State v. Sousa

Syllabus

Convicted, following a jury trial, of sexual assault in the first degree and risk of injury to a child in connection with his sexual abuse of the victim, the defendant appealed to this court. He claimed that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting into evidence certain photographs of a house, a yard, and the interior of a garage where the incident of abuse took place. Held: The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the challenged photographs, as the record did not support the defendant's claim that the photographs were more prejudicial than probative because they did not fairly and accurately depict the house, the yard and the garage when the incident was alleged to have occurred. In light of the manner in which the photographs were handled at trial by the prosecutor and the witnesses, which made clear that they were making no claims that the photographs accurately depicted the relevant areas of the property during the pertinent years, this court could not conclude that the photographs presented any danger of misleading the jury, and the limiting instruction that the trial court provided immediately following the admission of the photographs, as well as its final instructions, lessened any potential prejudice from their admission. Argued February 4—officially released June 16, 2026