State of Tennessee v. Samuel L. Giddens
|
Williamson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Robert L. Trocsch
The appellant, Robert L. Trocsch, was convicted in the Roane County Criminal Court of one count of burglary and two counts of theft. He received a total effective sentence of eight years incarceration in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the appellant contests the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his convictions and alleges that the trial court improperly performed its function as thirteenth juror. Upon review of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Roane | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Charles Hinkle
The defendant was found guilty by a jury of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, vandalism up to five hundred dollars ($500), and public intoxication. The trial court sentenced the defendant as a Range I standard offender to a term of two years for reckless endangerment, eleven months and twenty-nine days for vandalism, and thirty days for public intoxication. These sentences were to run concurrently and were to be served in confinement in the county jail. The trial court rejected alternative sentencing. The defendant contends his sentence is excessive. Because the defendant failed to include the trial transcript, we are unable to conduct an adequate appellate review. Therefore, we presume the trial court correctly sentenced the defendant and affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Carroll | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Carlton Lee McAlister
The defendant appeals his conviction for DUI - second offense and his sentence of sixty days. The defendant contends the evidence is insufficient to sustain his conviction, more specifically that he was not impaired while driving or on a public road. The defendant also argues that his sentence of sixty days is excessive. We conclude the evidence is sufficient to sustain his conviction. The defendant failed to include the sentencing hearing transcript, thus barring this Court from reviewing his argument concerning sentencing. We affirm the judgment from the trial court as modified. |
Carroll | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Myra S. Bikrev
Myra S. Bikrev appeals from her Williamson County convictions of felony theft of property, coercion of a witness, and aggravated perjury. These convictions were imposed following findings of guilt at a jury trial, and Bikrev is presently serving an effective eight-year sentence involving both jail confinement and probation. She challenges the sufficiency of the evidence as well as the propriety of the sentences she received. Her appellate arguments are not meritorious, and we affirm. |
Williamson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Richard Brown v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner appeals the denial of post-conviction relief from his first degree murder conviction. He claims he received ineffective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel (1) failed to adequately challenge suppression of the petitioner's confession and (2) failed to have the petitioner testify at trial. We affirm the trial court's denial of post-conviction relief. |
Robertson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Richard DeWayne Jordan
A Rhea County grand jury indicted the defendant on multiple sexual offense charges. At the conclusion of a trial, the defendant was acquitted of numerous offenses but found guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual battery (as lesser included offenses of aggravated rape). For each of these convictions, the trial court sentenced the defendant to twelve years as a standard offender. The court then set these sentences to run concurrently. After unsuccessfully pursuing a new trial motion, the defendant brings this appeal, raising five issues. He avers 1) that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict; 2) that the prosecutor committed reversible error by soliciting "unrelated crimes" evidence from a State witness; 3) that the prosecution committed reversible error by comments made in its closing argument; 4) that the trial court erred in failing to declare a not guilty verdict as to all counts after the jury indicated that this was its verdict; and 5) that the trial court erred in excessively sentencing the defendant. After reviewing the record and relevant authorities, we find it necessary to remand the defendant's aggravated sexual battery conviction under trial count two for resentencing consistent with this opinion. However, we find that none of the other issues merit reversal and, therefore, affirm the defendant's convictions and his aggravated assault sentence under count four of the indictment. |
Rhea | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Richard Albany Goode
Richard Albany Goode, convicted upon his guilty plea of statutory rape, appeals from the Blount County Circuit Court's imposition of a two-year incarcerative sentence. He claims he should have received an alternative sentence. Because the appellate record does not contain evidence relied upon by the parties and the court at the sentencing hearing, we hold that the defendant has waived our review of his appellate issue. We therefore affirm the sentence imposed by the trial court. |
Blount | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Chico Lopez Chigano v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Chico Lopez Chigano, appeals the trial court's denial of his petition for postconviction relief. In this appeal, he asserts that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel at trial. The judgment of the trial court is affirmed |
Knox | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Artez L. Moreis
|
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Artez L. Moreis - Dissenting
I respectfully dissent. For those reasons expressed in State v. Vernon Dewayne Waller, No. M2001-02414-CCA-R3-CD (Tenn. Crim. App. at Nashville, Aug. 23, 2002), perm. to appeal granted, (Tenn. 2002), I find no error in the admission of the defendant's prior felony drug convictions for purposes of impeachment. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
James R. Blue v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner pled guilty to three Class B felony drug offenses. Pursuant to the plea agreement, the trial court orally sentenced the Petitioner to ten years for each conviction with the sentences to be served concurrently to each other and to a prior four-year sentence, resulting in an effective sentence of ten years. After the sentence was imposed, the Petitioner asked that he be allowed to begin serving his sentence the following day. The trial court granted the Petitioner's request, with the condition that if he did not report as ordered, two of the sentences would run consecutively. The next day, the Petitioner failed to report, and the trial court entered judgments in which two of the Petitioner's sentences were consecutive, resulting in an effective sentence of twenty years. The Petitioner filed a petition for post-conviction relief, contending that his plea was unlawfully induced, that he received ineffective assistance of counsel, and that his sentences were illegal. Following a hearing, the post-conviction court denied relief. The Petitioner now appeals, arguing that the post-conviction court erred by denying his petition for post-conviction relief. Concluding that the trial court violated Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 11 and the Petitioner's due process rights, we reverse the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Tiffany Goodman
The Defendant was convicted, along with her co-defendant husband, of child abuse and neglect, a Class D felony, and sentenced to four years probation. She appeals, claiming that the evidence was insufficient to support her conviction and that any neglect that did occur was the result of mistakes in parenting skills, such mistake vitiating any knowing abuse. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Grundy | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Anthony D. Forster
The defendant, after being allowed to represent himself at the sentencing hearing, proceeds pro se in appealing his especially aggravated robbery conviction and sentence of twenty-two years imprisonment. The defendant argues his right to a speedy trial was violated and argues he was subject to an unreasonable delay in sentencing. The defendant argues the trial court improperly denied the defendant's motion to sever the offenses. The defendant argues the trial judge abused his discretion in failing to recuse himself and contends the trial court erroneously allowed a witness to testify to injuries she sustained as a result of the robbery. The defendant argues the trial court improperly ruled the defendant was not entitled to be present during jury deliberations. The defendant argues the trial court frustrated his right to appeal by relieving his trial counsel prior to sentencing. The defendant argues he is the victim of a malicious prosecution. We conclude the trial court did not err and evidence supports the defendant's conviction of especially aggravated robbery. Therefore, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Barbi Michelle Brown
The defendant pled guilty to one count of especially aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated burglary. The trial court sentenced the defendant to twenty years incarceration pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement setting the maximum amount of time to be served at twenty years. The defendant contends her sentence is excessive and the trial court misapplied enhancement factors (4), (5), (6), and (10). We agree the trial court misapplied two enhancement factors, but the record supports the imposition of a twenty-year sentence, which is the maximum allowed by her plea agreement and the "presumptive sentence" provided by statute. We affirm the judgments from the trial court. |
Montgomery | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Teron McKenley v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Teron McKenley, appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief. He originally pled guilty to especially aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, and theft over $1,000 and received an effective sentence of fifteen years. He contends the post-conviction court erred in disallowing the introduction of the victim's medical records at his post-conviction hearing and in failing to find that ineffective assistance of counsel led to an involuntary guilty plea. We affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Rutherford | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Shawnda James v. State of Tennessee
Petitioner appeals the dismissal of her petition for post-conviction relief by the Giles County Circuit Court. She was originally convicted of premeditated first degree murder and especially aggravated robbery. In this appeal, she contends the post-conviction court erred by finding she received the effective assistance of counsel and argues trial counsel was deficient in not filing a motion to suppress her confession. We affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Giles | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Anthony Pfahler
A Blount County Circuit Court jury convicted the defendant, Anthony Pfahler, of especially aggravated robbery, a Class A felony, and aggravated assault, a Class C felony. The trial court sentenced him as a Range II, violent offender to thirty-five years in the Department of Correction (DOC) for the especially aggravated robbery conviction and as a Range II, multiple offender to eight years for the aggravated assault conviction to be served consecutively. In this delayed appeal, the defendant claims (1) that the evidence is insufficient to support his especially aggravated robbery conviction; (2) that the trial court erred by denying his attorney's motion to withdraw; and (3) that his sentences are excessive. We affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Blount | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Eugene Kovalsky v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner appeals the denial of post-conviction relief from his conviction for voluntary manslaughter, arguing that the post-conviction court erred in finding that his guilty plea was knowing and voluntary and that he received the effective assistance of trial counsel. Following our review, we affirm the denial of the petition. |
Hawkins | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Bruce Marvin Vann
The defendant, Bruce Marvin Vann, was convicted of aggravated assault. The trial court imposed a six-year sentence. In this appeal of right, the defendant presents five issues for review: (1) whether the indictment sufficiently described the offense of aggravated assault; (2) whether the evidence was sufficient; (3) whether the trial court erred by failing to act as thirteenth juror; (4) whether the trial court erred by allowing prior convictions as impeachment evidence; and (5) whether the trial court erred by refusing to apply a mitigating circumstance. The judgment is affirmed. |
Madison | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Alvin Carroll
After being indicted for the sale of a controlled substance, the defendant filed an Affidavit of Indigency to obtain a court-appointed lawyer. The State dismissed the drug charges against the defendant and later charged the defendant with aggravated perjury, a Class D felony, regarding his answers to the trial court considering his request for a court-appointed lawyer. He was found guilty and sentenced as a Range I standard offender to two years in the Tennessee Department of Correction, with 180 days to serve and the balance on supervised probation. In this appeal, the defendant presents the following issues for review: (1) the evidence was insufficient to support the jury verdict; (2) the trial court erred in requiring the defendant to go to trial without an attorney; and (3) the trial court erred in sentencing the defendant. This is a case of first impression in Tennessee regarding an aggravated perjury conviction for making false statements to the trial court when requesting a court-appointed lawyer. We conclude the evidence is sufficient to sustain a conviction of aggravated perjury. We conclude the trial court did not err in requiring the defendant to go to trial without an attorney. |
Lewis | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Michael Russo v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Michael Russo, filed a petition for post-conviction relief alleging the ineffective assistance of counsel. The post-conviction court denied the petition and the petitioner timely appealed. Finding no error, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Curtis Halliman
Following the defendant's guilty pleas to the offenses of theft over $1,000 and burglary, both Class D felonies, the trial court sentenced him to concurrent three-year terms in the Department of Correction. In this appeal, the defendant posits that minimum, two-year terms of probation, Community Corrections, or split confinement are more appropriate measures. We disagree, however, and affirm. |
Williamson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Richard Leonard Mendoza v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Richard Leonard Mendoza, appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief, which alleged ineffective assistance of counsel in connection with his guilty pleas to aggravated sexual battery and that his guilty pleas were involuntary. Additionally, he insists that the post-conviction court erroneously denied funding for expert psychological services at the post-conviction level. After a thorough review of the record, we are unpersuaded that the post-conviction court's rulings, findings and conclusion are anything other than proper, and we affirm the judgment. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. James Thomas Erwin
The defendant contends the trial court erred in sentencing him to eleven years for a Class B felony of selling a Schedule II controlled substance, instead of the presumptive minimum sentence of eight years. The defendant also contends the trial court erred in ordering his sentences to run consecutive to a sentence in another county. Absent a sentencing hearing transcript, we conclude the record is inadequate for appellate review, and we must presume the sentences imposed for the Class B felony are correct. Moreover, we note the judgment forms reflect the defendant was sentenced to eleven years on two additional Class C felony convictions of selling less than .5 grams of a Schedule II controlled substance. These sentences exceed the statutory range of punishment prescribed for Class C felonies and are illegal. We affirm the judgment from the trial court as related to the defendant's Class B felony convictions and remand the defendant's two Class C felony convictions for correction or for resentencing within the proper statutory range of punishment. |
Putnam | Court of Criminal Appeals |
