Riverav.State
Bridgett Parker was found raped and fatally stabbed in 1996; more than 20 years later, new testing of her sexual-assault kit matched Octavious Rivera’s DNA. A jury convicted Rivera of felony murder predicated on aggravated assault and rape, and he received consecutive life sentences. He argued that the indictment failed to plead a statute-of-limitations exception for the aggravated-assault and rape counts and challenged evidence of two other incidents. The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the felony-murder conviction, reversed the rape conviction, and remanded for resentencing. It held the rape count fatally defective because the indictment omitted the required limitations exception; the Court did not decide whether the period was actually tolled, and the aggravated-assault challenge was moot because that count merged into felony murder. The Court also held any error admitting the other-acts evidence harmless: DNA matched Rivera to the victim, a witness identified a similar car near the nightclub where Parker was last seen, and tire tracks at the scene were consistent with Rivera’s car.
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