Local man wins appeal in rape case

2010-07-12

By Adrienne Leon

The Georgia Court of Appeals has overturned the conviction of a Sharpsburg man, but Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard said he plans to retry the case. The man was found guilty last year of the rape and aggravated sodomy of a Tyrone girl.

Zachary Hume Higgins' appeal said his defense attorney, Steve Harris, failed to object in detail to evidence from a child molestation case that might have influenced the jury's guilty verdict.

Monday's hearing addressed Higgins' guilty verdict involving the rape of the 16-year-old girl at her home. The incident occurred in 2005, but the girl did report the incident until years later.

In the hearing, the Court of Appeals ruled Harris should have presented a specific objection when the court allowed a police investigator to read details from the previous molestation case to the jury.

Fayette County Superior Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell sentenced Higgins to 35 years in prison, 25 of which are mandatory, according to Georgia law.

But based on Higgins' appeal, "he received ineffective assistance of counsel and that the trial court erred in its evidenciary rulings, its charge to the jury, and the sentence it imposed."

Higgins' appeal said his defense attorney who represented him in the rape trial should have objected to the jury's exposure of sentencing details from an unrelated child molestation case.

Court records further show Higgins believes "a reasonable probability that the outcome would have been different had this damaging information been excluded from the jury's consideration."

Higgins, who was 17 at the time of the rape incident, pled guilty to molesting a 4-year old when he was in middle school.

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