STATE OF TENNESSEE v. BILLY NORMAN FORTE - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. BILLY NORMAN FORTE

Posted by: Azya Thornton on May 16, 2025

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: M. Todd Ridley and William W. Gill, Assistant Public Defenders – Appellate Division (on appeal); Steve Smith, District Public Defender, Boyd M. Patterson, Assistant District Public Defender (pretrial hearings); and Benjamin L. McGowan (at trial), Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the appellant, Billy Norman Forte.

Attorneys 2: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Ronald L. Coleman, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Neal Pinkston, District Attorney General; and Lee Ortwein and Miriam Johnson, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): HIXSON

The Defendant, Billy Norman Forte, appeals from his jury conviction for second degree murder and his resulting twenty-one-year sentence. On appeal, the Defendant challenges (1) the trial court’s Ferguson remedy due to the State’s destruction of the recording of the Defendant’s 911 call; (2) the trial court’s ruling allowing the State to introduce evidence of the Defendant’s 1996 conviction for domestic assault against his ex-wife because the Defendant had opened the door to such evidence during his direct examination testimony; and (3) the trial court’s ruling prohibiting the Defendant from introducing certain evidence of the victim’s criminal history. After review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

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