State of Tennessee v. Eddie Wayne Shelton
Eddie Wayne Shelton (“the Defendant”) pleaded guilty to two counts of sale of less than 0.5 grams of cocaine, one count of possession with the intent to sell 0.5 grams or more of cocaine, and two counts of sale of 0.5 grams or more of cocaine. Pursuant to the plea agreement, the Defendant was sentenced to an effective sentence of ten years to be served in community corrections. Upon the filing of a revocation warrant, the Defendant was taken into custody, and a probation revocation hearing was held. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court revoked the Defendant’s probation and ordered him to serve the remainder of his sentence in confinement. The Defendant appeals the trial court’s ruling. We affirm the trial court’s judgment pursuant to Rule 20 of the Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals. |
Dyer | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Doyle Everette Haney
Following a jury trial, the Defendant, Doyle Everette Haney, was convicted of criminal responsibility for the facilitation of the sale of .5 grams or more of cocaine, a Class C felony, and delivery of .5 grams or more of cocaine, a Class B felony. The trial court merged the two convictions and imposed a sentence of thirty years as a career offender. On appeal, the Defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his convictions, the consistency of the verdicts, the jury instructions, and sentencing. All of his issues could be treated as waived for failure to comply with the requirements for appellate briefs. See Tenn. Ct. Crim. App. R. 10(b). However, after a review of the record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Cocke | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Jeffery B. Johnson, Jr.
The defendant, JeffreyB. Johnson, Jr., was tried on two counts of first degree (premeditated) murder,and after a jury trial was found guilty of two counts of voluntary manslaughter,Class C felonies. The defendant was sentenced as a Range I, standard offender to five years on each count, with the sentences to be served consecutively, for an effective sentence of ten years. The defendant challenges the sentences imposed by the trial court, claiming error in the trial court’s application of certain enhancement factors, its failure to apply certain proffered mitigating factors, and its decision to order the defendant’s sentences to be served consecutively. Considering the State’s concession that the trial court’s application of two of the enhancement factors was error, the trial court’s failure to consider all of the evidence that was presented at trial during sentencing, and the state of the record before us, we conclude that this case should be remanded to the trial court for resentencing consistent with this opinion. |
Dickson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Rivera L. Peoples
Rivera Peoples (“the Defendant”) appeals his jury conviction for first degree felony murder. In his appeal, he asserts that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his conviction. After a thorough review of the record and the applicable law, we affirm the Defendant’s conviction. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Jonathan W. Stephenson v. Ricky Bell, Warden
Jonathan W. Stephenson (“the Petitioner”) filed for habeas corpus relief, challenging his convictions for first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder. Following a hearing, the habeas corpus court dismissed the petition on the merits, and this appeal followed. On appeal, the Petitioner argues that his judgment is facially void because his 1994 guilty plea rendered his 1990 jury conviction a nullity. After a thorough review of the record and the applicable law, we hold that the Petitioner’s first degree murder conviction stems not from the 1994 guilty plea but from the 1990 jury verdict that was affirmed on direct appeal. Accordingly, the 2002 judgment sentencing the Petitioner to death on his underlying jury conviction for first degree murder was not facially void. Therefore, we affirm the judgment of the habeas corpus court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Jeremy Antwan Bryant
Appellant, Jeremy Antwan Bryant, pled guilty to possession of one-half gram or more of cocaine with intent to sell, a Class B felony. The trial court sentenced appellant to eight years but suspended the sentence and placed appellant on supervised probation. After appellant had been on probation for almost three years, the trial court revoked his probation. On appeal, appellant contends that the trial court erred in revoking his probation because the State did not establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, that appellant committed new criminal offenses while on probation. Finding no error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Sonny Coulter
On January 10, 2002, the defendant, Sonny Coulter, pled guilty to one count of rape, and the trial court sentenced him to eight years, to be served at 100%. The trial court entered a corrected judgment in 2008 in which it set forth the defendant’s supervision for life requirements. In 2011, the defendant filed a motion to “quash” the modified sentence, alleging that he had not been advised of the supervision for life requirement when he pled guilty. The trial court treated the motion as a petition for post-conviction relief that alleged that the defendant did not knowingly and voluntarily enter his guilty plea. It then summarily dismissed the petition after a hearing. On appeal, the defendant contends that the trial court erred on multiple grounds when it denied his motion, each of which is discussed below. After a thorough review of the record and applicable authorities, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. James Michael England
The defendant, James Michael England, appeals the Dickson County Circuit Court’s revocation of his community corrections sentence. The trial court held a hearing on March 30, 2011, during which the defendant acknowledged his absence from his house during the home visits and his failure to report to the community corrections office. The court found the defendant in violation of his sentence to community corrections and ordered him to serve his remaining sentence in confinement. The defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion because the defendant was in substantial compliance with the terms of his community corrections program. Because we find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed. |
Dickson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Darnell Horton
The defendant appeals the denial of his application for pretrial diversion, asserting that the prosecutor abused his discretion and that the trial court erred in affirming the prosecutor’s denial. The State concedes that the prosecutor failed to assign weight to the relevant factors in reaching the decision to denypretrial diversion. We reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion. |
Rutherford | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Robert Scribner, II v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Robert Scribner,II, appeals the denialof his petition for post-conviction relief from his rape of a child conviction, arguing that his trial counsel was ineffective for not hiring an independent expert to challenge DNA evidence that linked him to the crime. Following our review, we affirm the denial of the petition. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
John R. Green v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner-Appellant, John R. Green, 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 does not address any of the procedural issues for which the post-conviction court denied the second petition. He instead argues, as he did in his first petition for post-conviction relief, that he received the ineffective assistance of trial counsel based on a failure to communicate a plea offer and to present a defense at trial. Upon review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Komoyangi Komoyangi
A Shelby County jury convicted the Defendant-Appellant, Komoyangi Komoyangi, of assault, a Class A misdemeanor, and he was sentenced to serve eleven months and twenty nine days in confinement. The sole issue presented for our review is whether the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction given Komoyangi’s theory of self-defense. Upon review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Jerry L. Crawford Jr.
A Crockett County Grand Jury indicted appellant, Jerry L. Crawford, Jr., for one count of statutory rape and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A jury found him guilty of both counts, and the trial court sentenced him to consecutive sentences of four years for statutory rape and eleven months, twenty-nine days for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Appellant raises the following issues on appeal: (1) whether the State’s evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant engaged in sexual intercourse with the victim “knowing” that she was under the legal age of consent; and (2) whether appellant possessed knowledge of the victim’s age simultaneously with the intent to engage in intercourse with her. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Crockett | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Harvey Brian Cochran
A jury convicted the Defendant-Appellant, Harvey Brian Cochran, of reckless homicide, a Class D felony. The trial court sentenced him as a Range I, standard offender to serve three years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, Cochran argues that the trial court erred at sentencing by allowing the State to introduce unreliable hearsay as proof of a prior conviction for enhancement purposes, by failing to consider the relevant mitigating factors, and by denying him an alternative sentence. Upon review we reverse the trial court’s denial of an alternative sentence and order Cochran to serve a sentence of split confinement, with ninety days to be served in periodic confinement at the county jail and the remainder of his three-year sentence to be served on supervised probation with the terms of his probation and periodic confinement to be determined by the trial court. In all other respects, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed. |
Monroe | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Juan Cantu v. State of Tennessee
In June of 2008, petitioner, Juan Cantu, entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to sell more than twenty-nine grams of cocaine.The trial court suspended petitioner’s sentence and placed him on probation for ten years. Agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) detained petitioner at his home on May 17, 2011, before transferring him to a detention facility in Louisiana. Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief on September 30, 2011, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel for trial counsel’s failure to advise him that pleading guilty would result in deportation. On the State’s motion, the post-conviction court dismissed the petition based on the one-year statute of limitations set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-30-102(a). In summarily dismissing the petition, the post-conviction court determined that the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, — U.S. —, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010), was inapplicable to petitioner’s case, and as such, the petition was untimely filed. To overcome the statute of limitations, petitioner argues on appeal that Padilla should be applied retroactively. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Putnam | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Timothy Damon Carter
The Defendant, Timothy Damon Carter, pled guilty to two counts of aggravated burglary, a Class C felony, and three counts of theft of property valued at $1,000 or more but less than $10,000, a Class D felony. See Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 39-14-103, -105(3), -403. The trial court sentenced the Defendant as a Range III, persistent offender to an effective eight-year sentence to be served in confinement. In this appeal as of right, the Defendant contends (1) that the trial court erred by denying his motion to withdraw his guilty plea; and (2) that the trial court erred by ordering his sentence to be served in confinement. Following our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Jamaal Eddie
After a jury trial, the defendant, Jamaal Eddie, was convicted of aggravated child abuse and of first degree murder committed in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse. He is serving an effective life sentence. The defendant appeals, contending that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict of first degree felony murder, that photographs of the victim were admitted into evidence in error, and that the defendant’s confession was admitted in error because it was not given voluntarily. We conclude that the evidence is sufficient to uphold the verdict and that there was no error in the admission of the photographs or the defendant’s statement. Accordingly, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. O'Neal Johnson
Following a jury trial, the defendant was convicted of attempted second degree murder, a Class B felony. He was sentenced to serve twenty years in prison as a Range II multiple offender. The defendant appeals the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction for second degree murder, based primarily on his contention that the evidence is not sufficient to show that he acted knowingly or without adequately provoked passion. We conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support the conviction and affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Paul Richardson
A jury convicted the defendant, Paul Richardson, of aggravated robbery, a Class B felony, aggravated burglary, a Class C felony, aggravated assault, a Class C felony, and unlawful possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, a Class E felony. The trial court imposed consecutive sentences for the aggravated robbery and aggravated assault convictions; the aggravated burglary and felon in possession of a handgun convictions were to run concurrently with all other counts, for an effective sentence of thirty-nine years. On appeal, this Court overturned the aggravated assault conviction, and remanded to allow the trial court to restructure the service of the remaining sentences to include consecutive sentencing. On remand, the trial court imposed consecutive sentences for all three remaining convictions, for an effective sentence of forty-one years. The defendant appeals the imposition of consecutive sentences. After a careful review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Willie Calvin Taylor Jr.
The defendant, who had previously been convicted of a felony drug offense, was convicted as a felon in possession of a firearm after a jury trial and sentenced to six years in prison. On appeal, the defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the guilty verdict and that the jury was improperly influenced by information outside the evidence presented at trial. The trial court found that the evidence supported the conviction and the defendant was not prejudiced by any extraneous information. After a careful review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Dyer | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Vincent Love Williams v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Vincent Love Williams, appeals the dismissal of his pro se petition for the writ of habeas corpus, contending that the trial court erred in dismissing his petition without reviewing it or answering the allegations, that his judgment was void because of a defective indictment, and that his right against double jeopardy had been violated. After a careful review of the record, we affirm the trial court’s denial of the petition for habeas corpus relief. |
Lake | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Bryant Carter
Defendant, Bryant Carter, entered into a negotiated plea agreement and pled guilty to driving under the influence of an intoxicant (DUI), and properly reserved the following certified question of law for appeal: “Whether further prosecution of this case is barred by double jeopardy under the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions when the Defendant was detained under a pro forma policy of the General Sessions Criminal Court while properly out on a misdemeanor citation in lieu of arrest.” After a thorough review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Christopher Hubbard
Christopher Hubbard (“the Defendant”) was convicted by a jury of aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping. He appeals, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for aggravated kidnapping. Upon review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Lisa Faye Allison
The Defendant, Lisa Faye Allison, pled guilty, pro se, to one count of promoting the manufacture of methamphetamine and one count of possessing less than 0.5 ounces of marijuana. The trial court sentenced the Defendant to an effective sentence of three years to be served on probation. The Defendant’s probation officer filed a probation violation warrant alleging that she had violated the terms of her probation. After a hearing, the trial court revoked the Defendant’s probation and ordered that she serve her sentence in confinement On appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred when it denied her request to apply for the community corrections program, improperly basing the denial on her decision to exercise her right to a hearing on the issue of whether she violated her probation. She further contends that the trial court erred because it denied her community corrections request without holding a hearing on her eligibility. After reviewing the record, we affirm the trial court’s judgment. |
Monroe | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Derrick Brandon Bush v. State of Tennessee
Derrick Brandon Bush (“the Petitioner”) pled guilty to two counts of attempt to commit rape in December 2000. On April 25, 2011,the Petitioner filed for post-conviction relief,alleging that his guilty plea was unconstitutional in light of Ward v. State, 315 S.W.3d 461 (Tenn. 2010), and that the one-year post-conviction statute of limitations should be tolled. After a hearing, the post-conviction court granted relief. The State appealed. Upon our thorough review of the record, we hold that the rule announced in Ward does not apply retroactively. Therefore, the Petitioner is not entitled to tolling of the statute of limitations pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-30-102(b)(1). We also hold that the Petitioner is not entitled to tolling on due process grounds. Thus, the Petitioner’s claim for relief is barred by the statute of limitations. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Sumner | Court of Criminal Appeals |
