Cole v. State
Citation | 291 S.E.2d 427,162 Ga.App. 353 |
Decision Date | 13 May 1982 |
Docket Number | 63536,Nos. 63535,s. 63535 |
Parties | COLE v. The STATE (two cases). |
Court | United States Court of Appeals (Georgia) |
Alan W. Jackson, Newnan, for appellants in No. 63535.
Art Mallory, Dist. Atty., LaGrange, for appellee in No. 63535.
Sidney Pope Jones, Jr., Newnan, for appellants in No. 63536.
Art Mallory, Dist. Atty., LaGrange, for appellee in No. 63536.
A jury convicted appellants of two counts of child molestation, one count involving Mrs. Cole's eleven-year-old son and the other count concerning her nine-year-old son. The state presented evidence to the effect that the boys were forced by appellant Lawson Cole (the boys' stepfather) to engage in sexual relations with their mother, appellant Mary Cole. Appellants seek reversal of their convictions on four grounds. Finding no error, we affirm the convictions.
1. In their first enumeration of error, appellants maintain that the trial court erroneously failed to grant a directed verdict of acquittal because the state failed to prove venue. We first note that neither defendant made such a motion at trial. However, even if the motion had been made, its denial would have been proper since there was sufficient evidence to show that the crimes were committed in Coweta County.
Jones v. State, 245 Ga. 592, 596, 266 S.E.2d 201. The evidence adduced at the trial of this case, though circumstantial, was sufficient, in the absence of any conflicting evidence, to establish venue in Coweta County.
None of the cases cited by appellants (Moye v. State, 65 Ga. 754; Cooper v. State, 106 Ga. 119, 32 S.E. 23; Gibson v. State, 52 Ga.App. 297(1), 183 S.E. 83; and Patterson v. State, 157 Ga.App. 233, 276 S.E.2d 900), is applicable to the present appeals inasmuch as each of the cited opinions revolves around the rule that Patterson v. State, supra, p. 234, 276 S.E.2d 900. Here, there was testimony which placed Arnco in Coweta County.
2. Each count of the indictment charged appellants with "unlawfully [committing] an immoral or indecent act with [victim's name], a child under 14 years of age, with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of either the said child or the said accused, contrary to the laws of said state ..." Appellants believe that the indictment is fatally defective because it is stated in the disjunctive, and they maintain that the trial court erred when it failed to sustain their special demurrer to the indictment on that ground.
Vann v. State, 153 Ga.App. 710, 711, 266 S.E.2d 349. This precept, under which appellants are traveling, is not applicable to the present cases since the statute involved herein (Code Ann. § 26-2019) does not contain "disjunctively several ways or methods [in which] a crime may be committed." Compare Vann, supra; Statham v. State, 50 Ga.App. 165(2), 177 S.E. 522. The disjunctive phrases are, instead, descriptive of the offensive act. See Cragg v. State, 117 Ga.App. 133, 159 S.E.2d 717. While the better practice would be to draw indictments charging this offense in the conjunctive, the denial of the special demurrer was not error under the circumstances of this case.
3. Statements made by appellants to authorities were introduced against appellants at trial after the trial court determined that appellants had made the statements knowingly and voluntarily. Appellants now take issue with that ruling.
Pierce v. State, 235 Ga. 237(3), 219 S.E.2d 158. Appellants' enumeration is without merit.
4. Finally, appellants assert that the trial court should have granted their severance motions.
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