State of Tennessee v. Dequon Letray Boyd and Jemarow Deverius Tillison

Defendants Jemarow Deverius Tillison and Dequon Letray Boyd were originally indicted separately by the Hamilton County Grand Jury for offenses that occurred in the same shooting incident against the same victims. Upon motion of the State and by agreement between the parties, the indictments were consolidated, and a superceding indictment charged both defendants with attempted first degree premeditated murder of Darlisa Wynn; first degree premeditated murder of Casey Woods; felony murder of Casey Woods; especially aggravated robbery of Darlisa Wynn; aggravated assault of Darlisa Wynn; reckless endangerment; and especially aggravated burglary of the home of Kysha Henderson. Following a jury trial, Defendant Boyd was convicted of attempted first degree premeditated murder; first degree premeditated murder; felony murder; two counts of aggravated assault, one as charged and the other as a lesser-included offense of especially aggravated robbery; reckless endangerment; and aggravated criminal trespass as a lesser-included offense of especially aggravated burglary. Defendant Boyd’s felony murder conviction was merged with his conviction for first degree murder, and both aggravated assault convictions were merged with his conviction for attempted first degree murder. He received an effective sentence of life imprisonment. Defendant Tillison was convicted of facilitation of attempted first degree premeditated murder; facilitation of first degree premeditated murder; facilitation of felony murder; aggravated assault of Darlisa Wynn; attempted aggravated assault, a lesser included offense of aggravated assault; reckless endangerment; and aggravated criminal trespass, a lesser-included offense of especially aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to an effective sentence of 25 years imprisonment. On appeal, both Defendants challenge the sufficiency of the convicting evidence. Defendant Boyd also raises the following additional issues: 1) whether the trial court erred by not granting a mistrial following testimony that he was a gang member; and 2) whether the prosecutor’s statement during closing argument that the jury had a duty to the community to convict constitutes misconduct. After a careful review of the record before us, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.