State of West Virginia v. Nicholas Varlas

Chief Justice Ketchum:

In this appeal from the Circuit Court of Brooke County, defendant Nicholas Varias appeals an order convicting him of second-degree sexual assault and of attempting to commit first-degree sexual abuse. Because the circuit court erred in excluding relevant evidence critical to Varlas’s defense, we reverse its order of conviction and remand the case for a new trial.

I

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Defendant Varias lived in Follansbee, West Virginia. According to the prosecution’s evidence at trial, at about 11:00 p.m. on August 12, 2012, a group of people drove to Varlas’s…