Bennington v. Commonwealth

348 S.W.3d 613, 2011 Ky. LEXIS 81, 2011 WL 2086637
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedMay 19, 2011
Docket2009-SC-000521-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 348 S.W.3d 613 (Bennington v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bennington v. Commonwealth, 348 S.W.3d 613, 2011 Ky. LEXIS 81, 2011 WL 2086637 (Ky. 2011).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court by

Justice NOBLE.

Appellant, Perry Bennington, was convicted by a Bullitt County jury of multiple sex crimes against his daughter, T.R., which occurred over the course of fifteen years. He was sentenced to seventy years’ imprisonment. He appeals his convictions on several grounds. One of his convictions, for first-degree rape, is reversed for insufficiency of the evidence, as conceded by the Commonwealth. The rest are affirmed.

[617]*617I. Background

Appellant’s sex crimes against his daughter, T.R., stretched over a period of over fifteen years, beginning when she was six years old. Now over 40, T.R. testified at trial to the history of these events.

The first incident of sexual abuse T.R. could remember occurred in 1974. T.R. recalled Appellant holding her upside down and forcefully performing oral sex on her. T.R. informed her mother of what happened, and they briefly moved out of the house. But after being convinced by Appellant that it was actually T.R.’s uncles who had abused T.R., her mother agreed to move back in.

The next instance of sexual misconduct occurred three years later, in 1977, when T.R. was nine. This time Appellant touched T.R. sexually. Once again T.R. and her mother left home because of the incident but also again, after persuasion by Appellant, soon returned.

The next incident T.R. recalled happened in 1982. Appellant pulled her out of bed, took her to his room, and performed oral sex on her. This time, when T.R. informed her mother of what had occurred, the mother left by herself, checking into Our Lady of Peace Hospital. While the mother was gone, Appellant would pull T.R. out of bed every night after she fell asleep and perform oral sex on her.

T.R. further testified that as she turned fourteen years old, Appellant continued this same pattern of behavior, performing oral sex on T.R. “all the time.” Sexual intercourse began that year as well. After Appellant observed T.R. talking to a young boy, he beat her so hard he was afraid he had seriously injured her and then, after determining she was okay, forcefully initiated sexual intercourse. T.R. recalled that after the first instance of sexual intercourse, it recurred every night thereafter.

When T.R. was fifteen years old, she became pregnant with Appellant’s child. This child died at nine months old, but Appellant went on to father two more children through T.R. T.R. testified that between the ages of fifteen and 22, sexual activity between her and her father occurred on a daily basis.

At age 22, T.R. finally fled home, but did not pursue criminal charges against her father. Eventually in 2007, when her own daughter was being molested, T.R. came forward to authorities and disclosed her sexual past with Appellant. Appellant was indicted on five counts of first-degree sodomy, three counts of first-degree rape, and six counts of incest. One count of sodomy was later amended to first-degree sexual abuse to conform to the evidence presented at trial.

Appellant was convicted on all four counts of sodomy, two as first-degree and two as third-degree; one count of first-degree sexual abuse; all three counts of rape, one as first-degree and two as third-degree; and all six counts of incest. During the penalty phase, the court discovered that “first-degree sodomy” was not a crime in 1974, when one of the first-degree sod-omies Appellant was convicted of occurred. Thus, with approval of both parties, the court applied the penalty from the most analogous crime then existing in 1974, “Indecent or Immoral Practices with Another,” KRS 435.105 (repealed), to Appellant’s conviction on that count. The jury awarded the maximum penalties on each count and the court, running some convictions concurrently and some consecutively, issued an aggregate sentence of 70 years.

Appellant now challenges his conviction and sentence before this Court as a matter of right. Ky. Const. § 110(2)(b).

II. Analysis

Appellant raises numerous arguments on appeal. First, he claims that his prose[618]*618cution and conviction under the first-degree sodomy statute for conduct predating that statute is palpable error. Second, he argues that he was denied a unanimous verdict as a result of unspecific language in the instructions. Third, he alleges that there was insufficient evidence underlying virtually every count, thus mandating a directed verdict in his favor. Fourth, he argues that the refusal of the court to order certain discovery requests was reversible error. Finally, he contends that the exclusion of evidence calling into question T.R.’s description of her mother checking into Our Lady of Peace Hospital served to prevent him from presenting a defense at trial.

A. Indecent or Immoral Practices with Another

Appellant claims that his conviction for first-degree sodomy for oral sex with his daughter alleged to have occurred in 1974 is flawed because he was indicted, prosecuted, and convicted under KRS 510.070, which did not go into effect until 1975. He argues that he should have been indicted instead under a statute in effect in 1974. He also claims, with little explanation, that his conviction under these circumstances violates the ex post facto and due process clauses of the United States and Kentucky Constitutions. However, Appellant did not object to this alleged error at trial.

The indictment on the count in question read: “That during the year 1974 ... the above named Defendant committed the offense of Sodomy in the First Degree by engaging in deviate sexual intercourse with [T.R.], a female less than twelve years of age.” That this presented a potential problem was raised by the prosecutor when the case was called for trial. The prosecutor told the trial court that the sodomy statute did not go into effect until January 1, 1975, but that the indictment still stated a crime under the law in effect in 1974 and that he was trying to get a copy of the 1974 statute. Appellant’s counsel stated that he had no response at that time, but that he might raise the matter in the future. The jury was instructed and convicted Appellant under KRS 510.070, without objection.

The issue was not raised again until the penalty phase. The trial court had done some research into the older statutes and found that the closest crime existing in 1974 was indecent or immoral practices with another, under KRS 485.105 (now repealed), which was punishable by a lesser sentence, one to ten years, than first-degree sodomy, which would be a class A felony under the circumstances. The trial court then instructed the jury as to the penalty range for indecent or immoral practices instead of that for sodomy, which resulted in a ten-year sentence.

Appellant lodged no objection to this remedial measure at trial and did not raise the issue at any other time before this appeal. His claim, therefore, is reviewable only as palpable error. See RCr 10.26; see also Martin v. Commonwealth, 207 S.W.3d 1

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Bluebook (online)
348 S.W.3d 613, 2011 Ky. LEXIS 81, 2011 WL 2086637, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bennington-v-commonwealth-ky-2011.