OPINION JERRY L. SMITH, JUDGE. Appellant, Terry Wayne Robinson, was indicted by the Madison County Grand Jury for driving under the influence ("DUI") and DUI seventh offense. After a jury trial, Appellant was found guilty of DUI. Appellant pled guilty to DUI, seventh offense. The trial court merged the convictions and sentenced Appellant to four years as a Range II, multiple offender. After the denial of a motion for new trial, Appellant has appealed. Appellant argues on appeal that the...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JUDGE. A Rutherford County jury convicted the Defendant, Larry Scott Reynolds, of first degree premeditated murder, and the trial court sentenced him to life in prison. On appeal, the Defendant contends that: (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction; (2) the trial court improperly excluded evidence from Karla Teutsch, whom he alleges was a legitimate suspect in this murder investigation; (3) the trial court improperly admitted a statement by the...
OPINION JERRY L. SMITH, JUDGE. Based upon events on November 7, 2006, the Davidson County Grand Jury indicted Appellants, Tornita Crenshaw, Stephon Dante Cunningham, Lance Sandifer, and Cortez Thorne for two counts of aggravated robbery, one count of aggravated burglary, and two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping. In addition, Appellants Crenshaw, Cunningham, and Thorne were indicted for two counts of facilitation to commit aggravated rape; Appellants Crenshaw and Cunningham were...
OPINION JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, JUDGE. The petitioner, James William Taylor, also known as Lutfi Shafq Talal, was convicted in the Williamson County Circuit Court of felony murder, robbery, and second degree burglary. He was subsequently sentenced to consecutive sentences of life, fifteen years, and fifteen years for the respective convictions. In this appeal, the petitioner challenges the trial court's denial of his motion for nunc pro tunc to consolidate prior offenses. Because such an...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, Judge. A Davidson County jury convicted the Defendant, Arturo Jaimes-Garcia, of multiple drug offenses relating to three different drug sales, and the trial court imposed an effective sentence of eighteen years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant contends: (1) the evidence is insufficient to sustain his convictions; (2) the DrugF-ree School Zone statute is unconstitutionally vague and unconstitutional as applied to the facts of this...
OPINION CAMILLE R. McMULLEN, JUDGE. The Defendant-Appellee, Melvin Shorty was convicted by a Shelby County jury of reckless homicide, a Class D felony. Several months prior to trial the State filed a notice to seek enhanced punishment listing two of Shorty's prior Tennessee felony convictions. The day before sentencing, the State amended their notice to seek enhanced punishment by adding two prior Wisconsin felony convictions. The trial court determined that the amended notice failed to...
MEMORANDUM OPINION JOSEPH M. TIPTON, PRESIDING JUDGE. The Petitioner, Gary Wayne Bell, appeals from the Hamilton County Criminal Court's summary dismissal of his "motion" for post-conviction relief. The State has moved to have this court summarily affirm the dismissal pursuant to Rule 20 of the Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Because the record demonstrates that the "motion" was filed outside the statute of limitations applicable to petitions for post-conviction relief, we grant the...
MEMORANDUM OPINION JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, JUDGE. The petitioner, Matthew Jackson, appeals the Lake County Circuit Court's summary dismissal of his pro se petition for the writ of habeas corpus. The petitioner pled guilty to two counts of aggravated rape, a Class A felony; aggravated kidnapping, a Class B felony; aggravated robbery, a Class B felony; and theft of property over $500, a Class E felony. He was subsequently sentenced to an effective sentence of twenty-five years in the...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JUDGE. A Davidson County jury convicted the Defendant, Derrick Sloan Taylor, of attempted especially aggravated robbery and attempted first degree murder, and the trial court sentenced him to an effective sentence of thirty-three years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant contends that: (1) the trial court erred when it admitted evidence about him firing a gun on another occasion; and (2) the evidence is insufficient to sustain his...
OPINION JAMES CURWOOD WITT, JR., JUDGE. The defendant, Deandre Marcellus Howard, pleaded guilty to a single count of voluntary manslaughter and received an agreed term of three years' probation to be served pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-35-313. In this appeal, the defendant contends that the trial court erred by denying him some 18 months of pretrial jail credit. For the procedural reasons explained more fully below, the appeal is dismissed. On July 10, 2007, the Davidson...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JUDGE. The Petitioner, Darrell Wayne Bumpas, pled guilty to robbery and resisting arrest, and the trial court sentenced him as a Range II offender to six years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. The Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief, alleging that his guilty plea was unknowing and involuntary and that he received the ineffective assistance of counsel. After a hearing, the post-conviction court dismissed the petition, and the Petitioner...
OPINION THOMAS T. WOODALL, JUDGE. Petitioner, Luis Castanon, filed a petition pursuant to the Post-Conviction DNA Analysis Act of 2001, Tennessee Code Annotated sections 40-30-301-313. Petitioner sought DNA testing of evidence in the trial resulting in his convictions for four counts of aggravated rape and one count of aggravated burglary. The State filed a response in opposition to the petition, and the trial court summarily dismissed the petition, concluding that Petitioner had not...
OPINION JAMES CURWOOD WITT, JR., JUDGE. A Humphreys County Circuit Court jury convicted the defendant, Linda F. Cathey, of one count of theft of property valued at $10,000 or more but less than $60,000, a Class C felony. See T.C.A. 39-14-104, -105(4) (2006). The trial court sentenced the defendant to six years' probation and ordered restitution to the victim in the amount of $27,000. On appeal, the defendant argues that the trial court erred by denying her request for judicial diversion,...
OPINION THOMAS T. WOODALL, JUDGE. Defendant, Jerry Len Angus, was indicted in a seventeen-count indictment by the Davidson County Grand Jury for three counts of official misconduct in violation of Tenn. Code Ann. 39-16-402, nine counts of sexual battery by an authority figure in violation of Tenn. Code Ann. 39-13-527, four counts of statutory rape in violation of Tenn. Code Ann. 39-135-06, and one count of rape in violation of Tenn. Code Ann. 39-13-503. Defendant was convicted by a...
OPINION JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, JUDGE. The pro se petitioner, Henry Johnson, appeals from the summary dismissal of his petition for writ of habeas corpus relief. He was convicted of first degree murder and aggravated burglary and was sentenced to life imprisonment on August 19, 2009. On appeal, he argues that: the indictment against him was defective; the habeas corpus court erred in dismissing his petition without a hearing or appointment of counsel; and he was subject to double jeopardy as...
OPINION ALAN E. GLENN, JUDGE. The defendant, Terrence Donnell Pirtle, was convicted by a Gibson County jury of possession of cocaine with the intent to deliver or sell, a Class C felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor, and was sentenced by the trial court as a Range II offender to an effective term of four years in the Department of Correction. In a timely appeal to this court, he argues that the trial court should have granted his motion to suppress on the basis...
OPINION JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, JUDGE. The pro se petitioner, Miko Burl, appeals the summary dismissal of his petition for writ of habeas corpus relief. On February 7, 2000, the petitioner was convicted of especially aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, and aggravated burglary, for which he was sentenced to thirty-three years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, he argues that his conviction for especially aggravated robbery is void because this court vacated his conviction for...
OPINION ALAN E. GLENN, JUDGE. The petitioner, Kevin Jones, appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief from his conviction for aggravated child abuse, arguing that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by his failure to obtain a defense expert medical witness and that Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 13, which restricts funding for expert witnesses in non-capital post-conviction proceedings, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution....
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, Judge. A Franklin County grand jury indicted the Defendant, Connell Norton, for one count of possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance with the intent to sell or deliver and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia. The Defendant moved to suppress the evidence against him, which was seized during a search of his home following a warrantless entry. The trial court denied the motion to suppress. The Defendant pled guilty to possession of a Schedule VI...
OPINION ALAN E. GLENN, JUDGE. The defendant, Bruce Franks, Jr., having presently pled guilty to thirty-eight counts involving vandalism, theft, burglary, and criminal trespass, appeals the trial court's denial of his request for an alternative sentence and the trial court's revocation of his probation in two other cases. After review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. FACTS In case number 8192, the defendant was indicted on November 25, 2002, on one count of arson. The defendant...
