State of Tennessee v. George Franklin

Following a jury trial Defendant, George Franklin, was convicted of the second degree murder of three-year-old Jessica Borner and the attempted murder of nine other people. Defendant was convicted under the theory of criminal responsibility for the conduct of another. It is undisputed that Defendant did not fire the shot that killed Jessica. Defendant was sentenced to twenty-five years at one-hundred percent for second degree murder and twelve years at thirty percent for each count of attempted murder. The trial court ordered the sentences to be served consecutively for an effective sentence of one-hundred and thirty-three years. On appeal, Defendant challenges: (1) the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain convictions of second degree murder and nine counts of attempted second degree murder; (2) whether the trial court properly refused to grant a mistrial when the assistant district attorney general referenced the statement of a co-defendant; (3) whether the trial court properly prohibited the defense attorney from eliciting information about the alleged dangerousness of the house; (4) whether the trial court properly excluded certain prior bad acts of witnesses; (5) whether the trial court properly applied enhancement factors in sentencing; and (6) whether the trial court properly imposed consecutive sentences. After a thorough review of the record, we affirm the judgements of the trial court except the sentencing. Because of the improper use of enhancement factors in sentencing, we modify Defendant’s sentence from twenty-five years to twenty-one years for second degree murder and from twelve years to nine years for each of the nine convictions for attempted second degree murder. Otherwise the judgments are affirmed.