State of Tennessee v. Ryan Monroe Allen

The pro se Defendant, Ryan Monroe Allen, appeals his jury convictions for second degree
murder and abuse of a corpse, and his resulting effective forty-year sentence. On appeal,
the Defendant argues as follows: (1) the trial court erred by denying the Defendant’s
motion to continue or, in the alternative, to proceed pro se that was made at the start of
trial, thus, forcing the Defendant to proceed to trial with an attorney who had a conflict of
interest; (2) the trial court erred by admitting evidence of the Defendant’s prior bad acts in
violation of Tennessee Rule of Evidence 404(b), and the prosecutor explicitly defied the
trial court’s pretrial 404(b) ruling during opening statements; (3) the trial court erred by
failing to address pretrial the Defendant’s motion to dismiss the abuse of a corpse charge
due to insufficient proof of venue or, in the alternative, to sever the two offenses; (4) the
evidence was insufficient to support the Defendant’s convictions; (5) the trial court erred
by not excusing a juror who indicated that she might have known the spouse of someone
who assisted with the investigation; (6) the trial court erred by denying the Defendant’s
motion for a mistrial made because the State failed to disclose prior to trial that two
witnesses were going to testify to having seen certain evidence in the Defendant’s
residence; (7) the trial court erred by denying the Defendant’s motion to recuse made on
the ground that the trial court was holding court proceedings without the Defendant present
and was biased against the Defendant; (8) the Defendant’s sentence was out-of-range and
illegal because he was not provided with the State’s notice of its intention to seek enhanced
punishment; (9) the State’s case was based on perjured and recanted testimony; and (10)
the State committed prosecutorial misconduct by suppressing certain pieces of evidence.
Following our review of the record and applicable authorities, we affirm the judgments of
the trial court.