State v. Blake

CLECKLEY, Justice:

The defendant below and appellant herein, Eugene Blake, appeals his October 17, 1985, convictions for first degree murder and two counts of third degree sexual assault. 1 The defendant raises several assignments of error, which we address below. We order a new trial on the murder conviction and affirm the sexual assault convictions.

I

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On October 26, 1984, the body of thirteen-year-old Mary Ann Hope Helmbright was found about seventy-five feet from a road in a wooded area in Monongalia County, just north of Morgantown. The victim died of a…