Tony Reed Hildebrand v. State of Tennessee
Petitioner, Tony Reed Hildebrand, filed a pro se motion for post-conviction relief in which he alleged ineffective assistance of counsel, alleged that he was “falsely accused,” and insisted that a “court order [was] not honored.” The post-conviction court denied relief and dismissed the petition without a hearing. After our review, we conclude that the petition alleged a colorable claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and Petitioner was entitled to appointed counsel, if found to be indigent, and to an opportunity to amend his petition. Accordingly, the judgment of the post-conviction court is reversed, and the case is remanded. |
Carter | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Douglas L. Lyle, Sr. v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Douglas L. Lyle, Sr., appeals the post-conviction court's denial of his petition for relief from his aggravated sexual battery conviction, asserting that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. After review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court denying relief. |
Knox | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Eric Bernard Howard v. State of Tennessee
Petitioner, Eric Bernard Howard, appeals from the trial court’s dismissal of his pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus in which he alleged various constitutional violations concerning his convictions and seventeen-year sentence for two counts of aggravated robbery. On appeal, Petitioner argues that the trial court erred by summarily dismissing his petition without a hearing and that his convictions are void because of his diminished mental capacity at the time of the offenses. After a thorough review, we affirm the judgment of the habeas corpus court. |
Hickman | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Deborah M. Nowakowski
The Defendant-Appellant, Deborah Nowakowski, was convicted by a Wilson County jury of driving under the influence (DUI) and driving on a revoked license. At a subsequent bench trial, the trial court found that Nowakowski had five previous DUI convictions and one previous conviction for driving on a revoked license. She was therefore convicted of DUI, sixth offense, and violating the Motor Vehicle Habitual Offenders Act (MVHOA). She received a total effective sentence of twelve years, eleven months and twenty-nine days’ incarceration. On appeal, the sole issue presented for our review is whether the trial court erred in holding harmless the erroneous admission of a statement referencing Nowakowski’s prior DUI convictions. Discerning no reversible error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Wilson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Kenneth Dwayne Mitchell
Following his arrest at a sobriety checkpoint on October 7, 2011, the Defendant, Kenneth Dwayne Mitchell, was indicted for driving under the influence (“DUI”), possession of drug paraphernalia, and driving with a blood alcohol content (“BAC”) of .08% or greater (“DUI per se”). See Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 39-17-425 & 39-17-425. Following a jury trial, the Defendant was convicted of DUI per se and acquitted of the remaining charges. In this appeal as of right, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress, arguing that his seizure at the sobriety checkpoint was unreasonable because adequate notice of the roadblock was not provided. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Sullivan | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Christopher Lee Byrge
Defendant, Christopher Lee Byrge, was convicted of aggravated sexual battery and received a nine-year sentence. He appeals his conviction, arguing that: (1) the trial court erred in denying Defendant's motion to suppress his admissions; (2) the trial court erred by not requiring the State to elect the specific date on which the alleged offense occurred; (3) the trial court erred by giving a sequential jury instruction; (4) the trial court erred in denying Defendant's request for a special jury instruction on corroboration of admissions against interest; and (5) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. After a careful review of the parties' briefs, the record, and the applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Anderson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Kermit Penley
The petitioner, Kermit Penley, appeals the denial of his Rule 36.1 Motion to Correct an Illegal Sentence. He argues that he received a sentence of “life with the possibility of parole” with his parole eligibility occurring after service of eighty-five percent of his sentence, and he contends that this sentence is not authorized by statute. Following our review, we conclude that the petitioner was sentenced to life imprisonment and that his sentence is not illegal. We affirm the judgment of the trial court |
Greene | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Jerry Kirkpatrick v. State of Tennessee
The petitioner, Jerry Kirkpatrick, appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction from his convictions for burglary and theft of property over $1,000, arguing that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial. After review, we affirm the denial of the petition. |
Knox | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Jamell Faulkner v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Jamell Faulkner, filed a petition for post-conviction relief from his convictions of second degree murder and especially aggravated burglary and the accompanying effective sentence of fifteen years. The Petitioner alleged that his lead counsel and his co-counsel were ineffective and that his guilty pleas were not knowingly and voluntarily entered. The post-conviction court denied the petition, and the Petitioner appeals. Upon review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Lauderdale | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Tavarus Detterio Griffin
Following a jury trial, the Defendant, Tavarus Detterio Griffin, was convicted of two counts of aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated kidnapping. In this appeal as of right, the Defendant contends that: (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions; (2) the entire jury pool was tainted when, during voir dire, a juror mentioned that she had been called for jury service at the Defendant’s first trial on these charges; (3) the jury foreman’s comment, prior to the beginning of deliberations, that he knew the Defendant was guilty constituted juror misconduct; and (4) the prosecutor’s use of testimony from the Defendant’s allocution at his first trial to impeach him with a prior inconsistent statement constituted reversible error. Following our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Hardeman | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Cayetano Flores v. State of Tennessee
Petitioner, Cayetano Flores, appeals the denial of his petition for post-conviction relief. He argues that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by operating under a conflict of interest, inadequately discussing various aspects of the case and the details of the plea agreement, and failing to file a motion to sever. After a careful review of the record, we affirm the prost-conviction court’s denial of post-conviction relief. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Joseph Dejuan Webster v. State of Tennessee
A Davidson County jury convicted the Petitioner, Joseph Dejuan Webster, of first degree premeditated murder, and the trial court sentenced him to life in prison. The Petitioner appealed, arguing that there was newly discovered evidence. This Court affirmed the Petitioner’s conviction. State v. Joseph Dejuan Webster, No M2007-00050-CCA-R3-CD, 2008 WL 2229208, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Nashville, May 29, 2008), perm. app. denied (Tenn. Dec. 8, 2008). In May 2014, the Petitioner filed a petition for writ of error coram nobis, alleging that one of the key witnesses against him at trial had recanted her trial testimony in a sworn statement. The coram nobis court held a hearing, and, after expressing doubt as to the witness’s testimony, dismissed the petition for writ of error coram nobis. On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the coram nobis court erred and asserts that he is entitled to coram nobis relief on the basis of the witness’s recanted testimony. After a thorough review of the record and applicable authority, we affirm the trial court’s judgment. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Steven J. Ballou
The defendant, Steven J. Ballou, pled guilty to one count of evading arrest, a Class D felony, and received a sentence of five years to be served consecutively to a prior sentence. As part of his guilty plea, the defendant reserved two certified questions of law. In the first question, he argues that an eighteen-month pre-indictment delay caused substantial prejudice to his right to a fair trial and was an intentional delay by the State to gain a tactical advantage over the defendant. In the second, he contends that the loss of police cruiser dashboard camera videos that contained potentially exculpatory evidence violated his right to a fair trial. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court as to the first certified question of law and conclude that we do not have jurisdiction to consider the second certified question. |
Bradley | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Douglas Zweig
Petitioner, Douglas Zweig, was convicted in 1981 of attempt to commit a felony: to wit, third degree burglary. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-603 (1975). He was sentenced to serve eleven months, twenty-nine days in the Shelby County Correctional Center, but the trial court suspended his sentence to two years of probation after service of thirty days in confinement. In 2014, he filed a motion under Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36, requesting that the trial court correct the judgment to reflect that he was convicted of a misdemeanor rather than a felony. The trial court denied his petition. Upon review, we conclude that petitioner’s conviction was a felony and, therefore, affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Mario D. Thomas v. State of Tennessee
In this appeal, pro se Petitioner Mario D. Thomas challenges the Hardeman County Circuit Court’s summary dismissal of his petition for writ of habeas corpus relief. Upon our review, we affirm the judgment of the habeas corpus court pursuant to Rule 20 of the Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee. |
Hardeman | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Blake Edward Childress
Defendant, Blake Edward Childress, was convicted by a Hamblen County Jury of incest. He was sentenced to six years in incarceration. On appeal, he argues that (1) the trial court improperly denied a motion to suppress; (2) the trial court improperly allowed introduction of evidence of prior bad acts; and (3) the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction. After a review, we determine Defendant properly invoked his right to counsel and, thereafter, was improperly subjected to continued discussion by a detective that produced an incriminating response. Consequently, the subsequent confession by Defendant was obtained in violation of his Fifth Amendment right to counsel, and the trial court should have granted the motion to suppress. We determine the subsequent introduction of the confession at trial was not harmless error, and the judgment of the trial court is reversed and remanded for new trial. |
Hamblen | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Andre De'Lane Ross
The Appellant, Andre De'Lane Ross, appeals from the Hamilton County Criminal Court's denial of his Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36 motion for correction of a clerical error on the face of his possession of cocaine judgment. In this appeal, the Appellant submits that the trial court erred in denying his motion because, at the guilty plea hearing, the court found that his plea to this charge lacked a sufficient factual basis but a guilty judgment was, thereafter, erroneously entered. Based on our review, we dismiss the appeal. |
Hamilton | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Thomas Mitchell
The Defendant-Appellant, Thomas Mitchell, was convicted by a Shelby County jury of burglary of a building, a Class D felony. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-14-402(a)(1). As a Range III, persistent offender, he was sentenced to ten years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant-Appellant argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction and that the trial court abused its discretion in applying certain enhancement factors. Discerning no reversible error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Tyrone Musgrave v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Tyrone Musgrave, appeals from the denial of post-conviction relief arising from his guilty plea to one count of burglary, a Class D felony, and one count of retaliation for past action, a Class E felony. On appeal, he argues that he received ineffective assistance of counsel in relation to his guilty pleas because counsel did not spend adequate time meeting with him and failed to fully explain the consequences of his plea agreement. Upon review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. |
Madison | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Corey Antuan Gray
The Defendant, Corey Antuan Gray, was convicted by a Madison County Circuit Court jury of four counts of attempted first degree murder; four counts of aggravated assault; four counts of employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony; and one count of evading arrest. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court merged the attempted murder and aggravated assault convictions and sentenced the Defendant as a Range I, standard offender to consecutive sentences of twenty years for each count of attempted murder, six years for each count of employing a firearm during a dangerous felony, and one year and six months for evading arrest. On appeal, the Defendant argues that the evidence was insufficient to support all four of the convictions for attempted first degree murder and that his sentence is excessive. Upon our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Madison | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Deangelo Jackson aka Deangelo Webb
Deangelo Jackson (“the Defendant”) was indicted with one count each of especially aggravated robbery, attempted second-degree murder, and employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. After a jury trial, the trial court entered judgments of conviction for especially aggravated robbery and facilitation of attempted second-degree murder and imposed an effective thirty-two-year sentence. On appeal, the Defendant raises two issues: (1) whether the evidence was sufficient to support his convictions and (2) whether the trial court erred when it held that the State would be allowed to impeach the Defendant’s testimony with evidence of his prior convictions for theft and felon in possession of a handgun. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Ronnie L. Johnson v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Ronnie L. Johnson, appeals as of right from the Wilson County Criminal Court’s dismissal of his petition for a writ of error coram nobis. The Petitioner contends that the coram nobis court abused its discretion in dismissing his petition. Discerning no error, we affirm the judgment of the coram nobis court. |
Wilson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. James Denver Case
A Dickson County Circuit Court Jury convicted the appellant, James Denver Case, of first degree felony murder, aggravated robbery, a Class B felony, and aggravated burglary, a Class C felony, and the trial court immediately sentenced him to life in prison for the murder conviction. After a sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced him to eight years for aggravated robbery and three years for aggravated burglary with all of the sentences to be served concurrently. On appeal, the appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the convictions, that the trial court erred by instructing the grand jury in the presence of the jury venire, and that the trial court erred by allowing the deliberating jury to view a video in the courtroom without the appellant’s being present. Based upon the oral arguments, the record, and the parties’ briefs, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Dickson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. John Traion Davis
Defendant, John Traion Davis, filed a motion to correct an illegal sentence pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1. Upon our review of the record, we affirm the trial court’s summary dismissal for failure of Defendant to state a colorable claim. |
Lauderdale | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. John Traion Davis - Dissenting
Reluctantly and respectfully, I dissent from the majority opinion in this case. The Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1 movant in this case stated a colorable claim to relief, and based upon the current wording of the rule, that is all that is required. See Tenn. R. Crim. P. 36.1(b). |
Lauderdale | Court of Criminal Appeals |
