Twain Demario Vaughn v. State of Tennessee

A Davidson County jury convicted the Petitioner, Twain Demario Vaughn, of one count of reckless homicide, one count of first-degree felony murder, one count of aggravated robbery, and two counts of attempted aggravated robbery.  The trial court merged the reckless homicide conviction with the felony murder conviction and sentenced the Petitioner to an effective sentence of life in prison.  This Court affirmed his convictions and sentence on appeal.  State v. Twain Demario Vaughn, No. M2006-01659-CCA-R3-CD, 2008 WL 110094, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Nashville, Jan. 9, 2008), no Tenn. R. App. P. 11 application filed.  The Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief, alleging that he had received the ineffective assistance of counsel.  The post-conviction court dismissed the petition as time barred.  It then reversed its ruling, appointed counsel, and held a hearing after which it dismissed the Petitioner’s petition.  On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the post-conviction court erred because his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to: (1) introduce the victim’s toxicology report; (2) request more time to review videotaped statements that called into question the eye witnesses’ credibility; and (3) have the Petitioner’s competency evaluated.  After review, we conclude that the Petitioner’s petition was not filed within the statute of limitations and that he has not shown a statutory or due process ground for the tolling of the statute of limitations.  As such, we dismiss the petition as time barred.