STATE OF TENNESSEE v. CORNELIUS WILLIAMS IV - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. CORNELIUS WILLIAMS IV

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Oct 16, 2024

Head Comment: HIXSON filed a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Lance R. Chism (on appeal) and John Dolan (at trial), Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Cornelius Williams IV.

Attorneys 2: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Richard D. Douglas, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Steven J. Mulroy, District Attorney General; and Regina Lucreziano, Lessie Rainey, and Monica Timmerman, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): DYER

The defendant, Cornelius Williams IV, was convicted by a Shelby County jury of seconddegree murder and convicted felon in possession of a handgun, and the trial court imposed an effective sentence of twenty-five years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, the defendant argues: (1) the evidence is insufficient to sustain his convictions; (2) the trial court committed plain error in providing the jury with an erroneous instruction; (3) the trial court committed plain error by allowing the State to introduce a pro se pleading purportedly filed by the defendant; (4) the defendant is entitled to relief based on cumulative error; and (5) the defendant’s sentence for convicted felon in possession of a handgun is illegal. Following a thorough review of the record, the briefs, and oral arguments of the parties, we affirm the judgments of the trial court, but we remand for entry of a corrected judgment in count two indicating the statutorily authorized release eligibility of eighty-five percent on the handgun conviction.

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