occurrence of the offense for which he was on trial. It was established without dispute at the hearing on the motion to suppress that the existence of these photographs first came to the attention of law enforcement officials due to the actions of the appellant's minor sons, who, of their own initiative, showed some of them to a deputy sheriff who had been dispatched to their residence to investigate a neighbor's complaint that a disturbance was in progress there. After the deputy's arrival, but before any search took place, the appellant's sons brought a group of the photographs to him, complaining that the appellant routinely made them disrobe and view such pictures as punishment for misbehavior. Because these photographs clearly were not obtained by the deputy as the result of any unlawful intrusion, they were not subject to suppression on Fourth Amendment grounds. Accord Neal v. State, 159 Ga.App. 450, 451(3), 283 S.E.2d 671 (1981); Dickerson v. State, 151 Ga.App. 429(1), 260 S.E.2d 535 (1979).
The remaining slides and photographs were seized during two subsequent searches of the home, the first of which was conducted later that same evening pursuant to the written consent of the appellant's wife. There is no contention that the wife did not have sufficient authority over the premises to authorize this search. See generally Barrow v. State, 235 Ga. 635(1), 636-7, 221 S.E.2d 416 (1975). The second search was conducted the following day pursuant to a warrant, the validity of which is challenged only on the ground that it was issued on the basis of the prior seizures. Inasmuch as the prior seizures were not unlawful, we hold that the trial court did not err in denying the motion to suppress.
3. The appellant further contends that the trial court erred in refusing to exclude the photographs and slides from evidence on the ground that they improperly placed his character in issue by establishing prior criminal misconduct on his part. It has not been suggested what criminal offense was established by the appellant's mere possession of these materials; and the appellant did not, in any event, obtain a ruling on this objection in the trial court. Although he did raise such an objection in a motion in limine filed prior to trial, that motion also sought the exclusion of evidence that he had pled guilty to five counts of cruelty to children in connection with conduct related to these materials; and a ruling was elicited from the trial court only on the latter aspect of the motion. During the trial,...
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