Lewis v. State

Larry D. Vaught, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of rape and sentenced to fifteen years in the Arkansas Department of Correction. On appeal, he contends that the trial court erred in allowing the State to introduce the child victim’s statement about the incident through her mother, pursuant to the excited-utterance exception to the hearsay rule. Although we agree that the statement is inadmissible, we affirm because the error was harmless.

The State charged appellant with rape in violation of Ark. Code Ann. § 5-14-103 (Repl. 1997), alleging that on May 2, 1999, appellant engaged in sexual…