State v. Lewis

195 So. 3d 495, 2016 WL 2342348, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 868
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided May 4, 2016·No. No. 50,546-KA·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

WILLIAMS, J.

It The defendant, Rodney Lewis, was charged by amended bill of indictment with aggravated rape, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:42(A)(4), and molestation of a juvenile, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:81.2(A)(1). Following a jury trial, the defendant was found guilty as charged. Thereafter, the defendant was adjudicated a third-felony habitual offender. The trial court sentenced defendant to life imprisonment without the benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence for each offense, to be served concurrently. Defendant appeals his conviction of aggravated rape. For the following reasons, we affirm the defendant’s convictions and sentences.

FACTS

In September 2014, Olivia Jones, the mother of 15-year-old S.J.,1 found a sequence of text messages on S.J.’s cell phone suggesting that the girl was pregnant and that defendant, Jones’ live-in boyfriend, could be the father. When questioned by her mother, S.J. said that defendant had been sexually molesting her since she was 11 years old and that she might be pregnant. The next day, Jones took S.J. to a medical clinic, where a physician confirmed the pregnancy. Jones and S.J. then went to the DeSoto Parish Sheriffs Office to file a criminal complaint against defendant. They spoke with Detective Garland Hensley, who referred S.J. to the Gingerbread House for an interview. Defendant was arrested and later charged with aggravated rape and molestation of a juvenile. In April 2015, prior to trial, the DeSoto Parish District Attorney’s office received a letter from defendant in which he admitted to having sexual intercourse with S.J., but he claimed |2that the girl had [497] initiated the sexual conduct. He also claimed the sexual abuse did not start until after S.J. was 13 years of age.

At trial, Olivia Jones testified that she is the mother of S.J. and two other daughters. She stated -that defendant is not their father. Jones told the jury that she and defendant were not married, but had been living together for over seven years. She testified that in September 2014, she told defendant to leave the home because she found out about his sexual abuse of S.J. According to Jones, defendant was like a father to S.J. and her other two daughters and treated them well. Jones stated that she would always love defendant, in spite of S.J.’s allegations and the charges against him. On cross-examination, Jones testified that she had lived with defendant, her mother and three daughters in three different locations between June 2010 and September 2014. Jones stated that some years after she and defendant started living together they moved to another house and then one year later moved to the house where she and her daughters resided at the time of trial. Jones testified that at some point defendant traveled for work and returned home on the weekends over a period of approximately two years, but she was not sure of the dates. According to Jones, defendant and her mother regularly watched S.J. and her sisters when Jones was at work or otherwise away from the home.

S.J. testified that she was born in June 1999 and was 15 years old at the time of trial. S.J. stated that defendant was like her stepfather, even though he and her mother had not married. She further stated that defendant was the adult in charge when her mother was away. S.J. testified that ^defendant first sexually abused her when she was 11 years old. • S.J. explained that she knew that she was 11 years old when the abuse began because she remembered that the first incident occurred before she started the sixth grade. S.J. testified that the first time the sexual abuse occurred, she and defendant were home alone. She testified that defendant called her into the bedroom he shared with her mother and locked'the door behind them; he then turned up the volume of the television, took off her clothes and raped her. According to S.J., this pattern of sexual abuse continued weekly for the next four years. S.J. testified that, in the beginning, she tried to fight against defendant, but “toward the end, [she] just gave up because [she] didn’t see ... the use of fighting.” S.J. testified that although most of the sexual abuse occurred when they livéd in the previous homes, defendant had raped her in the family’s current home in February or March 2014, when her son was conceived.

S.J. testified that she did not tell her mother about the sexual abuse until September 2014, and had told her friend and boyfriend only after she began to suspect that she was pregnant. S.J. testified that her mother took her to visit defendant in 2012 when he was in prison. She recalled that there was a period Of time when defendant' traveled to a job during the week, but he came home each weekend. S.J. explained that she would act normal and “comfortable” around defendant when they were with other members of her family because she knew she was safe at those times. S.J. also, acknowledged that her mother had asked her if anything was going on between her and defendant, but she denied there were any issues.

14Janet Devereaux, who was accepted as an expert sexual assault nurse examiner, testified that in most • cases in which a minor is the victim, there are no medical or physical signs of sexual abuse. Dever-eaux explained that it is á normal occurrence for a child not to disclose incidents [498] of sexual abuse until he or she becomes an adult or is forced to disclose the abuse by a questioning parent or another concerned adult.

After being re-called as a witness by the defense, Olivia Jones testified that S.J. had told her about defendant’s threat that if S.J. said anything about his acts, then he would leave and the family would be without money and a home. Jones stated that she did. not understand why this threat concerned S.J., because she knew that Jones had an income and could provide for S.J. and her sisters. Jones, testified that she took her three daughters to visit defendant every week when he was in jail in 2012 and that her daughters went willingly with her on those visits. Jones admitted that she never had a conversation with S.J. about the family’s finances and never told S.J. who paid for groceries or rent.

The defendant’s mother, Blanche Busse, testified that she never noticed anything “peculiar” between defendant and S.J. and the two..of them acted as if they had a normal . father-daughter relationship. Busse stated that she thought S.J. just did not like her mother. Busse testified that S.J. never behaved as if she was being molested by defendant, but admitted that she had no training to detect when a child was being molested.

Defendant's sister, Linda Duncan, testified that S.J. had told her that defendant had not threatened or 'forced her to have sex with him, but that the | ^sexual conduct had occurred more than once when defendant was drunk. Duncan testified that she believed that S.J. - was lying and that if defendant had truly sexually molested her, S.J. would have told someone.- Duncan, however, conceded that she had no training in child psychology and that her interpretation 'of S.J.’s conduct was her own opinion.

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State v. Lewis, 195 So. 3d 495, 2016 WL 2342348, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 868 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

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