State of Arizona v. Jerry Charles Holle

VICE CHIEF JUSTICE PELANDER,

opinion of the Court:

¶ 1 Under A.R.S. § 13-1407(E), “[i]t is a defense to a prosecution” for sexual abuse or child molestation “that the defendant was not motivated by a sexual interest.” We hold that lack of such motivation is an affirmative defense that a defendant must prove, and thus the state need not prove as an element of those crimes that a defendant’s conduct was motivated by a sexual interest.

I

¶ 2 We view the evidence and all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to sustaining the jury’s verdicts, State v. Cropper, 205 Ariz. 181, 182 ¶ 2, 68…