Richard Earl Laster was convicted after evidence showed that he had sent sexually explicit text messages to a thirteen-year-old girl and repeatedly touched her. On appeal, he challenged the admission of statements made by the child and the jury instruction concerning a child’s legal capacity to consent to sexual conduct. The Court of Appeals reversed Laster’s conviction for one count of sexual battery but affirmed his other convictions. The court held that the instruction misstated the law because it treated the child’s lack of legal capacity to consent as an element that automatically established the offense, rather than requiring the jury to decide the elements charged under the governing statute. The error was not harmless as to that count. The court rejected Laster’s remaining challenges, including his attacks on the admission of the child’s statements and the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the other verdicts. The judgment was affirmed in part and reversed in part. Two judges concurred.