APPELLATE COURT OPINIONS

The petitioner, Mark A. Mitchell, appeals the trial court's dismissal of his petition, which sought post-conviction relief and post-conviction DNA analysis. The single issue presented for review is whether the petition was properly dismissed. The judgment is affirmed.

The petitioner, Cecil Eugene Brannan, pled guilty in the Bedford County Circuit Court to three counts of vehicular assault and one count of driving under the influence (DUI), fourth offense. The plea agreement stipulated that the petitioner would receive a total effective sentence of eight years incarceration. The petitioner subsequently filed for post-conviction relief, alleging that trial counsel failed to advise him that his plea agreement violated double jeopardy principles. The post-conviction court dismissed the petition and the petitioner timely appealed. Upon review of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

The Appellant, James L. Feenin, proceeding pro se, appeals the summary dismissal of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. Feenin is currently a Department of Correction inmate at the South Central Correctional Facility in Wayne County, where he is serving an effective nineteen-year sentence. On appeal, Feenin argues that his incarceration stems from a void indictment. Specifically, he contends that two counts of the indictment, to which he pled guilty, were not signed by the district attorney general. Finding this argument without merit, the judgment of the Wayne County Circuit Court is affirmed.

The petitioner, Mohamed F. Ali, appeals from the judgment of the Washington County Criminal Court denying him post-conviction relief from his convictions for rape and attempted bribery. He is serving an effective sentence of fifteen years in the Department of Correction. The petitioner contends that the post-conviction court erred in (1) applying incorrect law governing judicial bias, (2) finding that the convicting trial judge was not biased against him, (3) excluding evidence of judicial bias, (4) refusing the petitioner's discovery requests regarding the issue of bias, and (5) denying the petitioner's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm the post-conviction court.

The petitioner, Willie Tom Ensley, appeals the trial court's denial of his post-conviction petition requesting DNA analysis. The issue presented for review is whether the trial court erred by summarily dismissing the petition without the appointment of counsel, an opportunity to amend, or an evidentiary hearing. The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings.

The defendant was convicted by a jury of attempted second degree murder, aggravated assault, and setting fire to personal property. The defendant received an effective sentence of nine years. The sole issue on appeal is whether the evidence was sufficient to support his conviction for attempted second degree murder. We affirm the judgments from the trial court.

The defendant appeals his convictions of first degree felony murder and especially aggravated robbery. He received a life sentence for the first degree felony murder conviction and an additional twenty-one year sentence for his especially aggravated robbery conviction. The defendant contends the evidence is insufficient to sustain his convictions. The defendant also argues his twenty-one- year sentence for especially aggravated robbery is excessive. The defendant alleges the trial court misapplied enhancement factors (1), (8), (13), and (16) and erred in finding him a dangerous offender to support its consecutive sentence determination. We affirm the convictions, but remove the presumption of correctness due to the misapplication of four enhancement factors and remand for a new sentencing hearing on the especially aggravated robbery conviction only.

The defendant, Gabor Palasti, was convicted upon his pleas of guilty to the charges of vehicular assault and three counts of reckless endangerment. He originally received a four year effective sentence with 11 months, 29 days of incarceration followed by probation. This was ultimately altered by the trial judge to require that the defendant serve six (6) months in confinement with thirty days of continuous confinement followed by five months of work release and then supervised probation. In this appeal the defendant contends he should have received full probation for these offenses and he cites numerous alleged deficiencies in the trial court's sentencing procedures. We find that in sentencing the defendant the trial court failed to make appropriate findings on the record and that therefore our review of the defendant's sentence is de novo without a presumption of correctness. Nevertheless, we find that the record contains sufficient evidence from which this Court concludes that six (6) months confinement of the defendant is appropriate. However, we believe the entire confinement should be served on work release. We therefore AFFIRM the decision of the trial court with the modification that the entire period of incarceration be served on work release.

Following an evidentiary hearing, the Sullivan County Criminal Court denied the petitioner, Tony Allen Leonard, post-conviction relief. On appeal, the petitioner claims that the post-conviction court erred in failing to find that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. Because the record supports the lower court's findings and holding, we affirm.

Through a 2001 Tipton County Circuit Court post-conviction petition, Austin Eugene Lineback challenges his 2001 convictions in that court of statutory rape and especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor. The convictions resulted from his guilty pleas, which the petitioner now
alleges are involuntary and unknowing due to ineffective assistance of counsel. Following an evidentiary hearing, the lower court denied post-conviction relief, and the petitioner now appeals.  Upon our review of the record, the parties’ briefs, and the applicable law, we affirm.

The defendant, Eric Alonzo Smith, was convicted of driving on a revoked license, aggravated robbery, and evading arrest. The trial court imposed concurrent sentences of 6 months, 8.5 years, and 11 months, 29 days, respectively. In this appeal of right, the defendant asserts that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction for aggravated robbery. The judgments of the trial court are affirmed.

The defendant, Toby P. Leonard, entered pleas of guilt to aggravated assault and civil rights intimidation. As a part of the plea agreement, the defendant received Range I, consecutive sentences of six and two years, respectively, for an effective sentence of eight years. The trial court denied probation. In this appeal of right, the defendant argues that he should have been granted an alternative sentence. The judgment is affirmed.

The defendant, Paul Anthony Wright, pled guilty in the Obion County Circuit Court to manufacturing methamphetamine, a Class C felony, and was sentenced as a Range I, standard offender to three years, with ninety days to be served in the county jail and the remainder in a community corrections program. As a condition of his guilty plea, the defendant sought to reserve as a certified question of law whether the trial court erred in finding there was probable cause to issue a search warrant for his property. On appeal, the defendant argues that he properly certified the question for appeal whether the trial court erred in concluding that the search warrant sufficiently established probable cause for the search of his premises. We agree with the defendant that the certified question is properly before this court and agree with the State that the trial court properly determined that the search warrant was adequate. Accordingly, we affirm the order of the trial court.

Aggrieved that his Shelby County jury conviction of aggravated robbery is not supported by sufficient evidence, Abron A. Coleman, the defendant, appeals. Because we conclude that the evidence is sufficient, we affirm the conviction.

The Defendant, Percy Wade Cockrill, pled guilty to six counts of robbery. After a hearing, the trial court sentenced the Defendant as a Range I offender to four years each on three of the robberies, and to five years each on the remaining three robberies. The trial court further ordered the five-year sentences to run consecutively to each other, for an effective sentence of fifteen years to be served in the Department of Correction. The Defendant now challenges the length of each term as well as the imposition of consecutive sentences. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The majority concludes that reversal is necessitated based upon (1) failure to instruct the jury on facilitation and (2) error in admitting into evidence the defendant's prior felony drug conviction for purposes of impeachment. Because I am unable to join on either point, I must respectfully dissent.

The defendant was found guilty by a jury of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, vandalism up to five hundred dollars ($500), and public intoxication. The trial court sentenced the defendant as a Range I standard offender to a term of two years for reckless endangerment, eleven months and twenty-nine days for vandalism, and thirty days for public intoxication. These sentences were to run concurrently and were to be served in confinement in the county jail. The trial court rejected alternative sentencing. The defendant contends his sentence is excessive. Because the defendant failed to include the trial transcript, we are unable to conduct an adequate appellate review. Therefore, we presume the trial court correctly sentenced the defendant and affirm the judgments of the trial court.

The defendant appeals his conviction for DUI - second offense and his sentence of sixty days. The defendant contends the evidence is insufficient to sustain his conviction, more specifically that he was not impaired while driving or on a public road. The defendant also argues that his sentence of sixty days is excessive. We conclude the evidence is sufficient to sustain his conviction. The defendant failed to include the sentencing hearing transcript, thus barring this Court from reviewing his argument concerning sentencing. We affirm the judgment from the trial court as modified.

The appellant, Robert L. Trocsch, was convicted in the Roane County Criminal Court of one count of burglary and two counts of theft. He received a total effective sentence of eight years incarceration in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the appellant contests the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his convictions and alleges that the trial court improperly performed its function as thirteenth juror. Upon review of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

The petitioner appeals the denial of post-conviction relief from his first degree murder conviction. He claims he received ineffective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel (1) failed to adequately challenge suppression of the petitioner's confession and (2) failed to have the petitioner testify at trial. We affirm the trial court's denial of post-conviction relief.

I respectfully dissent. For those reasons expressed in State v. Vernon Dewayne Waller, No. M2001-02414-CCA-R3-CD (Tenn. Crim. App. at Nashville, Aug. 23, 2002), perm. to appeal granted, (Tenn. 2002), I find no error in the admission of the defendant's prior felony drug convictions for purposes of impeachment.