The Mississippi Court of Appeals Tuesday upheld the childfondling conviction of a Lincoln County man following his January2002 trial.

Timothy Dupuis, 50, was convicted of touching, handling orfeeling a child for lustful purposes following a two-day trial on asexual battery charge. Jurors opted for the lesser charge. Dupuiswas sentenced by Judge Mike Smith to 168 consecutive months, to beserved day for day because of the nature of the crime, with thelast year suspended for five years probation.

In his appeal, Dupuis alleged the verdict was against theoverwhelming weight of the evidence, the state violated a trialmotion by trying to obtain testimony regarding prior bad acts byDupuis, and that there was no physical evidence to support theverdict.

Writing for the appeals court, Judge T. Kenneth Griffis said noerror was found and the verdict and sentence were affirmed.

Regarding questions about weight of the evidence, the judgessaid they found no reason to believe any of it was not true.

Also, the trial record showed where some defense motions did notreceive ruling from the trial court. Therefore, the appeals rulingsaid, issues raised in the motions are waived.

“It is the responsibility of the movant to obtain a ruling onall motions filed by them, and the failure to obtain a rulingconstitutes a waiver,” Griffis said.