Swanson v. State

Johnson, Presiding Judge.

A jury found Donald Swanson guilty of rape, kidnapping, aggravated sodomy, and false imprisonment. In his sole enumeration of error, Swanson claims the trial court erred in admitting evidence of a 1973 rape at his 1997 trial as similar transaction evidence because the prior rape was too remote in time to be relevant. Swanson does not dispute that he committed the prior rape, that the state used the prior rape for a legitimate purpose, or that the prior rape is sufficiently similar to the charged offense so that proof of the former tends to prove the latter. We find no…