STATE OF TENNESSEE v. SERENA N. HAMMOND - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. SERENA N. HAMMOND

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Sep 11, 2025

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Eric M. Lutton, District Public Defender; Johnathan Harwell (on appeal); and David D. Skidmore (at trial), Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Serena N. Hammond.

Attorneys 2: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; John Cerisano, Assistant Attorney General; Charme P. Allen, District Attorney General; and TaKisha Fitzgerald, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): EASTER

Serena N. Hammond, Defendant, was indicted by a Knox County Grand Jury for one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Count 1, one count of aggravated burglary acting in concert with two or more other persons in Count 2, and one count of attempted second degree murder in Count 3. Defendant was convicted as charged in Counts 1 and 2 and convicted of attempted voluntary manslaughter in Count 3. Defendant was sentenced to an effective sentence of ten years in incarceration as a standard offender. Defendant appealed, arguing that (1) the evidence was insufficient to support her conviction for aggravated burglary acting in concert; (2) the trial court committed reversible error by admitting photographs of a gun and magazine recovered from a car in which she was pulled over fifteen days after the incident; (3) the trial court committed reversible error by admitting recordings of Defendant’s phone call made from jail to a co-defendant; (4) the trial court improperly considered Defendant’s false testimony at trial and the location of the offense in enhancing her sentence for aggravated burglary acting in concert; and (5) the cumulative effect of these errors deprived her of the right to a fair trial. After review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

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