State of Tennessee v. Maurice Baxter aka Maurice Gross

A Shelby County Criminal Court Jury convicted the Appellant, Maurice Baxter, of aggravated rape, aggravated burglary, and theft of property valued more than $1,000, and he received an effective sentence of fifty-eight years in confinement. On appeal, the Appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the convictions, that the trial court erred by allowing the jury to hear that his DNA profile was in the CODIS database, that the trial court erred by allowing the defense’s DNA expert to testify for the State, and that the State committed prosecutorial misconduct during its rebuttal closing argument. Based upon the oral arguments, the record, and the parties’ briefs, we conclude that the defense expert’s testifying for the State constitutes reversible error. We also conclude that the State committed prosecutorial misconduct and that the cumulative effect of that error further warrants reversal. Accordingly, the Appellant’s convictions must be reversed and the case remanded to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.