State v. Bray

Defendant appeals his convictions for first-degree rape and second-degree sexual abuse. He was charged with those two counts in a single indictment. The victim was defendant’s 15-year-old stepdaughter, who complained of periodic sexual abuse by her stepfather over the past five years. The charges arose out of incidents at the end of that time, just before the victim left her stepfather’s home.

Before trial, defendant moved to sever the two charges for trial on three grounds: that he might testify on only one charge, that he might waive jury trial on one charge and that the scope of admissible…