When Georgia's Supreme Court justices meet Tuesday morning, one of the cases on their docket is an appeal of a Hall County man's child molestation conviction.
Information provided by the high court on Friday said Alejandro Martinez-Arias is appealing his criminal convictions for abusing his girlfriend’s niece, contending that testimony by a school counselor at his trial focused on stereotypical characteristics of Latino culture and, thus, should have been inadmissible.
A Hall County Superior Court jury convicted Martinez-Arias of child molestation, aggravated child molestation, and aggravated sexual battery in February 2017. At the time, he was sentenced to life in prison with at least 25 years to serve.
Martinez-Arias appealed the trial court for a new trial, the appeal was denied. He then went to the Court of Appeals asking for a new trial. That court concluded in July 2020 that the trial court did not err in finding the school counselor's testimony relevant. The intermediate appellate court cited Georgia Code § 24-4-401 in its ruling, saying state law defines relevant evidence as "having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence."
According to the Court of Appeals, the victim’s school counselor testified about her interactions with the victim, whose family was from Mexico; described her professional training and scholarly research; and noted her own Latino heritage and experience as a counselor for at-risk Latino youth. Over Martinez-Arias’ objections, the counselor also described the “‘machismo’ and ‘collectivistic family’ nature of the Latino culture.”
The victim in the case was 9-years-old when the abuse began. When she was 12, the girl told her brother what had been happening, and that's when investigators became involved.
The questions before the Georgia Supreme Court this week are whether testimony about stereotypical cultural characteristics of an ethnic group to which a criminal defendant and his victim belong is relevant, and if so, is it admissible when offered as lay opinion testimony?
Martinez-Arias is represented by H. Bradford Morris, Northeastern Circuit Public Defender, and Matthew G. Leipold, Asst. Public Defender
Attorneys for the State are Lee Darragh, Northeastern Circuit District Attorney, and Anna V. Fowler, Asst. D.A.
