State of Tennessee v. Christopher Scottie Itzol-Deleon

The Defendant, Christopher Scottie Itzol-Deleon, was found guilty by a Davidson County Criminal Court jury of attempted aggravated sexual battery, a Class C felony, four counts  of aggravated sexual battery, a Class B felony, and three counts of rape of a child, a Class A felony. See T.C.A. §§ 39-13-504 (2014) (aggravated sexual battery), 39-13-522 (2010,  2014) (rape of a child), 39-12-101 (2014) (criminal attempt).  He received an effective forty-year sentence.  On appeal, the Defendant contends that (1) the evidence is insufficient to establish the element of penetration for rape of a child in Counts 3 and 4, (2) the trial court erred in allowing separate convictions for attempted aggravated sexual battery and rape of a child in Counts 1 and 3 and for rape of a child in Counts 4 and 5, (3) the court erred in permitting testimony regarding the Defendant’s excessive drinking, (4) the court erred in admitting a letter written by the victim to her mother, (5) the court erred in not redacting a portion of the Defendant’s statement to the police, (6) the court erred in admitting the victim’s school photograph, (7) the court erred in sentencing the Defendant as a Range II offender relative to his rape of a child convictions, and (8) the judgment in Count 6 contains a clerical error.  We merge Count 1, attempted aggravated sexual battery, with Count 3, rape of a child.  Although we affirm the convictions, we remand the judgments for Counts 1 and 3 for entry of amended judgments reflecting merger of the offenses.  We also modify the Defendant’s sentences relative to Counts 3, 4, and 5 to twenty-five years in each count at 100% service.  Finally, we remand the judgment in Count 6 for the correction of clerical errors.