State v. Barnes

HEDRICK, Judge.

By his first assignment of error, defendant argues, “The trial court committed reversible error by failing to instruct the jury that in order to convict the defendant of second degree rape it must find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant penetrated Ms. Newkirk’s sex organ with his sex organ.” Defendant contends that the court’s instructions inadequately covered one element of second-degree rape, in that they stated merely that “the State must prove . . . that the defendant had sexual intercourse with Anna Newkirk.”

“The judge must charge the essential elements of the…