Heck v. State

722 S.E.2d 166, 313 Ga. App. 571, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 237, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 26
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 13, 2012
DocketA11A2402
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 722 S.E.2d 166 (Heck v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heck v. State, 722 S.E.2d 166, 313 Ga. App. 571, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 237, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 26 (Ga. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

Ellington, Judge.

A Dougherty County jury found Alfred Heck guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of three counts of child molestation, OCGA § 16-6-4 (a) (1), and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes, OCGA § 16-6-5 (a). He appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial, asserting that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to sever one of the child molestation counts from the other indicted offenses and in admitting certain “irrelevant, non-sexually explicit exhibits” as evidence at trial. Heck also contends that he was denied the effective assistance of trial counsel. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict,1 the record shows the following facts. In September and October 2001, Heck was 50 years old, used a motorized wheelchair, and was known by the nickname “Bubba.” He lived by himself in the Paradise Village mobile home park, which is located in Dougherty County. A woman and her 11-year-old son, S. A., lived next door to Heck. The boy felt sorry for Heck and decided to try to be his friend. S. A. began to spend a lot of time at Heck’s house playing video games. Over the next few weeks, Heck invited S. A. to spend the night at his house at least three times; the boy’s mother allowed him to stay over twice because S. A. seemed to enjoy it, she thought that Heck’s sister was going to be present, and she did not perceive Heck as a threat. When Heck asked S. A.’s mother on the third occasion, however, the boy told her that he did not want to go. When the mother asked her son to tell her why he no longer wanted to go to Heck’s house, he simply said that he did not want to go. Around the same time, S. A.’s mood changed, and he began to soil himself and his clothes regularly at home and at school. When asked what was wrong, S. A. responded that he did not know.

In November 2001, S. A. and his mother moved away from Paradise Village. Then, on May 2, 2002, the mother received a phone call from a friend who still lived there and who knew that her son had spent time with Heck inside his house. The friend informed S. A.’s mother that he had learned that Heck was a registered sex offender, and he asked her if she knew whether Heck had “messed with” the boy. The mother immediately asked her son, “Has Bubba ever messed with you?” S. A. lowered his head, started to cry, and responded, “Yes, ma’am.” The boy told his mother that Heck had “played” with his penis and had kissed him on the mouth, and, when [572]*572asked why he did not call her from Heck’s house, S. A. said that Heck would not let him.2

The mother called the police, who referred her to a center for children who have disclosed physical and/or sexual abuse, where a forensic interviewer conducted a videotaped interview of S. A. The videotape was played for the jury without objection. During the interview, S. A. revealed that Heck had touched his (the boy’s) penis and buttocks with his hands and that he (the boy) had touched Heck’s penis with his hands. S. A. also stated that Heck had shown him a pornographic videotape that showed two women having sexual intercourse with a man and that there were “adult” magazines in Heck’s bathroom.

Based upon S. A.’s interview statements, police officers went to Heck’s residence on May 3, 2002, where they conducted a search pursuant to his consent. According to one of the officers, almost all of Heck’s furniture and belongings, including his bed, a television and a videotape recorder, were in his master bedroom; the master bathroom was only accessible by walking through Heck’s bedroom. In the master bedroom, officers found the following items: a pornographic videotape that was consistent with that described by S. A.;3 a foreign videotape depicting “nudist colonies” that showed naked people of various ages, from toddlers to senior citizens, swimming together and riding on water slides; and an envelope addressed to Heck that contained a brochure with color photographs of naked children and adults and a form that could be used to order videotapes of nudist colonies. In addition, even though Heck lived alone and had no children, his bedroom contained numerous children’s live action and animated videotapes; a bag of “lollipops” in Heck’s dresser drawer; two boxes of children’s toys; a comic book and a children’s cookbook; and approximately twenty parenting and family-oriented magazines that primarily depicted infants and preschool-age children. There were also two photographs of S. A. on the wall above the television. In Heck’s master bathroom, the officers found a “Hustler” pornographic magazine, and, under the sink, they found a plastic bag with 15 pairs of folded, soiled little girls’ panties and a separate bag containing several small plastic hair barrettes.

On the same day, after the search was completed, an investigator [573]*573conducted a videotaped interview of Heck; pursuant to the request of defense counsel, the entire interview was played for the jury at trial. According to the investigator who conducted the interview, Heck admitted, among other things, that S. A. slept in the bed with him during their sleepovers and that they would “wrestle” while in bed. Heck said that S. A. may have seen his penis when he (Heck) was in the bathroom. He also admitted that the nudism and pornographic videotapes belonged to him and that he showed the pornographic tape to S. A. three or four times. In addition, Heck told the investigator that he experiences sexual urges toward children and that he takes a prescribed medication that causes sexual dysfunction in order to help control those urges. He denied, however, that he had molested S. A., and he claimed that the panties that were found under his sink belonged to his niece’s children. Following the interview, Heck was arrested.

Several days later, the investigator received a report from a woman who told him that her granddaughter, S. B., who was slightly less than three years old, had been molested by Heck inside his trailer on or about May 1, which was just before Heck’s arrest. S. B.’s father testified at trial that he lived in Paradise Village and, on the day of the molestation, he was watching his daughter and his two stepsons as they were playing with other children at the neighborhood’s playground. He went back to his home to get a telephone and to use the bathroom and, when he returned to the playground about ten minutes later, his children were not there. At trial, one of the man’s stepsons testified that Heck had come to the playground, had put S. B. on his lap in his wheelchair, and had taken her inside his house; the stepson followed them there and went inside, also. When the man’s other stepson saw Heck and S. B. leave the playground, he ran home and told his stepfather that “Bubba” had taken S. B. The man started looking for his daughter and found her as she was walking away from Heck’s home. S. B. immediately told her father that Heck had picked her up, put her in his lap, and rubbed her “like this,” which she demonstrated by rubbing her vaginal area with her hand. When S. B.’s father checked her genital area, he saw that it was very red. Over the next few days, S. B. repeatedly, and sometimes spontaneously, told her mother, stepmother and grandparents that “Bubba” had put his hand in her “panties” and had touched her genitals. After the police were notified, S. B.

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Bluebook (online)
722 S.E.2d 166, 313 Ga. App. 571, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 237, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 26, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heck-v-state-gactapp-2012.