State v. Rochelle
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child. The court departed from the usual Jessica's Law life sentence with a mandatory minimum of twenty-five years and imposed an aggregate sentence of 214 months. Defendant appealed, contending that the district court improperly influenced the jury and denied him a fair trial when it allowed a six-year-old child to testify against him with her school counselor sitting next to her without the court first making findings that the procedure was necessary. The Supreme Court affirmed after offering guidelines for other district courts to consider in making similar determinations, holding (1) because the district court provided reasons for its decision to permit the support person, the court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the support person to accompany the child during testimony at trial; (2) the district court erred in giving an Allen-type instruction, but the error was harmless; and (3) the court did not err in sentencing Defendant.
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