Following a jury trial, Edward Frank Gresham was convicted on one count of child molestation1 and one count of statutory rape.2 He appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in failing to declare a mistrial based on juror misconduct, admitting similar transaction evidence, failing to instruct the jury on bare suspicion, and imposing a disproportionately severe sentence. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, Davis v. State ,3 the evidence shows that in 2006, Gresham was the live-in boyfriend of Christen Wood and B. B., who was Wood’s 14-year-old female cousin. On May 20, 2006, some time after midnight, Wood, who suffered from endometriosis, was not feeling well. Because her boyfriend Gresham was out with friends, Wood called B. B.’s mother to ask her if she would accompany her to the hospital. B. B.’s mother declined but allowed B. B. to go with Wood instead. A few minutes later, Wood picked up B. B., and the two of them drove to Athens Regional Medical Center’s emergency room. Shortly after Wood was called from the waiting room to meet with the doctor, B. B., who was holding Wood’s cell phone, answered a call from Gresham and told him that they were at the hospital. Gresham responded that he would leave immediately to meet them. Less than an hour later, B. B. received another call from Gresham, who said that he had just arrived at the hospital and asked B. B. to meet him outside on the driveway to the entrance of the emergency room.
Subsequently, B. B. walked outside, found Gresham, and the two of them drove to the hospital’s parking deck. Once there, Gresham told B. B. that he was too drunk to park his vehicle and asked her if she would do so. B. B. agreed, and after driving up and down the multi-leveled parking deck for a few minutes, she parked Gresham’s vehicle between two other cars. Just as B. B. began to exit the vehicle, Gresham, who had pulled his pants down, grabbed B. B. by the waist, pulled her onto his lap, and pulled down the shorts she was wearing. After moving B. B. up and down on his lap for a few moments, Gresham pushed her face down across the vehicle’s center console, put his fingers in her privates, and placed his privates inside her privates. When Gresham finished, B. B. put her shorts back on and ran back into the hospital. She did not tell Wood or anyone at the hospital what had happened and drove home with Wood after Wood had been treated. Two days later, however, B. B. told another relative and, ultimately, told her mother that Gresham had sexually molested her. That same day, B. B. and her mother met with police to report the incident, and B. B. met with a specially trained nurse, who examined her for evidence of sexual assault.
