State of Tennessee v. Joshua Cool

The Defendant, Joshua Cool, was convicted by a Knox County Criminal Court jury of two counts of first degree premeditated murder, first degree felony murder, two counts of second degree murder, and criminally negligent homicide. See T.C.A. §§ 39-13-202 (2014) (first degree murder); 39-13-210 (2014) (second degree murder); 39-13-212 (2014) (criminally negligent homicide). After the appropriate merger, the trial court sentenced the Defendant to concurrent sentences of life imprisonment for two first degree premeditated murder convictions and to two years’ confinement for criminally negligent homicide. On appeal, the Defendant contends that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his first degree murder convictions, (2) the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence recovered during a warrantless search and his subsequent police statement, and (3) the trial court erred by admitting various evidentiary items. We affirm the Defendant’s convictions, but we remand the case to the trial court for the entry of a corrected second degree murder judgment to reflect the offense as a Class A felony.