OPINION JAMES CURWOOD WITT, JR. , J. The defendant, Willie Lee Wilson, Jr., appeals his Haywood County Circuit Court jury convictions of aggravated robbery, theft of property valued at $1,000 or less, and evading arrest, arguing that the evidence adduced at trial was insufficient to sustain his convictions. Because the evidence was insufficient to support the defendant's conviction for theft of property valued at $1,000 or less relevant to a handgun, that conviction is vacated, and the...
OPINION CAMILLE R. MCMULLEN , J. The Defendant-Appellant, Troy Jones, was convicted by a Davidson County jury of three counts of aggravated burglary and one count of sexual battery, for which he received an effective sentence of five years' imprisonment. See Tenn. Code Ann. 39-14-403, 39-13-505. On appeal, the Defendant argues that (1) the trial court erred in allowing the State to introduce extrinsic evidence to impeach his statement to police, (2) the evidence is insufficient to...
OPINION ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY, JR. , J. The Defendant, Michael Rimmer, was convicted by a Shelby County jury of first degree premeditated murder, first degree felony murder, and aggravated robbery. T.C.A. 39-13-202(1), (2) (Supp. 1998) (first degree murder), 39-13-402 (1997) (aggravated robbery). The trial court merged the felony murder conviction into the premeditated murder conviction. The jury sentenced the Defendant to death for the first degree murder conviction, and the trial court...
OPINION CAMILLE R. McMULLEN , Judge. The Defendant-Appellant, Dustin Herring, appeals from the order of the Sevier County Circuit Court revoking his probation and ordering him to serve the balance of his sentence in confinement. In this appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion in doing so because the new arrests supporting the violation of probation had been dismissed in general sessions court. Upon our review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court....
OPINION JAMES CURWOOD WITT, JR. , J. The defendant, Thomas Huey Liles, Jr., appeals his Sevier County Circuit Court jury conviction of second offense driving under the influence ("DUI"), claiming that the statute imposing a blood alcohol or drug concentration test fee violates principles of due process. Because our supreme court has specifically concluded that the statute in question does not violate due process principles, we affirm. The Sevier County Grand Jury charged the defendant,...
OPINION CAMILLE R. MCMULLEN , J. The Petitioner, Reginold C. Steed, 1 appeals the Davidson County Criminal Court's denial of his petition for post-conviction relief. On appeal, he argues: (1) post-trial counsel provided ineffective assistance in failing to present evidence that the victim allegedly recanted his trial testimony identifying the Petitioner as the perpetrator; (2) the post-conviction court erred in failing to notify him of the date of the post-conviction hearing; and (3) the...
OPINION JAMES CURWOOD WITT, JR. , J. On petition for writ of certiorari from the Knox County Criminal Court, the State challenges the order of that court denying its petition to have the appellee, Sherry Anastasia Dodson, declared a Motor Vehicle Habitual Offender ("MVHO"). The trial court erred by concluding that the State was required to proceed via Code section 55-10-618 to have the appellee declared an MVHO in this case and that the State had waived the right to proceed at all by...
OPINION ALAN E. GLENN , Judge . The Petitioner, James Allen Pollard, appeals the post-conviction court's dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief, arguing that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. After thorough review, we affirm the dismissal of the petition. FACTS On February 12, 2009, the Petitioner was convicted of first-degree felony murder, first-degree premeditated murder, and especially aggravated robbery. The first-degree felony murder and first-degree...
OPINION ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY, JR. , J. The Defendant, Larry W. Hopkins, was convicted by a Davidson County Criminal Court jury of two counts of aggravated rape, Class A felonies. See T.C.A. 39-13-502 (2014). The trial court sentenced the Defendant to concurrent terms of twenty-five years' incarceration at 100% service. On appeal, the Defendant contends that (1) the trial court erred by limiting his cross-examination of the victim and (2) the State engaged in prosecutorial misconduct...
OPINION J. ROSS DYER , J. The petitioner, Jason Lyles, appeals the denial of his post-conviction petition, arguing the post-conviction court erred in finding he received effective assistance of counsel at trial. After our review of the record, briefs, and applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. Facts and Procedural History In 2013, a Maury County jury convicted the petitioner of two counts of facilitating the sale of more than 0.5 grams of cocaine within a...
OPINION J. ROSS DYER , J. The petitioner, Richard Bryant Long, appeals the denial of his post-conviction petition, arguing the post-conviction court erred in finding he received effective assistance of counsel at trial. Following our review, we affirm the denial of the petition. Facts and Procedural History In 2015, a Lawrence County jury convicted the petitioner of the Class A felony of rape of a child for which he is currently serving a twenty-five-year sentence in the Tennessee...
TIMOTHY L. EASTER , J. Defendant, Tammy Tuttle, appeals her convictions of possession of not less than 14.175 grams (0.5 ounces) but not more than ten pounds of marijuana with the intent to sell and possession of 0.5 grams or more of cocaine with the intent to sell as well as the forfeiture of $1,098,050 in United States currency. The trial court sentenced Defendant to an effective eight year sentence to serve. On appeal, Defendant argues that the evidence is insufficient to sustain her...
OPINION CAMILLE R. MCMULLEN , J. The Defendant-Appellant, Corey Forest, entered a guilty plea to possession of more than.5 grams of a Schedule II substance and to unlawful possession of a firearm and attempted to reserve two certified questions pursuant to Tennessee Criminal Procedure Rule 37(b)(2) regarding whether the stop of his vehicle was lawful. After this court dismissed the appeal because the certified questions were not properly reserved, Forest filed a timely petition for post-...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER , J. A Monroe County jury convicted the Petitioner, Sterling Davis, of possession of 300 grams or more of cocaine with intent to sell, possession of more than half an ounce of marijuana with intent to sell, and possession of drug paraphernalia. The trial court imposed an effective sentence of forty years, and this court affirmed the judgments on appeal. State v. Sterling Jerome Davis, No. E2012-01398-CCA-R3-CD, 2013 WL 6047558, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App., at...
OPINION D. KELLY THOMAS, JR. , J. The Petitioner, Timothy P. Guilfoy, appeals from the Davidson County Criminal Court's denial of his petition for a writ of error coram nobis. The Petitioner contends that the coram nobis court erred in denying his petition because he presented newly discovered evidence in the form of an affidavit from the jury foreperson stating that the jury viewed videotaped forensic interviews of the victims during its deliberations. Discerning no error, we affirm the...
MEMORANDUM OPINION D. KELLY THOMAS, JR. , J. The Defendant, Brian Allen Spears, appeals as of right from the Sevier County Circuit Court's judgment revoking his community corrections sentence and ordering the Defendant to serve the remainder of his sentence in confinement. The Defendant argues that the trial court abused its discretion in ordering the sentence served in confinement. The State has filed a motion to affirm the trial court's judgment pursuant to Rule 20 of the Rules of the...
OPINION JAMES CURWOOD WITT, JR. , J. The defendant, Ronald Wayne Gilbert, appeals his Sevier County Criminal Court jury convictions of especially aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault, challenging both the trial court's denial of his motion to strike the victim's testimony and his motion to dismiss based upon the failure to preserve certain evidence. We affirm the convictions and sentence but remand for correction of a clerical error in the judgment. In September 2015, the Sevier...
OPINION ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY, JR. , J. The Defendant, Larry Eugene Haynes, appeals the Sevier County Circuit Court's order revoking his probation for his forgery and misdemeanor theft convictions and ordering him to serve the remainder of his effective six-year sentence in confinement. The Defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering his sentence into execution. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. On June 25, 2015, the Defendant pleaded guilty to...
OPINION D. KELLY THOMAS, Jr. , J. The Defendant, Kyle J. Dodd, was convicted by a jury of driving under the influence (DUI), second offense, a Class A misdemeanor. See Tenn. Code Ann. 55-10-401, -402(a)(2). The trial court imposed a sentence of eleven months and twenty-nine days with fifty days to be served in confinement and the remainder to be served on supervised probation. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his...
OPINION ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY, Jr. , J. The State of Tennessee appeals the Maury County Circuit Court's orders suppressing evidence and dismissing the indictment, which charged the Defendant with driving under the influence (DUI), DUI per se, violating the implied consent law, failure to maintain a motor vehicle within a lane of traffic, and violating the open container law. On appeal, the State contends that the trial court erred by granting the Defendant's motion to suppress the blood...
