State of Tennessee v. William Rimmel, III

This appeal arises from a road-rage incident in Marion County involving the defendant, William Rimmel, III, and the victim, Bobbie Burke. While riding his motorcycle, Rimmel aggressively pursued Burke on the interstate and eventually broke the passenger window of Burke’s car by pounding on it with the slide of a loaded handgun. Rimmel never fired the handgun or pointed it in Burke’s direction, however, and Burke was unaware that the object used to break the window was a gun. A jury convicted Rimmel of attempted aggravated assault and felony reckless endangerment with a handgun. Rimmel challenges the sufficiency of the evidence for both convictions. Because we conclude that Rimmel intended to place Burke in reasonable fear of serious bodily injury by using his handgun and took a substantial step toward doing so, we affirm his conviction for attempted aggravated assault. But because the evidence does not establish that Rimmel’s handgun-related conduct placed Burke in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death, we reverse his conviction for felony reckless endangerment.