State of Tennessee v. Desmon Paul Rhea

A Knox County jury convicted the Defendant, Desmon Paul Rhea, of two counts of first degree felony murder, one count of second degree murder, one count of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, and two counts of aggravated burglary of a habitation. The trial court imposed an effective sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus thirty-seven years. On appeal, the Defendant raises six groups of issues: (1) whether the trial court erred in denying his motions for judgment of acquittal and whether the evidence is legally sufficient to support his convictions for premeditated murder and the burglary-related offenses; (2) whether the trial court violated his constitutional right to present a defense by conditioning the presentation of an insanity defense on the admission of his previously suppressed statements; (3) whether the State’s destruction of potentially exculpatory evidence requireda new trial under State v. Ferguson, 2 S.W.3d 912 (Tenn. 1999); (4) whether the trial court committed multiple evidentiary errors, each independently warranting reversal and cumulatively depriving him of a fair trial; (5) whether prosecutorial misconduct during the State’s closing argument rendered the trial fundamentally unfair; and (6) whether the trial court’s jury instructions were erroneous. Upon our review, we respectfully affirm the judgments of the trial court.