Jamie Scott Moore v. Sheriff Robert Arnold and State of Tennessee
This matter is before the Court upon the State’s motion to dismiss or in the alternative to affirm the judgment of the trial court by memorandum opinion pursuant to Rule 20, Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Petitioner, Jamie Scott Moore, has appealed the trial court’s order dismissing his petition for writ of habeas corpus in which Petitioner alleged that his convictions for two counts of criminal attempt to sell methamphetamine are void because they were not ordered to be served consecutively to a previous conviction for which he was on parole at the time he committed the offenses. Upon a review of the record in this case, we are persuaded that the trial court was correct in dismissing the petition for habeas corpus relief and that this case meets the criteria for affirmance pursuant to Rule 20, Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Accordingly, the State’s motion is granted, and the judgment of the trial court is affirmed. |
Rutherford | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Marlon Wiliams v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Marlon Williams, appeals the Fayette County Circuit Court’s denial of post-conviction relief from his convictions for possession of marijuana, a Class E felony, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, a Class D felony. He is serving one year for possession of marijuana consecutively to three years for possession of a firearm. The Petitioner contends that he did not receive the effective assistance of counsel in connection with his guilty plea to the possession of a firearm charge and that his pleas were not knowingly and voluntarily entered because he did not understand that the firearm conviction required 100 percent service of the sentence. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Fayette | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Mira Eva Harris
The defendant, Mira Eva Harris, pled guilty, in two different indictments, to two counts of driving under the influence (“DUI”), two counts of DUI as a prior offender, driving on a revoked license, driving on a revoked license as a prior offender, violation of the implied consent law, and violation of the open container law. After merger with the appropriate prior offender charges, the defendant was sentenced to eleven months and twenty-nine days on each of the two DUI convictions and eleven months and twenty-nine days on the driving on a revoked license conviction, all to be served consecutively, as well as eleven months and twenty-nine days for violation of the implied consent law with five days served consecutively to the other sentences. On appeal, the defendant presumably challenges the sentences imposed by the trial court. Following our review, we affirm the judgments below. |
Madison | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Rhonda Louise Medley
The defendant, Rhonda Louise Medley, was convicted in the Bedford County Circuit Court of five counts of rape of a child and subsequently sentenced to an effective term of forty years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, the defendant challenges her convictions and sentences, specifically asserting that: (1) the evidence was insufficient to support the convictions; (2) the trial court erred in imposing consecutive sentencing; and (3) the trial court erred in denying the motion to declare Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-522(b)(2)(A) unconstitutional. Following review of the record, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions and that the challenged portion of the statute is not unconstitutional. However, while the trial court appears to have appropriately applied consecutive sentencing, it erred in imposing fifteen-year terms for Counts Two through Five because Tennessee Code Annotated Section 39-13-522(b)(2)(A) mandates that these sentences be set at a minimum of twenty-five years each. As such, we vacate those sentences and remand for resentencing with regard to those convictions, as well as for reconsideration of the imposition of consecutive sentencing in light of the ordered changes in the sentence lengths. The decision of the trial court is affirmed in all other respects. |
Bedford | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Talmadge S. Crowder
The defendant, Talmadge S. Crowder, challenges the revocation of his diversionary status, maintaining that the trial court abused its discretion in determining that he violated an Order of Protection and using that violation as a basis for the revocation. After a thorough review of the record, we conclude that there was sufficient evidence for the trial court to determine that the defendant violated the terms of his release by violating an Order of Protection, and we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Wilson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Travis Lurry
The defendant, Travis Lurry, appeals the denial of his request for judicial diversion, arguing that the trial court abused its discretion by improperly weighing the factors for and against diversion. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Fayette | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Raymond Bradley, Jr.
The defendant, Raymond Bradley, Jr., appeals from the trial court’s revocation of probation for failure to pay restitution. The defendant pleaded guilty in 2009 to facilitating aggravated burglary, a Class D felony, in exchange for a four-year suspended sentence, and the trial court ordered him to pay $15,500 in restitution. This court affirmed the trial court’s judgment. On August 11, 2010, the trial court found that the defendant violated the terms of his suspended sentence and revoked his probation. On appeal, the defendant argues that the trial court abused its discretion by revoking his probation without finding that the defendant had the ability to pay, that he willfully failed to pay, and that no alternative measure to incarceration was available. Following our review, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Steven Q. Stanford
The defendant, Steven Q. Stanford, was convicted by a Campbell County jury of one count of initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine, a Class B felony, and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class A misdemeanor. Following a sentencing hearing, the defendant was sentenced, as a Range III offender, to serve thirty years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, he raises the single issue of sufficiency of the evidence. Following review of the record, we find that the evidence presented at trial is sufficient to support the convictions, and we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Campbell | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Commercial Bank, Inc., et al., v. Hollis Fay Summers, et al.
Plaintiffs alleged that defendants had borrowed money from the Bank and executed a trust deed to secure the loan and the property was properly foreclosed by the Bank as the successful bidder. Further, that defendants then filed numerous documents in the Register of Deeds office to slander plaintiffs' title. Defendants never answered the Complaint and after several months plaintiffs moved for a default judgment which was granted at a hearing before the Trial Court. The Trial Court ruled that the various documents filed by the defendants in the Register of Deeds office were null and void and assessed costs to the defendants. Defendants appealed pro se, and we dismiss the appeal on the grounds that they failed to comply with any of the applicable rules of appellate procedure governing appeals. |
Union | Court of Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Demario Thomas
The Defendant, Demario Thomas, pled guilty to second degree murder, a Class A felony, and the trial court sentenced him to twenty-three years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant argues that the trial court’s sentence is excessive. After a thorough review of the record and the applicable law, we modify the trial court’s judgment to a sentence of twenty-one years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Lakeisha Margaret Watkins
A Davidson County jury convicted the Defendant, Lakeisha Margaret Watkins, of attempted child neglect, four counts of aggravated child abuse, and two counts of aggravated child neglect. The trial court sentenced her to an effective sentence of forty years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant contends that: (1) the evidence is insufficient to sustain her convictions for aggravated child abuse and aggravated child neglect; and (2) the trial court erred when it ordered her sentences to run consecutively. Because the Defendant’s delay in seeking medical treatment for the victim, as proven in Count 5, did not cause serious bodily injury separate and apart from the serious bodily injury caused by the Defendant and proven in Count 4, we are constrained to reverse the conviction for aggravated child neglect in Count 5. The trial court’s judgments are affirmed in all other respects. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Michael Farmer and Anthony Clark - Concurring/Dissenting
I dissent from the majority’s holding that the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Terrell Westbrooks suffered serious bodily injury as that term is contemplated by Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-11-106(a)(34). I believe the majority’s holding upends the statutory definition of “serious bodily injury” by essentially declaring that any injury inflicted by a deadly weapon results in serious bodily injury. I do not believe the statutory definitions support such an interpretation. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Bryant Guartos v. State of Tennessee
A Davidson County jury convicted the Petitioner, Bryant Guartos, of first degree felony murder, especially aggravated robbery, aggravated robbery, and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, and the trial court sentenced him to an effective sentence of life plus forty-seven years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. The Petitioner filed an appeal, and this Court affirmed the trial court’s judgments. State v. Bryant Guartos, M2003-03073-CCA-R3-CD, 2006 WL 163633, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Nashville, Jan. 24, 2006), perm. app. denied (Tenn. Aug. 28, 2006). Thereafter, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and remanded the Petitioner’s case for further consideration in light of new sentencing case law. Guartos v. Tennessee, 549 U.S. 1197 (2007). Upon review, this Court reversed the Petitioner’s judgments for especially aggravated robbery, aggravated robbery, and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, and remanded the case for resentencing. State v. Bryant Guartos, No. M2003-03073-CCA-R3-CD, 2007 WL 4245084 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Nashville, Dec. 4, 2007), perm. app. denied (Tenn. July 7, 2008). The Petitioner then filed a petition for post-conviction relief, which the post-conviction court denied after a hearing. On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the trial court erred in failing to find that he received the ineffective assistance of counsel at trial. After a thorough review of the record and applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Calvin Oliver
The defendant, Calvin Oliver, appeals his effective sentence of twenty-two years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, he asserts that the trial court erred in the imposition of consecutive sentencing. Following review of the record, we find no error and affirm the sentences as imposed. |
Marshall | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Angela L. (Lyles) Melton v. Jackie B. Melton
In this divorce case, the husband challenges the trial court’s distribution of the marital property, valuation of the marital residence, and award of alimony to the wife. Without a transcript or statement of the evidence, this court cannot adequately review the issues raised by the husband. Finding that the trial court did not err as a matter of law, we affirm. |
Roane | Court of Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Damon Houston
On March 8, 2009, the defendant was convicted of especially aggravated robbery, a Class A felony, and sentenced to fifteen years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, the defendant claims that: (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction; (2) the trial court erred by admitting certain evidence; (3) his due process rights were violated by prosecutorial misconduct; and (4) his sentence is excessive. After careful review of the record, we reject each of these claims and affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Anton Mayhew and Travis Brown
Defendant Anton Mayhew was convicted of two counts of aggravated robbery, a Class B felony, and was sentenced as a Range I, standard offender to a pair of concurrent twelve-year terms. Defendant Travis Brown was convicted of two counts of aggravated robbery, a Class B felony, and one count of aggravated rape, a Class A felony. He was sentenced as a Range I, standard offender to concurrent twelve-year terms for the aggravated robberies and to a concurrent twenty-five-year term as a violent offender for the aggravated rape, for a total effective sentence of twenty-five years. On appeal, Defendant Mayhew claims that the trial court erred in admitting a portion of one witness’s testimony and that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions. Defendant Brown claims that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions and that the trial court erred by denying his request for a jury instruction relating to missing evidence, by requiring him to stand next to an enlarged photograph in open court, and by sentencing him to the maximum sentence. After careful review of the record and the arguments raised by both defendants and the State, we affirm the judgments of the trial court in all respects. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Michael Farmer and Anthony Clark
The defendants, Michael Farmer and Anthony Clark, were convicted of especially aggravated robbery, a Class A felony, and aggravated robbery, a Class B felony. They were each sentenced to fifteen years for the especially aggravated robbery and to a concurrent eight years for aggravated robbery, for a total effective sentence of fifteen years. On appeal, both defendants claim that the evidence is insufficient to support their convictions, asserting that no evidence put forth at their trial established that they actually took money from either victim. Defendant Clark further claims that the straight, pass-through bullet wound inflicted on one victim’s left thigh failed to pose a substantial enough risk of death to qualify as a serious bodily injury of the type necessary to sustain a conviction for especially aggravated robbery. Defendant Farmer further claims that the trial court erred by failing to sentence him as an especially mitigated offender. After carefully reviewing the defendants’ arguments and the record evidence, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Rita White
The Defendant, Rita White, was convicted by a Dickson County Circuit Court jury of driving under the influence (DUI), a Class A misdemeanor, and pled guilty to failure to obey a required traffic control device, a Class C misdemeanor. See T.C.A. §§ 55-10-401 (Supp. 2009) (amended 2010), 55-8-109 (2010). She was sentenced to eleven months and twentynine days for the DUI conviction, with ten days to be served in confinement and the remainder on probation. She was sentenced to thirty days’ probation for the traffic device conviction, to be served concurrently with the DUI sentence. On appeal, the Defendant contends that (1) the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction, (2) the trial court erred by denying her motion to suppress evidence, and (3) the trial court erred by denying her motion for a new trial based on prosecutorial misconduct during closing argument. We affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Dickson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Wanda F. Russell
A Rutherford County jury convicted Appellant, Wanda F. Russell, of three counts of theft over $1,000. Prior to trial, the State filed a notice that it was intending to introduce Appellant’s prior convictions to impeach her testimony. At the conclusion of a jury-out hearing during trial, the trial court concluded that the State could use Appellant’s prior convictions for passing worthless checks pursuant to Rule 609(a)(3) of the Tennessee Rules of Evidence to impeach Appellant. Appellant elected not to testify. She now appeals to this Court arguing that the trial court erred in determining that her prior convictions were admissible for impeachment. We have reviewed the record on appeal. We have concluded that the trial court did not err in ruling that the prior convictions were appropriate for impeachment of Appellant. Therefore, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Rutherford | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Lester Arnold Clouse v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Lester Arnold Clouse, requests that this court grant him a new post-conviction hearing, asserting that the post-conviction court below did not address all of the issues raised in his petition for post-conviction relief nor did it memorialize its findings of fact and conclusions of law in writing as required by statute. After reviewing the entire record, including the transcript of the original post-conviction hearing, we conclude that the order filed by Judge Wallace is sufficient for appellate review as it adopted the earlier oral findings of fact made by Judge Sells. All other issues are waived for failing to file an adequate record for review and for failing to provide appropriate citations to the record. Therefore, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court denying the petitioner post-conviction relief. |
Putnam | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Rodney Corley v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Rodney Corley, was convicted in 1985 of first degree murder, armed robbery, and employing a firearm in the commission of a felony, and he was sentenced to life plus five years. In 2010, the Petitioner filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis, in which he alleged the existence of newly discovered evidence, and the trial court dismissed the petition without a hearing. On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the coram nobis court erred when it denied his petition without a hearing. After a thorough review of the record and relevant authorities, we affirm the coram nobis court’s judgment. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Christopher Lawrence Rodgers
Defendant, Christopher Lawrence Rodgers, appeals the trial court’s revocation of his probation sentence. Defendant was originally indicted for one count of domestic assault, three counts of indecent exposure, and four counts of stalking. Defendant entered guilty pleas, pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement, to one count of domestic assault and one count of stalking and was sentenced to serve 11 months and 29 days for each conviction to be served concurrently, and his sentence was suspended on probation. Subsequently, a probation violation warrant was filed, which alleged that Defendant had acted in an abusive and intimidating manner towards his ex-girlfriend by continuing to contact her after she requested that he stop. At the probation revocation hearing, the warrant was amended, with the consent of Defendant, to allege that Defendant violated the conditions of his probation by using intoxicants to excess. Following the hearing the trial court revoked Defendant’s probation and entered a judgment placing Defendant’s original sentence into effect. We conclude that the evidence does not preponderate against the trial court’s finding of a violation, and therefore affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Dustin Lee Owens
Defendant, Dustin Lee Owens, was indicted for two counts of solicitation of a minor and one count of attempted aggravated statutory rape. Defendant entered an open guilty plea to all counts and was sentenced by the trial court to serve two years concurrently for Counts 1 and 2 and two years for Count 3, to be served consecutively to Counts 1 and 2, for a total effective sentence of four years as a Range I standard offender. In this appeal, Defendant challenges the trial court’s order of consecutive sentencing, the length of the sentences, and the requirement that the sentences be served by incarceration. We find no error and affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Bedford | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Tommy Lee Clark v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Tommy Lee Clark, appeals the Circuit Court of Lake County’s dismissal of his pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus. The State has filed a motion requesting that this Court affirm the trial court’s dismissal pursuant to Rule 20 of the Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Following our review, we grant the State’s motion and affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Lake | Court of Criminal Appeals |