Reliford

Appellant Rodney Damon Reliford appeals from judgment sentencing him to prison for a term of 37 years, imposed after a jury found him guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object. He contends the judgment must be reversed due to instructional error. For reasons explained in this opinion, we affirm the judgment.

This is appellant's second appeal in this case. In the first trial the evidence proved that appellant saw the victim at a nightclub. The victim was a person with whom he had had a consensual sexual relationship several years earlier. When the victim attempted to leave with a girlfriend, appellant playfully pushed her into his car. He then drove around with her, running out of gas twice. Ultimately, he refused to release her from the car and forced her to have sex with him. The jury found appellant guilty of rape, but was unable to reach a verdict on two counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object. We reversed the judgment on grounds of instructional error, reasoning that the jury may have believed it could find appellant guilty under the preponderance of the evidence standard after being instructed pursuant to…