STATE OF TENNESSEE v. KAVARIS JAVON BOOKER AND CLIFTON DONNELL CRAIG - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. KAVARIS JAVON BOOKER AND CLIFTON DONNELL CRAIG

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Aug 14, 2024

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Michael D. Cox, Columbia, Tennessee, (at trial and on appeal) for the appellant, Kavaris Javon Booker.

Attorneys 2: Tammy D. Wendt, Lewisburg, Tennessee (at trial and on appeal), Paul J. Walwyn, Madison, Tennessee (at trial), Samuel Delk Kennedy, Jr. Columbia, Tennessee (pretrial), and L. Samuel Patterson, Columbia, Tennessee (pretrial), for the appellant, Clifton Donnell Craig.

Attorneys 3: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; William C. Lundy, Assistant Attorney General; Brent Cooper, District Attorney General; and Kyle E. Dodd, Pamela Anderson, and Caleb Bayless, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): AYERS

Defendant Kavaris Javon Booker and Defendant Clifton Donnell Craig were each charged in separate indictments of first degree premeditated murder (count one), felon in possession of a firearm (count two), and aggravated assault resulting in death (count three). The trial court granted the State’s motion to join the two cases and in a joint trial, a jury convicted Defendant Booker as indicted in count two but convicted him of the lesser-included offense of facilitation of first degree murder in count one and facilitation of aggravated assault in count three. The jury convicted Defendant Craig of all the indicted charges. Defendant Booker received an effective seventeen-year sentence; Defendant Craig received a sentence of life imprisonment. In this consolidated appeal, Defendant Booker claims that the trial court denied him a speedy trial, the trial court erred in denying his motion to sever his case from Defendant Craig, and that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction for facilitation of first degree murder. Defendant Craig likewise claims the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions and that the trial court failed to instruct the jury on the weight afforded to circumstantial evidence. Following our review of the entire record, the briefs of the parties, and applicable authority, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

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