State of Tennessee v. Robert Glenn Hasaflook
The Defendant, Robert Glenn Hasaflook, was indicted for one count of promotion of the manufacture of methamphetamine, and filed a pretrial motion to suppress all his statements made to the police. The trial court denied the Defendant’s motion, and the Defendant pleaded guilty to the indicted offense reserving a certified question of law pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 37(b)(2) about whether the stop of the Defendant’s vehicle by law enforcement was lawful. After review, we conclude that the Defendant has failed to comply with the strict requirements of Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 37(b)(2). Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed. |
Dickson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Cornelius Richmond v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Cornelius Richmond, appeals the Lauderdale County Circuit Court’s summary dismissal of his petition for habeas corpus relief from his 2003 convictions for robbery and three counts of forgery and resulting thirty-three-year sentence. The Petitioner contends that (1) his three forgery convictions are void because they should have been merged into a single conviction and (2) his multiple sentences violate principles of double jeopardy. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Lauderdale | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Brandon Rollen
The Appellant, Brandon Rollen, appeals the Shelby County Criminal Court’s denial of his Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36 motion for correction of clerical errors in four aggravated robbery judgments. On appeal, he argues that the trial court erred in denying the motion. We reverse the trial court’s order dismissing the motion and remand the case to the trial court for consideration on the merits pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36 and Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Cantrell Lashone Winters v. State of Tennessee
Petitioner, Cantrell Lashone Winters, stands convicted of possession of 50 grams or more of hydromorphone in a school zone with intent to sell, a Class A felony, and Class E felony evading arrest. See State v. Cantrell Lashone Winters, M2009-01164-CCA-R3-CD, 2011 WL 1085101, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App. March 24, 2011), no perm. app. filed. The trial court sentenced him to an effective sentence of thirty-four years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. Petitioner filed for post-conviction relief, alleging that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel. The post-conviction court denied relief, and petitioner now appeals. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Marquon L. Green
A Madison County Circuit Court Jury convicted the appellant, Marquon L. Green, of aggravated robbery, and the trial court sentenced him as a Range I offender to ten years to be served at 85%. On appeal, the appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction. Based upon the record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Madison | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
William Henry Preston v. Jewel Steel, Warden
William Henry Preston (“the Petitioner”), proceeding pro se, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Pursuant to a plea agreement and his pleas of guilty to six counts of aggravated rape, the Petitioner received a total effective sentence of forty years as a Range I standard offender. In his petition, he alleges that his sentences are illegal because the trial court and his counsel failed to advise him that he would be subject to community supervision for life as a result of his convictions. In addition, the Petitioner asserts that his total effective sentence of forty years has expired due to the accumulation of sentence reduction credits. The habeas corpus court dismissed his petition. The Petitioner now appeals. Upon our thorough review of the record and applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the habeas corpus court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Steven A. Pugh, Jr. v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Stephen A. Pugh, Jr., appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief. Specifically, he contends that trial counsel was ineffective by failing to recognize a defective indictment and by allowing the petitioner to plead guilty under that indictment, which did not charge a crime recognized under the law of Tennessee. The petitioner is currently serving an effective seventeen-year sentence in the Department of Correction following his guilty plea to two counts of attempted first degree murder. Following review, we affirm the denial of relief. |
Hamblen | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Stephen Mark Addleburg
Stephen Mark Addleburg (“the Defendant”) was convicted by a jury of failure to provide proof of financial responsibility; possession of less than one-half ounce of marijuana; possession of a weapon by a convicted felon; and possession of a handgun while under the influence. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced the Defendant to four years’ incarceration. In this appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his request for alternative sentencing. After a thorough review of the record and the applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. We remand the case solely for correction of clerical errors contained in the two misdemeanor judgments. |
Sullivan | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Tiwon Antwan Harvell
The Defendant, Tiwon Antwan Harvell, was convicted by a Davidson County Criminal Court jury of facilitation of aggravated robbery, a Class C felony, and evading arrest in a motor vehicle, a Class E felony. See T.C.A. §§ 39-11-403, 39-13-402, 39-16-603. The trial court sentenced the Defendant as a Range II, multiple offender to concurrent terms of ten years for facilitation of aggravated robbery and four years for evading arrest. On appeal, he contends that his interview with the police should have been suppressed and that a transcript of the interview should not have been introduced with the video recording. We affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Jack Layne Benson v. State of Tennessee
Pro se petitioner, Jack Layne Benson, appeals the post-conviction court’s denial of his second petition for post-conviction relief, which the court treated as a motion to reopen his first petition for post-conviction relief. On appeal, the petitioner asserts that he received ineffective assistance of counsel during the first post-conviction petition, which prevented him from seeking permission to appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court. He also asserts that the post-conviction court improperly dismissed his petition without the benefit of an evidentiary hearing in violation of his due process rights. Upon review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Bedford | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Correl Marcellus Baker
Appellant, Correl Marcellus Baker, was convicted by a Coffee County jury of aggravated robbery and reckless endangerment. The trial court sentenced him to eight years for the aggravated robbery conviction and merged the reckless endangerment conviction into the aggravated robbery conviction. On appeal, appellant argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for aggravated robbery. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court but remand for entry of a corrected judgment reflecting that the reckless endangerment conviction was merged into the aggravated robbery conviction. |
Coffee | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Marques D. Wheeler
Appellant, Marques D. Wheeler, entered a guilty plea to aggravated burglary and received a four-year suspended sentence to be served in community corrections. Following several violations, the trial court revoked appellant from community corrections and resentenced him to six years. Appellant contends that the trial court’s resentencing was improper because the trial court failed to follow the statutory procedure of Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-35-210. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Knox | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Tony Thomas
The defendant, Tony Thomas, appeals his Shelby County Criminal Court jury conviction of aggravated sexual battery, claiming that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction and that he was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel at trial. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Eric Dates
The Defendant, Eric Dates, was convicted by a Shelby County Criminal Court jury of driving under the influence (DUI), a Class A misdemeanor, and was sentenced to eleven months, twenty-nine days, all suspended but 48 hours. See T.C.A. 55-10-401 (2012). On appeal, he contends that (1) the traffic stop was an unconstitutional search and seizure, (2) the evidence was insufficient to support his DUI conviction, and (3) the verdicts were inconsistent. We affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. William E. Blake, Jr.
A jury convicted the defendant of second degree murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a handgun after having been previously convicted of a felony drug offense. The defendant was sentenced as a Range II, multiple offender to thirty-five years for the homicide, six years for the aggravated assault, and four years for the weapons possession. The trial court elected to impose the aggravated assault conviction consecutively to the homicide conviction for an aggregate sentence of forty-one years. The defendant appeals, asserting that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s finding of the mens rea element of second degree murder; that the trial court erred in allowing evidence of prior felony drug convictions to be introduced as impeachment; and that the trial court improperly imposed a consecutive sentence. After a careful review of the record, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Knox | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Gregory Mathis and Elza Evans
Following a jury trial, the Defendants, Gregory Mathis and Elza Evans, were each convicted of aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, and two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping. See Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 39-13-305, -13-402, -14-403. The trial court sentenced Defendant Mathis to an effective sentence of 126 years and Defendant Evans to an effective sentence of two lifetimes without the possibility of parole. In this appeal as of right, the Defendants raise the following issues: (1) Defendant Evans contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to sever his trial from Defendant Mathis’s trial; (2) both Defendants contend that the especially aggravated kidnapping offenses were essentially incidental to the aggravated robbery offense; (3) both Defendants contend that the evidence was insufficient to sustain their convictions; and (4) both Defendants contend that the trial court erred in imposing their sentences. Following our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Susan Deshon Winters
The Defendant-Appellant, Susan Deshon Winters, was indicted by a Coffee County Grand Jury for bribery of a public servant (count 1), possession of .5 grams or more of cocaine with the intent to sell or deliver (count 2), possession of marijuana with the intent to sell or deliver (count 3), and possession of drug paraphernalia (count 4). See T.C.A. §§ 39-16-102; 39-17-417(a)(4), (c)(1); 39-17-417(a)(4), (g)(1); 39-17-425. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Winters entered guilty pleas to the charged offenses, with the trial court to determine the length and manner of service of the sentences. The trial court subsequently sentenced Winters as a Range I, standard offender to an effective sentence of eight years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, Winters argues that the trial court abused its discretion in denying her a sentence of split confinement. Upon review, we affirm the judgments for bribery of a public servant, possession of marijuana with the intent to sell or deliver, and possession of drug paraphernalia. However, because the record indicates that Winters entered a guilty plea to the indicted offense of possession of .5 grams or more of cocaine with the intent to sell or deliver, a Class B felony, rather than the offense of possession of less than .5 grams of cocaine with the intent to sell or deliver, a Class C felony, we reverse the judgment in count 2 and remand the case for resentencing on that conviction. |
Coffee | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. James Dennis Lamb
The appellant, James Dennis Lamb, pled guilty in the Blount County Circuit Court to two counts of theft of property valued one thousand dollars or more and two counts of writing worthless checks valued $500 or less and received an effective four-year sentence to be served on supervised probation. Subsequently, the trial court revoked the appellant’s probation and ordered that he serve the balance of his effective sentence in confinement. On appeal, the appellant contends that the trial court abused its discretion by ordering that he serve the sentence in confinement. Based upon the record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Blount | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Johnny L. Heitz v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Johnny L. Heitz, appeals the Sullivan County Criminal Court’s denial of his petition for post-conviction relief from his aggravated kidnapping conviction and resulting thirty-year sentence. He contends that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to object to two statements made by prosecutors during closing argument. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Sullivan | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Brent Rowden
A Wayne County Jury convicted Defendant, Brent Rowden, of second-degree murder (County One), tampering with evidence (Count Two), and attempted initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine (Count Three). He received concurrent sentences of thirty-seven years as a Range II multiple offender for second-degree murder, thirteen years as a persistent offender for tampering with evidence, and thirteen years as a persistent offender for attempted initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine. The trial court ordered Defendant’s effective thirty-seven-year sentence to be served consecutively to an eight-year sentence in Lawrence County. On appeal, Defendant argues that the trial court erred in denying the motion to suppress his statements to police. After a thorough review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. However, the matter is remanded to the trial court for entry of a corrected judgment in Count One to reflect Defendant’s offender status as Multiple rather than Career. |
Wayne | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Jerry A. Bell v. State of Tennessee
Petitioner, Jerry A. Bell, was convicted in three separate trials of multiple felonies which resulted in three separate appeals. See State v. Jerry Bell, No. W2003-02870-CCA-R3-CD, 2005 WL 1105158 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Jackson, May 10, 2005); State v. Jerry Bell, No.W2004-01355-CCA-R3-CD, 2005 WL 2205849 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Jackson, Sept. 12, 2005); State v. Jerry Bell, No. W2005-02812-CCA-R3-CD, 2006 WL 2872472 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Jackson, Oct. 9, 2006). Petitioner filed a pro se petition for post-conviction relief jointly attacking these convictions and arguing that the statute of limitations should be tolled because the cases of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000); Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004); Cunningham v. California, 549 U.S. 270 (2007); and State v. Gomez, 239 S.W.3d 733 (Tenn. 2007) (“Gomez II”); established a new constitutional right requiring the tolling of the statute of limitations or in the alternative that his due process rights were violated such that the tolling of the statute of limitations is required. The post-conviction court summarily dismissed the petition. Petitioner appeals this dismissal. We have reviewed the record on appeal and conclude that there is no basis upon which to toll the statute of limitations. Therefore, we affirm the post-conviction court’s summary dismissal of the petition. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Brice Cook
A jury convicted the defendant, Brice Cook, of premeditated first degree murder after the defendant shot the victim, Shantell Lane. The defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment. The defendant appeals, asserting that the trial court erred in: (1) allowing a witness to offer lay opinion testimony; (2) denying the defendant’s request for a copy of a witness’s prior statement to police; (3) allowing certain hearsay testimony; (4) refusing to grant a mistrial when a witness referred twice to the defendant’s previous trial; (5) giving limiting instructions to the jury over the defendant’s objection; (6) allowing prosecutorial misconduct during closing argument; and (7) refusing to excuse for cause potential jurors who exhibited a bias against a defendant’s exercise of his or her right to remain silent. After a thorough review of the record, we conclude that there is no reversible error. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Cleven Johnson
The defendant, Cleven Johnson, appeals his Knox County Criminal Court jury conviction of aggravated sexual battery, claiming that (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction; (2) the trial court erred by refusing to grant his motion for mistrial; (3) the trial court erred by admitting photographs of the crime scene, and of a victim’s injuries and by admitting evidence of the defendant’s guilty plea to accompanying offenses; and (4) the sentence was excessive. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Knox | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Daniel Ward
The defendant, Daniel Ward, appeals his Campbell County Criminal Court jury convictions of 10 counts of aggravated sexual battery, claiming that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions, that the bill of particulars was inadequate, that his pretrial statement to police was not voluntarily and knowingly given, and that the 54-year sentence imposed by the trial court was excessive. Because the evidence was insufficient to support the defendant’s conviction of aggravated sexual battery in count six, that conviction is reversed, and the charge is dismissed. The remaining judgments of the trial court are affirmed . |
Campbell | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
John Lowery v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, John Lowery, appeals the Knox County Criminal Court’s summary dismissal of his petition for a writ of error coram nobis. He asserts that newly discovered evidence, namely two witnesses’ recantation of their identification of the petitioner as the shooter and a previously unknown witness who said the petitioner was not at the scene of the crime, warranted a new trial on his convictions of premeditated first degree murder and attempted first degree murder. Upon review, we reverse the judgment of the coram nobis court and remand for an evidentiary hearing. |
Knox | Court of Criminal Appeals |
