APPELLATE COURT OPINIONS

The defendant, William Jerry Neal, also known as William Jay Neal, appeals his jury convictions for especially aggravated burglary, a Class B felony, and vandalism under $500, a Class A misdemeanor, resulting in concurrent sentences of eleven years, three months and eleven months, twenty-nine days, respectively. On appeal, the defendant argues: (1) the evidence was insufficient to establish serious bodily injury, as required for a conviction for especially aggravated burglary; and (2) the trial court erred by failing to grant a new trial after learning that one of the jurors had once been incarcerated with the defendant. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Defendant, George William King, has appealed the sentence imposed upon him by the trial court after he pled guilty to one count of statutory rape. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The petitioner, Shaun Lamont Hereford, appeals the Hamilton County Criminal Court's dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief, in which he alleged void convictions, misrepresentation by his trial attorney, and that he was entitled to DNA analysis of physical evidence. Discerning no error in the trial court's dismissal of the petition without an evidentiary hearing, we affirm.

The appellant, John Briggs, a pharmacist, pled guilty in the Sullivan County Criminal Court to sixteen counts of unlawfully dispensing a controlled substance. The trial court sentenced the appellant to a total effective sentence of twenty years incarceration in the Tennessee Department of Correction, with all but eight years to be served on probation. On appeal, the appellant argues that the trial court erred in denying full probation. Upon review of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Venita Michelle Burchell appeals from her aggravated child abuse and criminally negligent homicide convictions. Her convictions result from a jury trial in the Davidson County Criminal Court pertaining to fatal injuries inflicted upon Nicholas Boyd Cotton, who was sixteen months old at the time of his death. Ms. Burchell urges us to find error in the lower court's acceptance of the verdict, the admission of prior bad act evidence, and the limiting of defense expert testimony. Because no harmful error occurred, we affirm.

The petitioner appeals the denial of his post-conviction relief petition, arguing his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to locate an alibi witness for his aggravated burglary trial. We affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court, which found trial counsel made reasonable efforts to locate the potential witness, and the petitioner was not prejudiced by the inability to present the witness's testimony at trial.

Petitioner, Lon Walker, filed a petition for post-conviction relief from his conviction for second degree murder, alleging that he was denied effective assistance of counsel. Following an evidentiary hearing, the post-conviction court denied relief. In his appeal to this court, Petitioner raises the issue of whether the trial court erred in finding that Petitioner received effective assistance of counsel at trial. After a careful review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

A Sullivan County Criminal Court jury convicted the defendant, Howard Duty, Jr., of stalking, a Class A misdemeanor, and the trial court sentenced him to eleven months, twenty-nine days at seventy-five percent and imposed a one thousand dollar fine. The defendant appeals, claiming (1) that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction, (2) that his sentence is excessive, and (3) that he should have received an alternative sentence. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.