State of Tennessee v. Robert Atkins

The Defendant, Robert Joseph Atkins, was convicted in the Knox County Criminal Court
of second degree murder, tampering with evidence, and unlawful possession of a handgun
by a convicted felon and received an effective thirty-one-year sentence. On appeal, he
claims that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his murder conviction, (2) the trial
court erred by admitting testimony about his prior assault of the victim, (3) the trial court
erred by admitting an unauthenticated video into evidence, (4) the trial court should have
granted a new trial because a police officer, who testified at trial, was the subject of an
internal affairs investigation, (5) the trial court committed plain error by allowing the
medical examiner to testify outside her area of expertise, and (6) he was denied his right to
a fair trial under the cumulative error doctrine. Based upon the oral arguments, the record,
and the parties’ briefs, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.