State of Tennessee v. John Ray Thompson

The Defendant, John Ray Thompson, appeals his convictions from two separate jury trials, where he was convicted of seventeen crimes involving his sexual contact with three minor girls. The trial court sentenced the Defendant to an effective sentence of eighty years for his convictions in both trials, of which sixty-nine years must be served at 100%. On appeal, he contends that: (1) the evidence is insufficient to sustain three of his convictions; (2) the State failed to elect facts to support two of his convictions; and (3) the trial court erred when it sentenced him. After throughly reviewing the record and the applicable authorities, we affirm all of the Defendant’s convictions in both trials except for two of his convictions for sexual battery because the jury was improperly instructed on those counts, and the instructional error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Further, we hold that the trial court improperly enhanced the Defendant’s sentences in light of Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. __, 124 S. Ct. 2531 (2004), and we reduce the Defendant’s sentence in accordance with this opinion to an effective sentence of sixty-eight years, sixty of which must be served at 100%. We remand the case for the entry of appropriate judgments of conviction.