A man sentenced to a decade in prison for raping a woman will get a new trial. 

Defendant Paris Sharpe won his appeal before the Supreme Court of Guam. 

Defense argued he was falsely accused. 

A jury convicted Sharpe of third-degree criminal sexual conduct back in June 2023. 

Justices ruled the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted the complaining witness’s written statement to police as a prior consistent statement. The court concluded that the entire defense was that the victim’s fabrication was not recent—but that the allegations were fabricated from the outset.

The court also found the error was not harmless because the complaining witness’s credibility was the dispositive issue at trial, and the wrongly admitted evidence allowed the prosecution to bolster the complaining witness on this critical issue.

The supreme court vacated the judgment of conviction and remanded for a new trial.