Tolbert v. State

Cecil Tolbert was convicted of one count of armed kidnapping and two counts of sexual battery with the use or threatened use of a deadly weapon. The court sentenced Tolbert to life imprisonment for the kidnapping charge and thirty years each for the sexual battery charges, with all sentences to run concurrently. Tolbert appeals the trial court’s decision to allow an expert DNA analyst to testify that another DNA analyst found male DNA in a sample taken from the victim. We agree that this was inadmissible hearsay, but we find that the error was harmless.

On July 11, 1996, the victim was walking…