State of Tennessee v. Anthony Adinolfi
The Defendant, Anthony Adinolfi, entered an Alford “best-interest” plea to two counts of solicitation to commit statutory rape, for which he received an effective sentence of 11 months and 29 days to serve at 75%. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his application for judicial diversion and alternative sentencing. Upon our review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Sullivan | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Stephan Lajuan Beasley, Sr. v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Stephan Lajuan Beasley, Sr., was convicted by a jury of first degree premeditated murder. On May 24, 2007, the Petitioner filed a pro se petition for writ of error coram nobis arguing that new evidence exists. Following a hearing, the coram nobis court denied the petition, and the Petitioner timely appealed. After a careful review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the coram nobis court. |
Hamilton | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Kristopher Blake Kincer
The Defendant, Kristopher Blake Kincer, pleaded guilty as a Range I offender to theft of property valued at $1000 or more but less than $10,000, a Class D felony. See T.C.A. § 39-14-103 (Supp. 2013) (theft of property); 39-14-105(a)(3) (2010) (amended 2012) (grading of theft). The plea agreement called for a two-year sentence, and the trial court ordered that the sentence be served in confinement. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying alternative sentencing. We reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the case for the trial court to consider whether the Defendant should be placed on community corrections. |
Sullivan | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Coy McKaughan
In this appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court committed reversible error by admitting the video-recorded forensic interview of the child-victim at trial. Specifically, he contends that the admission of the interview was improper for the following reason: Tennessee Code Annotated section 24-7-123, the statute under which the video interview was admitted, is unconstitutional because it is in conflict with the existing rules of evidence and established case law and violates the separation of powers clause of the Tennessee Constitution. After reviewing the record and the applicable authorities, we affirm the |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Jerry Sherrill II
An Obion County jury found the Defendant, Jerry Sherrill, II, guilty of theft of property valued between $1,000 and $10,000. The trial court sentenced the Defendant to eight years as a Range II, persistent offender. The Defendant appeals, asserting that: (1) the trial court improperly ruled that his prior theft convictions could be used for impeachment purposes should he testify at trial; (2) the evidence is insufficient to sustain his conviction; (3) the trial court improperly required the jury to continue deliberations; and (4) the trial court improperly instructed the jury concerning possession of recently stolen property. After a thorough review of the record and the applicable law, we affirm the trial court’s judgment. |
Obion | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Dericko Jackson v. Michael Donahue
Petitioner, Dericko Jackson, appeals as of right from the trial court’s summary dismissal of the petition for writ of habeas corpus relief filed by Petitioner. Petitioner attacks his 1998 convictions in Shelby County for felony murder, especially aggravated robbery, and aggravated assault. The convictions were the result of guilty pleas apparently negotiated with the State as to the conviction offenses, and length and manner of service of the sentences. The sentences of life imprisonment for felony murder and fifteen years for especially aggravated robbery were ordered to be served consecutively. The three-year sentence for aggravated assault was ordered to be served concurrently with the sentence for felony murder. Each of three judgments provides that Petitioner is allowed 480 days of pre-trial jail credit against the sentence imposed in each judgment for the time period of May 9, 1997 to August 31, 1998. Petitioner asserts that all the convictions are void because the provisions for any pre-trial jail credit in the sentence for especially aggravated robbery results in an illegal sentence. Petitioner argues that as a result he is entitled to habeas corpus relief for all three convictions. After a thorough review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Hardeman | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Randall Cunningham
In this appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying all forms of alternative sentencing because he admitted his guilt, and, despite being young, had a good employment history. Upon consideration of the record and the applicable authorities, we conclude that the trial court’s denial of alternative sentencing was not in error and affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Madison | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Charles Graham aka Charles Stevenson v. Michael Donahue, Warden
The Petitioner, Charles Graham, aka Charles Stevenson, appeals as of right from the Hardeman County Circuit Court’s summary dismissal of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. In his petition, the Petitioner argued that his judgment of conviction for tampering with evidence was void because (1) the indictment was defective for failing to include the essential elements of the offense and (2) the facts alleged in the indictment demonstrate that he “mere[ly] abandon[ed]” the marijuana not that he tampered with the evidence. On appeal, he contends that there was a material variance between the indictment on the tampering with evidence count and the proof offered at trial. Following our review, we affirm the order of the habeas corpus court. |
Hardeman | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Susan M. Barnett
A Gibson County jury found the Defendant, Susan M. Barnett, guilty of one count of aggravated assault, two counts of assault, and one count of unauthorized use of an automobile. The trial court ordered the Defendant to serve a six-year sentence for the aggravated assault conviction and concurrent sentences of eleven months and twenty-nine days for the remaining convictions. On appeal, the Defendant claims that the evidence is insufficient to sustain her conviction for aggravated assault by seriously bodily injury because the victim did not suffer “seriously bodily injury.” After a thorough review of the record and applicable law, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Gibson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
In Re Zoey F.
The Juvenile Court for Hamilton County (“the Juvenile Court”) terminated the parental rights of Johonauan J. R. (“Father”) to the minor child Zoey F. (“the Child”) on the grounds of willful failure to visit, wanton disregard for the welfare of the child, and substantial noncompliance with the statement of responsibilities in the permanency plan. Father appeals the termination of his parental rights. As there is uncertainty regarding the time frame relied upon by the Juvenile Court for the ground of willful failure to visit, we modify the Juvenile Court’s judgment to exclude the ground of willful failure to visit. Otherwise, we find and hold that the evidence does not preponderate against the Juvenile Court’s finding by clear and convincing evidence that grounds existed to terminate Father’s parental rights and that the termination of Father’s parental rights was in the Child’s best interest. We affirm the termination of Father’s parental rights to the Child. |
Hamilton | Court of Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Mitchell S. Pozezinski
A Montgomery County jury convicted the Defendant, Mitchell S. Pozezinski, for one count of violating the terms of his community supervision for life, and the trial court sentenced him to ten days in jail plus six months of state probation. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the evidence presented is insufficient to support a finding that he knowingly violated the terms of his community supervision for life. After a thorough review of the record and the applicable authorities, we affirm the trial court’s judgment. |
Montgomery | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Mark Anthony Anderson
A Davidson County jury convicted the Defendant, Mark Anthony Anderson, of one count of arson. The trial court sentenced the Defendant to seven years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred when it denied his motion to suppress his statements to police. After a thorough review of the record and applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Davidson | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Mountain Wood Products, LLC v. Autumn Creek Firewood, LLC
This appeal involves a contract dispute. The appellant distributor challenges the damages awarded to the appellee supplier under a supply contract for bagged firewood. Additionally, the supplier challenges the trial court’s failure to award damages for lost profits and tortious interference with prospective business. Discerning no error, we affirm. |
Bledsoe | Court of Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Rickey Bradford
The Defendant, Rickey Bradford, was convicted by a Lincoln County Circuit Court jury of two counts of making a false report, Class C felonies, and extortion, a Class D felony. See T.C.A. §§ 39-16-502, 39-14-112 (2010). The trial court merged the false report convictions and sentenced the Defendant as a Range II, multiple offender to concurrent sentences of eight years for making a false report and five years for extortion. The court ordered that the effective eight-year sentence be served consecutively to any unexpired sentences. On appeal, the Defendant contends that (1) the trial court erred by admitting evidence regarding Navigator Telecommunications records, (2) the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury on lost or destroyed evidence, (3) the trial court erred by admitting photographs taken from a lost or destroyed video recording, (4) the trial court erred by admitting bank records without requiring the State to comply with the Financial Records Privacy Act, (5) the trial court erred by permitting the State to impeach him with his previous conviction, and (6) that the cumulative effect of the trial court’s errors requires a new trial. We affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Lincoln | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Linus Thornton v. James A. Massey
This is the second appeal in this breach of contract case. The defendant property owner leased his recreational farm on a yearly basis to the plaintiff lessee. Their agreement included a provision that, when the farm sold, the plaintiff would received a percentage of the proceeds of the sale. The defendant eventually divided the farm into several parcels and sold the parcels at auction to different purchasers. The plaintiff asserted his right to a percentage of the proceeds. Thereafter, for reasons that are disputed, none of the sales of the various parcels of the farm closed. The plaintiff filed this lawsuit against the defendant owner, asserting that he was entitled to a percentage of the total sale price that would have been realized had all of the sales closed. After a trial, the trial court held in favor of the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed. In the first appeal, the appellate court affirmed in part but vacated the judgment and remanded for the trial court to make a factual finding as to whether the sales failed to close because of the purposeful actions of the defendant. On remand, the trial court found that the closings on the sales failed to take place because of the defendant owner’s purposeful actions. The trial court found that the defendant prevented the sales from closing in order to avoid paying the plaintiff the percentage owed him under the parties’ lease agreement. The trial court reinstated the damage award in favor of the plaintiff and awarded prejudgment and post-judgment interest. The defendant now appeals. Discerning no error, we affirm. |
Hardin | Court of Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Harley Upchurch
The defendant, Harley Upchurch, appeals the trial court’s revocation of his probation and reinstatement of his sentence of three years and six months in the Department of Correction. On appeal, he argues that the trial court erred in revoking his probation. Following our review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Overton | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Shontel S. Ross, et al. v. Deidra L. Grandberry, M.D., et al.
Plaintiff filed a healthcare liability action in the general sessions court. At a docket call, defendant Methodist appeared and tendered a confession for the full $25,000 jurisdictional limit of the general sessions court. Plaintiff immediately sought to non-suit her claims against Methodist. The general sessions court denied Methodist’s tendered confession and it entered an order non-suiting Methodist. Plaintiff then refiled her suit against Methodist in the circuit court and Methodist moved for summary judgment based upon its tendered confession of judgment in the general sessions court. The circuit court granted summary judgment in favor of Methodist. We reverse the circuit court’s grant of summary judgment and we remand for further proceedings. |
Shelby | Court of Appeals | |
In Re: Adoption of Marissa O. R.
This is a petition for termination of parental rights and adoption. The parents of the child at issue divorced in 2007. The father moved to Colorado, and the mother was designated the child’s primary residential parent. The father was given parenting time in Colorado during the child’s spring, winter, and summer vacations, as well as parenting time in Tennessee at any time, with reasonable notice. The father exercised his parenting time only for a single 30-day period each summer in 2008, 2009, and 2010. After the child’s summer 2010 visit, the father scheduled no parenting time. In July 2011, the mother and her husband filed the instant petition to terminate the father’s parental rights and for the mother’s husband to adopt the daughter. The petition alleged abandonment by willful failure to visit during the four-month period preceding the filing of the petition. After a trial, the trial court denied the petition. It held that the petitioners did not establish grounds for termination and that the child’s best interest would not be served by terminating the father’s parental rights. The petitioners now appeal. After careful review of the record, we hold that clear and convincing evidence supports the termination of the father’s parental rights, and so reverse the trial court’s denial of the petition. |
Shelby | Court of Appeals | |
Donald J. Roberts IRA, et al. v. Phillip H. McNeill, Sr., et al.
This is the second interlocutory appeal from a class certification. In Roberts v. McNeill, No. W2010-01000-COA-R9-CV, 2011 WL 662648 (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 23, 2011) (“Roberts I”), we vacated the trial court’s class certification and remanded for reconsideration. Plaintiffs/Appellees are former owners of preferred stock in Equity Inns, Inc., who filed suit against Defendants/Appellants, the board of directors, for breaches of the fiduciary duties allegedly owed to the preferred shareholders during the negotiation and approval of a merger. Upon remand from this Court, the trial court granted the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification with respect to “the proposed preferred class stockholders.” Having previously enumerated three preferred classes of stockholders, the purported certification creates an ambiguity as to the global class. The trial court’s certification of three subclasses does not cure the ambiguity in the global class, and we cannot proceed to review under Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 23 in the absence of a clearly defined class. Accordingly, we vacate and remand for further consideration. |
Shelby | Court of Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Rickey Alvis Bell Jr.
A Lauderdale County jury convicted the defendant, Rickey Alvis Bell, Jr., of felony murder in the perpetration of a kidnapping, felony murder in the perpetration of a rape, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated sexual battery. Following the penalty phase, the jury sentenced the defendant to death on the two counts of felony murder. The trial court merged the two felony murder convictions and sentenced the defendant to twenty years each for the aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual battery convictions. The trial court ordered the defendant to serve the two twenty-year sentences concurrent to each other but consecutive to the death sentence, for an effective sentence of death plus twenty years. On appeal, the defendant asserts that: (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to strike the State’s notice of its intent to seek the death penalty because he is intellectually disabled; (2) the evidence is insufficient to support the convictions; (3) the trial court erred in denying his two motions for a mistrial; (4) the trial court erred in refusing to allow the defense to question the victim’s husband regarding an extramarital affair; (5) the aggravating circumstance codified in Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-204(i)(7) is unconstitutional; (6) the absence of an intent to kill renders the death penalty disproportionate; (7) proportionality review should be modified and the pool of cases considered in proportionality review should be broadened; and (8) the sentence of death is arbitrary and disproportionate. We affirm the judgments of the trial court. |
Tipton | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Willie Hampton v. State of Tennessee
The Petitioner, Willie Hampton, appeals the Shelby County Criminal Court’s denial of his petition for post-conviction relief from his 2010 conviction for theft of property valued at $10,000 or more but less than $60,000 and his Range III, fifteen-year sentence. The Petitioner contends that the trial court erred by denying him relief because he received the ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
In Re Victoria W. Et Al.
Mother appeals the termination of her parental rights as to her two children. Father’s rights were also terminated, but he does not appeal. The court found the Department of Children’s Services established three grounds fortermination of mother’s parental rights:1) severe child abuse pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-1-113(g)(4); 2) mental incompetence pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-1-113(g)(8)(B);and 3) persistence of conditions pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-1-113(g)(3). In a previous dependency and neglect proceeding, the Lincoln County Juvenile Court found that Mother committed severe child abuse by failing to protect her minor daughter from sexual abuse by a neighbor. That judgment was not appealed; as a consequence, the severe abuse findings are res judicata. Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-1-113(g)(4), a court may terminate parental rights when the parent was found to have committed severe child abuse under any prior order of a court. The court also found that the Department had proven two additional grounds, mental incompetence and persistent conditions. The juvenile court also found that termination of both parents’ rights was in the children’s best interest. We therefore affirm. |
Lincoln | Court of Appeals | |
Derron Guy v. State of Tennessee
Petitioner, Derron Guy, pled guilty to carjacking, employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony, and aggravated robbery in case number 10-00740; carjacking and employment of a firearm during a dangerous felony in case number 09-06692; and criminal attempt of carjacking and possession of a firearm with the intent to go armed during the commission of or attempt to commit a dangerous felony in case number 10-00741. Petitioner filed a petition for habeas corpus relief. The dismissal of the petition was affirmed on appeal. See Derron S. Guy v. Cherry Lindamood, Warden, No. W2012-00759-CCA-R3-HC, 2012 WL 5943396, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App., at Jackson, Nov. 28, 2012). Petitioner sought leave in a different court to amend the first petition and raised additional grounds for habeas corpus relief. The habeas corpus court summarily dismissed the petition. Petitioner appeals. After a review, we determine that Petitioner is not entitled to habeas corpus relief as he has not proven on the face of the judgment or the record that the convicting court was without jurisdiction to convict or sentence Petitioner or that Petitioner is still imprisoned despite the expiration of his sentence. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the habeas corpus court. |
Hickman | Court of Criminal Appeals | |
Archie Wolfe v. William C. Felts, Jr., et al.
In this premises liability action, Plaintiff/Appellant was allegedly injured when he slipped and fell on the subject property. The trial court granted a directed verdict to the Appellees, who are the property owners/occupiers. The basis for the directed verdict was that Appellant failed to submit evidence from which a reasonable juror could conclude either that the Appellees knew or should have known of a dangerous condition on the property, or that Appellees caused or created a dangerous condition on the property. Discerning no error, we affirm. |
Shelby | Court of Appeals | |
State of Tennessee v. Kevin Holst
The Defendant, Kevin Holst, was convicted by a Shelby County Criminal Court jury of aggravated assault, a Class C felony. See T.C.A. § 39-13-102 (2010). The trial court sentenced him as a Range III, persistent offender to twelve years’ confinement. On appeal, he contends that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction and (2) the court erred by refusing to send the exhibits to the jury room during deliberations. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. |
Shelby | Court of Criminal Appeals |