Evans v. State

Following a jury trial, John Evans appeals his conviction on multiple counts of child molestation,1 aggravated child molestation,2 and statutory rape,3 and on single counts of sexual contact with a psychotherapist client4 and of enticing a child for indecent purposes.5 His sole enumeration of error is that the trial court erred in admitting two similar transactions. We hold that as to the first similar transaction, he induced any alleged error in that his own counsel was the first to elicit the testimony of that transaction. As to the second transaction, the trial court did not clearly err in finding that, because it involved a sexual act by Evans in his counseling office with a female he was counseling, it was sufficiently similar to one of the crimes at issue here which alleged a sexual act by Evans in his counseling office with a female he was counseling. Accordingly, we affirm. Construed in favor of the verdict, Davis v. State ,6 the evidence shows that Evans, a psychotherapist, counseled a young female from the time she was 10 until she was 18, and when she turned 14, he hired her for multiple weekends as a babysitter for his children. During the babysitting weekends at his home, he fondled her breasts, engaged in numerous acts of vaginal, oral, and anal intercourse with her, required her to put on lingerie and pose for pornographic photos he took of her, and once took her to his office where he placed his finger in her private part. All of these sexual acts took place while she was 14 and 15. During one of his counseling sessions with her in his office when she was 15, he engaged in vaginal intercourse with her.

Evans was indicted on two counts of child molestation, two counts of aggravated child molestation, three counts of statutory rape, one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes, and one count of sexual contact with a psychotherapist client. At trial, two similar transactions were introduced. The first concerned his molesting his stepdaughter from the time she was 10 until she turned 16 through fondling her breasts, engaging in acts of oral, anal, and vaginal intercourse with her, and taking pornographic pictures of her in lingerie. The second concerned his fondling the breasts of and taking his pants off and rubbing his private part on an adult female client while he was counseling her in his office. A jury found him guilty on all counts, giving rise to this appeal. He contests the court’s admitting the two similar transactions.