OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, J. A Davidson County jury convicted the Defendant, Kevin D. Buford, of felony murder and attempted especially aggravated robbery. The trial court imposed concurrent sentences of life for the felony murder conviction and ten years for the attempted especially aggravated robbery conviction. On appeal, the Defendant asserts that there is insufficient evidence to support his convictions. After a thorough review of the record and applicable law, we affirm the trial...
OPINION JOSEPH M. TIPTON, PRESIDING JUDGE. The Defendant, Brett Joseph Price, pled guilty to robbery, a Class C felony, and conspiracy to commit robbery, a Class D felony. See T.C.A. 39-13-401, 39-12-103 (2010). He was sentenced as a Range I, standard offender to five years for robbery and to three years for conspiracy, to be served concurrently. On appeal, he contends that the trial court erred by (1) denying his motion to suppress his post-arrest statements and by admitting a statement...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JUDGE. The Defendant, Javis Montell Dean, pled guilty to possession of a schedule II controlled substance with intent to sell, a Class B felony, and introduction of contraband into a penal facility, a Class C felony. The trial court sentenced him to an effective sentence of eight years and ordered that the Defendant serve one year incarcerated and serve the remainder in the community corrections program. As part of the Defendant's pleas, he reserved a certified...
OPINION CAMILLE R. McMULLEN, JUDGE. The Petitioner, Mannaka Oung, appeals the Davidson County Criminal Court's summary dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief from his 2000 conviction for aggravated assault and resulting three-year suspended sentence. Oung filed a petition for post-conviction relief, alleging that he received ineffective assistance of counsel based on counsel's failure to advise him of the plea's possible effects on his immigration status and potential...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JUDGE. A Shelby County jury found the Petitioner, Theron Davis, guilty of attempted second degree murder and especially aggravated robbery, and the trial court sentenced him to an effective sentence of thirty-five years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. The Petitioner appealed, and this Court affirmed the convictions in State v. Theron Davis, No. W20020-0446-CCA-R3-CD, 2003 WL 21339000, at *13 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Jackson, May 28, 2003), perm. app....
OPINION JEFFREY S. BIVINS, JUDGE. Ricky Nelson ("the Petitioner") filed a motion for post-conviction deoxyribonucleic acid ("DNA") testing pursuant to the Post-Conviction DNA Analysis Act of 2001, requesting DNA analysis of a knife used in the perpetration of a rape. After a non-evidentiary hearing, the post-conviction court denied relief, and the Petitioner has appealed. After reviewing the record, we have determined, in light of the recent decision of the Tennessee Supreme Court in Powers...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JUDGE. A Davidson County jury convicted the Defendant, Timothy Christopher Pillow, of aggravated robbery, and the trial court sentenced him to ten years to be served at 100%. On appeal, the Defendant contends: (1) the evidence is insufficient to sustain his conviction; (2) the trial court erred when it failed to declare a mistrial based upon a detective's testimony that the Defendant had previously been incarcerated; and (3) the trial court erred when it enhanced...
OPINION ALAN E. GLENN, JUDGE. The defendant, Kenneth Spencer, was convicted by a Shelby County jury of first degree premeditated murder and was sentenced by the trial court to life imprisonment. He raises the following four issues on appeal: (1) whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain his conviction; (2) whether the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his statement to police; (3) whether the trial court erred in admitting evidence of his prior bad acts; and (4) whether...
OPINION JERRY L. SMITH, JUDGE. Appellant, Timothy Bryant Burton, appeals his Bedford County conviction for violation of the sex offender registry and the State's use of his prior convictions to establish his status as a violent sex offender. After a review of the record, we conclude that Appellant failed to timely register with a law enforcement agency within forty-eight hours of his change of residence in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-39-203 or, in other words, that the...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JUDGE. The Petitioner, Ivano Stamegna, pled guilty to attempt to possess more than 300 grams of cocaine, and the trial court sentenced him to eight years. In 2010, the Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief. After a hearing, the post-conviction court dismissed the petition, concluding that he did not file his petition within the applicable statute of limitations. On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the post-conviction court erred because either...
OPINION ALAN E. GLENN, JUDGE. The petitioner, Tarrean V. Nuby, appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief from his convictions for attempted first degree murder and aggravated robbery, arguing that he received ineffective assistance of both trial and appellate counsel. Following our review, we affirm the denial of the petition. FACTS The petitioner was convicted by a Shelby County jury of attempted first degree murder and two counts of aggravated robbery and was...
OPINION CAMILLE R. McMULLEN, JUDGE. Defendant-Appellant, Justin Gibson, pled guilty to driving under the influence with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent or more, a Class A misdemeanor. He agreed to a sentence of eleven months and twenty-nine days, all of which was suspended after seven days' incarceration. Gibson entered a conditional plea agreement and attempted to reserve a certified question of law under Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 37. The certified question of law addressed...
OPINION JAMES CURWOOD WITT, Jr., JUDGE. The petitioner, Konstantinos Diotis, appeals from the dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief as time-barred. In this appeal, the petitioner contends that application of the statute of limitations in his case is inappropriate because (1) the United States Supreme Court decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 1473 (2010), should be applied retroactively and (2) principles of due process require the tolling of the statute...
OPINION ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JUDGE. A Davidson County jury convicted the Defendant, Ted Ormand Pate, of attempted rape of a child, a Class B felony, and aggravated sexual battery, a Class B felony. The trial court merged the convictions and sentenced the Defendant as a Range I offender to ten years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant argues that the trial court erred when it: (1) admitted the Defendant's tape recorded confession to his daughter; (2) limited the...
OPINION JERRY L. SMITH, JUDGE. Petitioner, Timothy "Tink" Watson, was indicted by the Dyer County Grand Jury in October of 2005 for two counts of sale of more than .5 grams of cocaine. Petitioner represented himself at trial and was convicted by a jury of one count of sale of more than .5 grams of cocaine. 1 After a sentencing hearing, Petitioner received a fifteen-year sentence as a Range II, multiple offender. Petitioner filed several pleadings referred to as "amended" motions for new...
OPINION JAMES CURWOOD WITT, Jr., JUDGE. The pro se petitioner, Philip Reed Bryan, appeals the Shelby County Criminal Court's summary dismissal of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the habeas corpus court. From the record before this court we discern that the petitioner was arrested on Friday, October 8, 2010, for felony theft. The petitioner was arraigned via video on Monday, October 11, 2010. On December 8, 2010, the petitioner filed a...
OPINION CAMILLE R. McMULLEN, JUDGE. The Defendant-Appellant, Jessie Lee Palmer, pled guilty in the Circuit Court of Dyer County to promotion of methamphetamine manufacture, a Class D felony. He was sentenced as a Range II, multiple offender and received four years' imprisonment. Pursuant to Rule 37(b)(2)(A) of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure, Palmer reserved certified questions of law addressing whether the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained...
OPINION JAMES CURWOOD WITT, Jr., JUDGE. Originally charged with five counts of aggravated burglary and four counts of theft of property valued at $1,000 or more but less than $10,000, the defendant, Jose Jesus AlbaG-utierrez, pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated burglary in exchange for a total effective sentence not to exceed ten years, with the manner of service to be determined by the trial court, and the State's agreement to dismiss the theft charges against him. Following a...
OPINION JOSEPH M. TIPTON, PRESIDING JUDGE. The Defendant, Michael Dean Marlin, was found guilty by a Marshall County Circuit Court jury of three counts of especially aggravated burglary, a Class B felony; aggravated robbery, a Class B felony; robbery, a Class C felony; aggravated assault, a Class D felony; and assault, a Class A misdemeanor. The trial court merged the especially aggravated burglary convictions. The court sentenced the Defendant as a Range II, multiple offender to twenty years...
OPINION JERRY L. SMITH, JUDGE. Appellant, Frederick Edward Braxton a/k/a Frederick Frank Brown, was convicted by a Davidson County Jury of selling less than .5 grams of cocaine within 1000 feet of a school, evading arrest, and criminal impersonation. On appeal, Appellant complains that: (1) the indictment did not adequately charge Appellant with selling a controlled substance in a drug-free school zone; (2) the State did not establish a sufficient chain of custody prior to the introduction of...
