APPELLATE COURT OPINIONS

The Appellant, Alphonzo Chalmers,¹ appeals the Shelby County Criminal Court’s denial of his petition for post-conviction relief. On appeal, Chalmers argues that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. After review of the record, we find that Chalmers’ brief fails to provide any argument in support of the issue presented. Due to his procedural default, the appeal is dismissed.

Defendant, George C. Peery, III, appeals his sentence of split confinement imposed upon his plea of guilt to aggravated burglary, a Class C felony, and theft under $500, a Class A misdemeanor. In his appeal, Defendant requests full probation and challenges the imposition of a one-year period of confinement followed by two years probation in the community corrections program for his felony conviction. Defendant does not challenge his misdemeanor sentence. We affirm the trial court's denial of full probation but reverse the one-year period of confinement and remand for modification of the judgment to reflect a period of confinement of 10.8 months to be served in the local jail or workhouse. In addition, because there is a conflict between the transcript and the judgment, we remand this case for correction of the judgment.

The trial court sentenced the defendant to an effective term of six years with 120 days incarceration followed by probation as a result of the defendant's guilty pleas to three counts of vandalism over $10,000, one count of vandalism over $1,000, one count of vandalism over $500, and one count of vandalism under $500. In this appeal, the defendant argues: (1) his sentence is excessive; (2) the trial court erred in denying him full probation; and (3) the trial court erred in denying judicial diversion. We remand for correction of clerical errors in some of the judgments but otherwise affirm the judgments of the trial court.

The defendant pled guilty to aggravated burglary, a Class C felony, in exchange for a six-year, one-month sentence as a Range I, standard offender, with the manner of service to be left to the trial court's later determination. Following the sentencing hearing, the trial court ordered that the defendant serve her sentence in continuous confinement. The defendant appeals, arguing that the record does not support a sentence of full confinement and that the trial court erred in denying her request for probation or other alternative sentencing. Finding no error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The appellant, Howard Keith Lightsey, was indicted by the Williamson County Grand Jury, on one count of possession of cocaine with intent to sell or deliver, one count of possession of marijuana, and one count of drug paraphernalia. The appellant entered a plea agreement and pled guilty to one count of simple possession of cocaine, one count of possession of marijuana and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia. Following a sentencing hearing on February 19, 2002, the trial court ordered another sentencing hearing for April 19, 2002. At that sentencing hearing the court sentenced the appellant to eleven months twenty-nine days on each count. This sentence was suspended except for twenty days and an aggregate fine of $1,150. The appellant now brings this appeal claiming that the trial erred in denying him full probation. We find the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed.

A Lauderdale County Jury convicted the Appellant, Thomas L. Jackson, of possession of contraband in a penal institution, a class C felony. On appeal, Jackson argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. After review, we conclude that the proof is sufficient to establish that Jackson knowingly possessed the marijuana found in his cell. Accordingly, the judgment of conviction is affirmed.

In a bench trial, the Obion County trial court convicted the defendant, Jonathan Dean, of sexual battery and sentenced him to two years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, the defendant contends (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction, and (2) his sentence is excessive. Upon review of the record and the applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The defendant, Abel Caberra Torres, was convicted of attempted especially aggravated robbery, two counts of attempted second degree murder, aggravated assault, and attempted aggravated assault. The trial court merged the last two offenses into the attempted second degree murder convictions and ordered consecutive sentences of twelve years for each offense, for an effective sentence of thirty-six years. In this appeal of right, the defendant asserts (1) that the evidence was not sufficient; (2) that the trial court erred by failing to suppress his statements to police; (3) that the trial court erred in its instructions to the jury; and (4) that the sentence was excessive. The judgments of conviction are affirmed. Because of the misapplication of enhancement factors, each of the sentences are modified to ten years. The cause is remanded to the trial court for further findings on the consecutive sentencing issue.

The Appellant, Robert Lee Fox, appeals the sentencing decision of the Hamilton County Criminal Court. Fox entered a Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(e)(1)(B) "open" plea to conspiracy to commit first degree murder and was sentenced to twenty-two years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, Fox argues that the sentence is improper because (1) it is disparate to the sentence received by his co-defendant and (2) four enhancement factors were erroneously applied. After review, we find no error and affirm the decision of the trial court.

The petitioner was originally convicted of second degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, forgery, and theft and received an effective thirty-three-year sentence. In this appeal from the denial of post-conviction relief, the petitioner argues the post-conviction court erred in finding she failed to establish ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

The petitioner, Clinton Wayne Lynch, appeals from the order of the trial court denying his petition requesting forensic DNA analysis of evidence related to the investigation and prosecution which resulted in the petitioner's conviction for second degree murder entered upon his plea of guilty in 1986. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The Defendant pled guilty to one count of facilitation of the possession of over .5 grams of cocaine with the intent to sell or deliver, a Class C felony. In accordance with her plea agreement, she was sentenced to a term of six years, with the manner of service of the sentence to be determined by the trial court. After a sentencing hearing, the trial court ordered her sentence to be served in the Department of Correction. In this appeal, the Defendant argues that the trial court erred by not granting her probation or some other form of alternative sentence. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

A Hamilton County Criminal Court jury convicted the defendant, Tracy Larenzo Goodwin, of two counts of reckless aggravated assault, a Class D felony; one count of reckless endangerment, a Class E felony; and one count of criminally negligent homicide, a Class E felony. The trial court sentenced him as a Range III, persistent offender to concurrent sentences of twelve years in the Department of Correction (DOC) for the reckless aggravated assault convictions. For the reckless endangerment and criminally negligent homicide convictions, the defendant received six-year sentences to be served concurrently to each other but consecutively to the reckless aggravated assault sentences for an effective sentence of eighteen years. The defendant appeals, claiming (1) that the evidence is insufficient to support the convictions; (2) that the trial court erred by denying his motion to sever the aggravated assault offenses from the reckless endangerment and criminally negligent homicide offenses; (3) that his convictions for reckless endangerment and criminally negligent homicide violate protections against double jeopardy; and (4) that his sentences are excessive. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

This appeal involves a dispute between a road contractor and the Tennessee Department of Transportation involving two construction projects in the Nashville area. Following extensive construction delays attributed to the relocation of utilities, the contractor filed claims based on negligence and breach of contract with the Tennessee Division of Claims Administration which were transferred to the Circuit Court for Davidson County. The trial court granted the Department's motion for summary judgment and dismissed all the contractor's claims. We have determined that the trial court correctly dismissed the contractor's negligence claims but that the trial court erred by denying the contractor's breach of contract claims. Accordingly, we vacate the portion of the judgment dismissing the contractor's contract claims and remand the case for further proceedings.

The defendant, Cortland Keshira Cates, pled guilty to two counts of rape. The trial court sentenced him to eight years' incarceration for each count, to be served concurrently. On appeal, the defendant contends the trial court erred in denying probation. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

A workers' compensation insurance carrier assessed a retrospective premium increase of over $60,000 against a contractor after auditing the company's books and finding evidence that its subcontractors employed more workers than the contractor had declared. The contractor filed an administrative appeal of the assessment, arguing that the additional workers were not actually employees of its subcontractors, but members of de facto partnerships, and thus not covered under the contractor's policy. The administrative law judge agreed, and found that the contractor was not liable for the additional premium. The Chancery Court of Davidson County reversed the administrative law judge, finding that the insurance company was entitled to the additional premium, because it had borne the risk of liability to those workers for on-the-job injuries. We affirm the Chancery Court.

The Appellant, Randall A. Myers, appeals the revocation of his community correction sentences by the Blount County Circuit Court. Myers pled guilty to seven counts of deceptive business practices and eight counts of theft, and he received an effective four-year sentence. As a result of these convictions, he was placed on intensive probation but, following violations of his release, he was re-sentenced to community corrections. Myers then proceeded to violate his community corrections agreement, and the trial court ordered him to serve the remainder of his sentences in the Department of Correction. On appeal, Myers asserts that the evidence was insufficient to establish that the violations occurred. After review of the record before us, we find no error. Accordingly, the judgment is affirmed.

The appellant, Walter Clyde Rainey, Jr., was convicted by a jury in the Wayne County Circuit Court of seven counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and seven counts of statutory rape. The trial court sentenced the appellant to a total effective sentence of four years incarceration in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the appellant raises the following issues for our review: (1) whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain his convictions; (2) whether the trial court erred by consolidating the offenses for trial; (3) whether the trial court erred in its ruling regarding the admissibility of the testimony of prosecution witness Tabitha Smith; (4) whether the prosecution's closing argument was improper; and (5) whether the trial court erred in sentencing the appellant. Upon review of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.