State of Tennessee v. Anthony Poole

A Shelby County jury convicted the appellant, Anthony Poole, of second degree murder, and the trial court sentenced the appellant to twenty-four years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. This appeal followed, with the appellant arguing that the trial court erred by (1) failing to instruct the jury to disregard a hearsay statement by the victim; (2) excluding the testimony of a mental health expert; (3) giving a sequential, “acquittal-first” instruction to the jury; and (4) imposing a twenty-four-year sentence in contravention of Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S. Ct. 2531 (2004). Upon review, we modify the appellant’s sentence to nineteen years. In all other respects, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.