A jury convicted Marvin Hughes of child molestation and statutory rape, and the trial court imposed a 20-year sentence after merging the molestation conviction into the statutory-rape conviction for sentencing. Hughes challenged the admission of similar-transaction evidence and argued that the sentencing order failed to make the merger clear. The Georgia Court of Appeals held that the evidence was properly admitted because it was relevant to permissible purposes and its probative value was not substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice. The court also held that the sentencing order clearly reflected the merger, so no clarification was required. It nevertheless found that the trial court failed to impose the split sentence required for statutory rape under Georgia law. The court affirmed the conviction, vacated the sentence, and remanded for resentencing in compliance with the split-sentence statute.