Laster v. the State

Rickman, Judge.

Following a jury trial in 2014, Richard Earl Laster was convicted of child molestation and sexual battery against a child under the age of 16. He filed a motion for new trial, which the trial court denied. Laster contends on appeal that the trial court erroneously: (1) overruled his objection to the hearsay testimony of several witnesses who took the witness stand before the child victim and who relayed statements made to them by the child victim; and (2) instructed the jury that, as to the offense of sexual battery, a child under the age of 16 lacks the legal capacity to…