Welch v. State

Morris Welch, the appellant, was convicted of rape in the first degree and was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment. He was also convicted of kidnapping in the second degree and of robbery in the third degree and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in each of those cases. He raises three issues on this direct appeal from those convictions.

I

The trial judge properly refused the appellant's requested jury instruction on sexual abuse in the first degree as a lesser included offense of rape. The appellant contends that the State failed to prove penetration as an element of rape and that,…