State of Tennessee v. Damarkus Lowe

The Defendant, Damarkus Lowe, appeals his jury conviction for first degree murder, for which he received a sentence of life imprisonment. In this direct appeal, the Defendant alleges the following errors: (1) that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction, challenging the evidence establishing premeditation and criminal responsibility, and alleging that the accomplice testimony was not sufficiently corroborated; (2) that admission of a packet of letters sent to the police anonymously, which contained a note from the anonymous source and three letters allegedly authored by the Defendant that he mailed from jail to his associates, was improper because the letters were not properly authenticated, contained inadmissible hearsay, violated his confrontation rights, and were more prejudicial than probative; (3) that recorded jail calls containing inadmissible hearsay were erroneously admitted in violation of his confrontation rights; (4) that testimony regarding his “street name” of “D-Ru” was irrelevant and more prejudicial than probative; (5) that the trial court acted in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963), when it failed to compel the State to disclose the name of a jailhouse informant who claimed to have information related to the victim’s murder; and (6) that the State committed prosecutorial misconduct during its closing argument by improperly vouching for several witnesses’ credibility requiring plain error relief. Following our review of the record and the applicable authorities, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.