State of Tennessee v. Letonio Swader

A Rutherford County Circuit Court jury convicted the appellant, Letonio Swader, of first degree felony murder, second degree murder, attempted especially aggravated robbery, and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of an offense. The trial court merged the murder convictions and sentenced the appellant to life. The trial court also sentenced the appellant to ten years for the attempted especially aggravated robbery conviction and two years for the possession of a weapon conviction. The trial court ordered the appellant to serve the life and ten-year sentences concurrently and ordered that the two-year sentence be served consecutively to the other two sentences. On appeal, the appellant claims (1) that the State committed reversible error by telling potential jurors during voir dire that the punishment for first degree murder in this case was life with the possibility of parole, (2) that the trial court erred by failing to suppress his statement to police, and (3) that the evidence is insufficient to support the convictions because there is no evidence to corroborate his statement to police that he intended to rob someone. Upon review of the record and the parties' briefs, we conclude that the State's comments during voir dire were improper but harmless error and affirm the judgments of the trial court.