State v. Cotton

While in jail awaiting trial on sexual-conduct charges involving his stepdaughter, Cotton (defendant) wrote a letter to his wife asking her to pay his stepdaughter to leave the state so she could not testify; his cellmate intercepted the letter and gave it to authorities before it reached his wife. Cotton then wrote a second letter with a revised plan to have his stepdaughter visit and be persuaded not to testify, but he never mailed it. Cotton was convicted of two counts of criminal solicitation and appealed.