State of Tennessee v. Randall Scott

A Davidson County jury convicted the defendant, Randall Scott, of rape of a child and aggravated sexual battery. This Court affirmed the defendant’s convictions upon his direct appeal, see State v. Randall Scott, No. 01C01-9708-CR-00334, 1999 WL 547460, at *14 (Tenn. Crim. App. At Nashville, July 28, 1999), but the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case for a new trial, see State v. Scott, 33 S.W.3d 746 (Tenn. 2000). At the conclusion of the defendant’s second trial, a second Davidson County jury convicted the defendant of rape of a child and aggravated sexual battery, and the trial court subsequently ordered the defendant to serve an aggregate thirty-five-year sentence for his convictions. The defendant now brings the instant direct appeal of his convictions and sentence alleging five grounds of error. The defendant argues that the trial court (1) erroneously admitted the evidence that the victim identified the defendant as her perpetrator in the first trial, (2) erroneously admitted certain hearsay testimony as an adoptive admission by a party opponent, (3) erroneously instructed the jury that they could draw an inference of guilt if they concluded that the defendant had concealed or destroyed or had attempted to destroy or conceal evidence of his crime, (4) failed to separate the defendant’s charges for rape of a child and aggravated sexual battery, as was required by law, and (5) ordered the defendant to serve an excessive sentence. After a thorough review of the defendant’s claims and the record, we find that several of the defendant’s allegations were previously determined by this Court pursuant to his first direct appeal and that none of his claims merit relief.