McCullum v. State

Summary

The court affirmed McCullum’s convictions for malice murder and rape of Monica Blackwell and upheld the denial of his constitutional speedy-trial and severance motions. It held that the evidence was sufficient because the jury could find that McCullum’s beating and rape of Blackwell materially contributed to or accelerated her death, and that the evidence supported rejecting consensual sex as an unreasonable hypothesis. The court also held that the indictment’s allegation concerning cocaine intoxication did not add an element to the malice-murder offense for purposes of constitutional sufficiency review.