State v. Hagens

Summary

The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed Hagens’ convictions and sentences for first degree sexual assault of a child and incest. It held that the evidence was sufficient, any hearsay error was harmless because the evidence was cumulative, the unpreserved prosecutorial-misconduct claim did not constitute plain error, and the sentences were not an abuse of discretion. The court resolved some ineffective-assistance claims against Hagens or as insufficiently assigned, but held that the record was inadequate to resolve his claims concerning his decision not to testify and counsel’s failure to seek a mistrial or curative instruction.