Smith v. State

Steele Hays, Justice.

Appellant W.L. Smith was found guilty by a jury of four counts of rape. He was sentenced to forty years imprisonment on each count. Two of the counts are to be served consecutively and the two remaining counts concurrently, for a total of eighty years in the Department of Correction. On appeal he raises three points for reversal: (1) the trial court erred in allowing evidence of prior offenses to be admitted, thus causing the defendant to suffer substantial prejudice; (2) the trial court erred when it deviated from established trial procedures by ordering counsel to make…