STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JAMES ALLEN WORLEY - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JAMES ALLEN WORLEY

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Jan 15, 2025

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: B. Jeffrey Harmon, District Public Defender; and Kendall S. Jones (on appeal) and Robert G. Morgan (at trial), Assistant District Public Defenders, for the appellant, James Allen Worley.

Attorneys 2: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Richard D. Douglas (at oral argument) and Caroline Weldon (on brief), Assistant Attorneys General; J. Michael Taylor, District Attorney General; and David O. McGovern, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): HIXSON

Following a jury trial, the Defendant, James Allen Worley, challenges his convictions and sentences for four counts of rape of a child and one count of attempted rape of a child on multiple statutory and constitutional grounds. Specifically, the Defendant contends that the trial court erred by 1) admitting the forensic interview of the child victim on the grounds of the forensic interviewer’s lack of requisite experience and improper authentication by the victim, 2) denying the Defendant’s motion to suppress his statements to law enforcement on the ground that they occurred during an impermissibly lengthy warrantless detainment, and 3) excessively sentencing the Defendant to consecutive terms on all counts. After a thorough review of the record and consideration of the parties’ arguments, we remand the case to the trial court for entry of corrected judgment forms in counts 1 through 5. In all other respects, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

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