State v. Swords

Littlejohn, Justice:

Appellant, Gary Allen Swords, was convicted of committing an assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature (ABHAN) upon his nine-year-old stepdaughter. We reverse and remand for a new trial.

The alleged basis of the State’s charge that Appellant is guilty of ABHAN is that he sexually molested his nine-year-old stepdaughter and electrically shocked her with an army field telephone.

Appellant asserts that the trial judge erred in permitting in evidence: (1) the testimony of State’s expert witness, Bonnie Marsden, who testified to the effect that the household wherein the…