State of Tennessee v. William E. Blake, Jr.

A jury convicted the defendant of second degree murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a handgun after having been previously convicted of a felony drug offense. The defendant was sentenced as a Range II, multiple offender to thirty-five years for the homicide, six years for the aggravated assault, and four years for the weapons possession. The trial court elected to impose the aggravated assault conviction consecutively to the homicide conviction for an aggregate sentence of forty-one years. The defendant appeals, asserting that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s finding of the mens rea element of second degree murder; that the trial court erred in allowing evidence of prior felony drug convictions to be introduced as impeachment; and that the trial court improperly imposed a consecutive sentence. After a careful review of the record, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.