Jordan v. State, 46296

• Decision Date: 24 June 1971
• Docket Number: No. 3,No. 46296,46296,3
• Parties: William T. JORDAN v. The STATE
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 54

183 S.E.2d 54

124 Ga.App. 135

William T. JORDAN v. The STATE.

No. 46296.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 3.

June 24, 1971.

Richard L. Powell, Marietta, for appellant.

Ben F. Smith, Dist. Atty., Herbert A. Rivers, Marietta, for appellee.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court

WHITMAN, Judge.

Jordan was indicted for the offense of aggravated sodomy. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The appeal is taken from the denial of a motion for new trial, made on the general grounds only, and such denial is Jordan's first enumerated error. The next three enumerations are repetitive of the general grounds upon which the motion for new trial was made. The fifth and final enumeration is that: '(T)he court erred in admitting the purported confession of the defendant.' Held:

1. While the issue to which the fifth enumeration relates was adequately made and preserved in the record, there is no argument thereon in the appellant's brief. This enumeration is, therefore, deemed to have been abandoned. Bass v. State, 115 Ga.App. 461(3), 154 S.E.2d 770; Coley v. State, 117 Ga.App. 149, 159 S.E.2d 452; West v. State, 120 Ga.App. 390(4), 170 S.E.2d 698.

2. The remaining enumerations raise the question of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict. Kane v. Standard Oil Co. of Kentucky, 108 Ga.App. 602(1), 133 S.E.2d 913.

'A person commits aggravated sodomy when he commits sodomy with force and against the will of the other person.' Code Ann. § 26-2002 (Ga.L.1968, pp. 1249, 1299). There was descriptive testimony by the defendant's 14-year-old daughter, who was the alleged victim, which would have authorized the jury to find that the act of sodomy had been committed. The defendant argues that there was no evidence whatsoever of any force or that the act was against her will and that such is necessary to convict for aggravated sodomy. The girl testified that the defendant awoke her from sleep, removed or displaced her clothing; that 'I got up and he pushed me down.'

Another witness, a detective, testified that after the defendant had been arrested he advised the defendant of his constitutional rights and then asked the defendant to tell what had happened, and that the defendant did so freely. The witness testified that he asked the defendant whether the girl had consented and that the defendant replied 'no.'

With regard to this last mentioned testimony, the trial judge, over objection and outside of the presence of the...