State v. Thornton

On Certiorari to the Utah Court of Appeals

Associate Chief Justice Lee,

opinion of the Court:

HI Robert Damien Thornton was convicted of multiple counts of rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse of a twelve-year-old victim, B.Z. On appeal Thornton challenged a pair of eviden-tiary rulings made by the district court. He argued that the district court erred in admitting evidence of his past misconduct under Utah Rule of Evidence 404(b) and in preclud-*1019mg him from questioning the victim about her sexual history. On the latter point, Thornton argued that he was entitled to present evidence of the victim’s…