State of Tennessee v. LaQuenton Monger

The appellant, LaQuenton Monger, was convicted by a jury in the Shelby County Criminal Court of one count of first degree felony murder by aggravated child abuse and one count of aggravated child abuse, for which convictions the trial court imposed concurrent sentences of life imprisonment and twenty years imprisonment in the Tennessee Department of Correction. The appellant filed an appeal, and this court reversed the trial court's judgments on August 27, 2001. Specifically, we reversed the judgment in the aggravated child abuse case on the basis that constitutional prohibitions against double jeopardy preclude dual convictions of first degree felony murder by aggravated child abuse and aggravated child abuse. We reversed the judgment in the first degree felony murder case due to the trial court's failure to instruct the jury on lesser-included offenses. In light of these dispositions, the State filed an application for permission to appeal to our supreme court pursuant to Tenn. R. App. P. 11. The supreme court granted the State's application for the sole purpose of remanding the cases to this court for reconsideration in light of its November 29, 2001 opinion in State v. Godsey, 60 S.W.3d 759 (Tenn. 2001). Upon reconsideration, we reinstate the judgment of the trial court in the aggravated child abuse case and leave undisturbed our original disposition of the felony murder case.