Sampson v. State

BLACKBURN, Presiding Judge.

Following a bench trial, Christopher Sampson appeals his convictions for cruelty to children and felony obstruction of an officer. Challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, Sampson urges that no evidence showed the malice element of the cruelty-to-children offense nor did any evidence show he harmed the police officer in the obstruction offense. We hold that the severity of the bite marks on the child allowed the court to infer malice, and that because offering to do violence suffices, actual harm to the officer is not an essential element of felony obstruction…