STATE OF TENNESSEE v. ZACHARY JAMES PENCE - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. ZACHARY JAMES PENCE

Posted by: Amelia Ferrell Knisely on Feb 22, 2016

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1:

J. Thomas Marshall, Jr. (on appeal), District Public Defender, and Leslie Hunt (at trial), Clinton, Tennessee, for the appellant, Zachary James Pence.

Attorneys 2:

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Ahmed A. Safeeullah, Assistant Attorney General; David S. Clark, District Attorney General; and Victoria Elizabeth Bannach, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): MONTGOMERY

The Defendant, Zachary James Pence, was found guilty by an Anderson County Circuit Court jury of aggravated rape of a child, a Class A felony, aggravated child abuse, a Class A felony, and child abuse, a Class D felony. See T.C.A. §§ 39-13-531 (2014), 39-15-402 (2010) (amended 2011, 2012), 39-15-401 (2010) (amended 2011). The trial court sentenced the Defendant to concurrent terms of sixty years for the aggravated rape of a child conviction, twenty-five years for the aggravated child abuse conviction, and two years for the child abuse conviction. On appeal, the Defendant contends that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions, (2) the trial court erroneously permitted inadmissible hearsay evidence, (3) the trial court improperly commented on the evidence, (4) the trial court permitted improper opinion testimony, (5) the trial court improperly instructed the jury, (6) his sentence for the aggravated rape of a child conviction is excessive, and (7) the cumulative effect of the errors entitle him to relief. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

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