Jimmy Collum v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJune 27, 2025
DocketA25A0236
StatusPublished

This text of Jimmy Collum v. State (Jimmy Collum 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
Jimmy Collum v. State, (Ga. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

FIRST DIVISION BARNES, P. J., BROWN and DAVIS, JJ.

NOTICE: Motions for reconsideration must be physically received in our clerk’s office within ten days of the date of decision to be deemed timely filed. https://www.gaappeals.us/rules

June 27, 2025

In the Court of Appeals of Georgia A25A0236. COLLUM v. THE STATE.

BROWN, Judge.

Following a jury trial, Jimmy Collum was convicted of four counts of aggravated

child molestation, three counts of child molestation, and one count of enticing a child

for indecent purposes. He appeals his convictions and the denial of his motion for new

trial, contending that the trial court erred by allowing the State to introduce evidence

of pornography found in Collum’s possession and that his trial counsel rendered

ineffective assistance for failing to object to State’s witnesses commenting on the

credibility of the victim. For the reasons explained below, we reverse Collum’s

convictions. The evidence presented at Collum’s trial showed the following.1 Collum began

dating the victim’s mother when the victim was in third grade, and the victim and her

mother eventually moved into Collum’s mobile home. The victim testified that when

she was 13 years old, Collum touched her vaginal area while the two were “play

fight[ing].” According to the victim, things “escalat[ed]” from there. On multiple

occasions while the victim’s mom was out of the house, the victim testified that

Collum had sexual intercourse with her and forced her to engage in oral sex. The

victim testified that Collum touched her breasts and vagina with his hands, mouth,

and penis, and that she touched his penis with her mouth. Collum also inserted a tube

— packaging for a watch — into her vagina.

1 Because this case requires a close assessment of whether the trial court’s error was harmless, we review the evidence in detail and weigh it as reasonable jurors would have, instead of viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdicts. See Wallace v. State, 320 Ga. 272, 273 (1), n.2 (907 SE2d 657) (2024). See also Burns v. State, 342 Ga. App. 379, 384 (1) (803 SE2d 79) (2017) (“we weigh the evidence as we would expect reasonable jurors to have done so, as opposed to assuming that they took the most pro-guilt possible view of every bit of evidence in the case”) (citation and punctuation omitted).

2 The victim testified that on one occasion, Collum showed her a pornographic

video while her mom was away from home for a sleep study.2 The victim could not

remember the name of the video but did recall that it had “something to do with girls

getting, you know, F’d in the butt.” The State then showed her State’s Exhibit 1, a

DVD, which the victim stated she recognized “as one of the DVDs.” The victim

recognized the pictures on the cover of the DVD from “[w]hen the DVD was taken

out, the disk,” and agreed that this was the pornographic movie Collum showed her.

The DVD was admitted into evidence without objection and the cover was shown to

the jury. According to the victim’s trial testimony, this was the only time Collum

showed her a pornographic DVD but that Collum had shown her photographs of

naked women on his phone. The victim also testified that at some point Collum told

her not to look in his bedroom closet “[b]ecause of the DVDs . . . in there.”

The victim testified that she did not tell her mom because she knew they did not

have any income and she worried about them not having a place to live, or her mom

not getting her medication, if Collum went to jail. After the victim told a friend what

2 The victim’s mother testified that she twice spent the night away for sleep apnea tests in 2018 — once in February 2018 and once in May 2018 — and the victim stayed home alone with Collum.

3 was going on, the school counselor found out and spoke with the victim. The school

counselor testified that the victim disclosed in September 2018, that her “stepfather”

had been having sexual intercourse with her “for the last few months” and the

counselor made a report with the Division of Family and Children Services

(“DFCS”) that same day. The victim made the same disclosure to the DFCS

investigator that day.

A forensic interview was set up for the victim and DFCS contacted the police.

A recording of the interview was played for the jury. During the interview, the victim

referred to Collum as her stepfather and described several instances Collum had

sexual intercourse with her. The interview echoed the victim’s trial testimony,

including that the first time something happened, Collum touched her vagina while

the two were play wrestling; that Collum had touched her breast, put his penis in her

mouth, and his mouth on her vagina; that she had not told anyone because she was

afraid of what would happen to her and her mom; and that she had ultimately told the

school counselor about Collum having intercourse with her. The victim also described

one night that her mom was away for a sleep study and Collum had shown her

pornographic videos before molesting her. The victim described two DVDs that

4 Collum had shown her; her description of one DVD matched the DVD recognized by

the victim during her trial testimony and identified as State’s Exhibit 1. The victim’s

description of the second DVD seems to match a pornographic DVD admitted into

evidence as State’s Exhibit 45. The victim drew a diagram of Collum’s bedroom,

indicating a closet where pornographic DVDs were kept and that Collum had told her

not to look in the closet because there might be naked women. The victim did not

mention seeing pornography on Collum’s cell phone or any pornographic magazines.

The victim indicated that the last time anything had happened was three weeks prior

to the interview on a Tuesday, which fell on August 28, 2018. The victim’s school

attendance records reflected that the victim was checked out at 2:16 p.m. on August

28, 2018, with a comment of “[u]nexcused.”

The State presented testimony from a detective who performed a forensic

search of Collum’s cell phone. The cell phone’s web history showed the user visiting

a pornographic website throughout the day on August 28, 2018, and seemingly

clicking on links or pages with titles such as “Teen tied and gagged then fucked on the

table,” “Petite teen suck and fuck a hard dick,” “Pervcity sexy teen gets her asshole

stretched,” “Pervcity . . . teens next door anal threesome porn,” “teens like it big,

5 bad grades good girl,” and “Horny schoolgirls suck cock and get fucked.” The

detective was able to surmise that the phone user clicked on something, causing the

pornographic website to “focus” on “small, petite, teenage stuff,” later to focus on

anal sex, and then again focus on “the teen section.” The detective did not find any

child pornography on the cell phone and explained that the “[t]een porn” category

“depicts the fantasy” rather than showing actual underage girls.

The cell phone report also reflected that someone had searched for “pastel

kawaii anime girl,”“[a]nime porn,” and “furry porn.” During her testimony, the

victim confirmed that she was interested in anime but denied searching for porn on

Collum’s phone. Additionally, the defense pointed out that the report showed that the

victim had taken a “selfie” on Collum’s phone during the time period some of the

pornography was viewed. Both the victim and the victim’s mother testified that

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