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Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 19, 2022

Norris Ray, Defendant, appeals after the summary dismissal of a motion filed pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1 in which Defendant argued that his life sentence was illegal for several different reasons. After a review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 19, 2022

The Defendant, Demetris Lovell Merriweather, appeals the Montgomery County Circuit Court’s summary denial of his pro se motion to correct an illegal sentence pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1. After review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 19, 2022

A Shelby County jury convicted the Petitioner, Quartez Gary, of attempted first degree murder and employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. The trial court imposed a sentence of twenty-three years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, this court affirmed the judgments. State v. Quartez Gary, No. W2017-01495-CCA-R3-CD, 2018 WL 3689143 (Tenn. Crim. App. July 31, 2018), no perm. app. filed. The Petitioner timely filed a pro se post-conviction petition and an amended petition through appointed counsel. The post-conviction court denied relief. On appeal, the Petitioner asserts that he received the ineffective assistance of counsel at trial. After review, we affirm the post-conviction court’s judgment.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 19, 2022

The Petitioner, Joshua Allen Felts, appeals from the Davidson County Criminal Court’s denial of post-conviction relief from his convictions for three counts of theft and two counts of attempted theft. On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the post-conviction court erred by denying relief on his ineffective assistance of trial counsel claims. We reverse the postconviction court’s judgment and remand the case for further proceedings.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 19, 2022

Petitioner, Calvin Douglas, appeals from the Shelby County Criminal Court’s summary dismissal of his petition for writ of error coram nobis, in which he alleged the existence of newly discovered evidence. Petitioner argues that due process requires tolling of the statute of limitations. Upon review, we determine that the petition was properly dismissed and affirm the judgment of the coram nobis court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 19, 2022

In this appeal, the sole issue presented for our review by the Petitioner, Romilus Caraway, is whether the post-conviction court abused its discretion in dismissing his petition for postconviction relief based on an abuse of judicial process for failure to prosecute. We affirm.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 19, 2022

Donna McCullough (“Wife”)1 and Anthony McCullough (“Husband”) executed a marital dissolution agreement (the “MDA”) on June 14, 2018. The agreement provided that Husband was to pay Wife $4,521.00 per month in alimony and that the obligation terminated upon the death of either party. The parties were divorced by the General Sessions Court for Hardin County on September 21, 2018. Several months later, Husband sought to set aside the final decree of divorce, arguing that the alimony provision in the MDA was void. Following a hearing, the trial court denied Husband’s motion and granted Wife her attorney’s fees incurred in defending the action. Husband appeals. Discerning no error, we affirm.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 19, 2022

In this case involving termination of the mother’s parental rights to her child, the McMinn County Juvenile Court (“trial court”) determined that several statutory grounds for termination had been proven by clear and convincing evidence. The trial court further determined that clear and convincing evidence demonstrated that termination of the mother’s parental rights was in the child’s best interest. The mother has appealed. Discerning no reversible error, we affirm.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 18, 2022

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge. Dante Devon Whitley was the subject of a traffic stop for failing to come to a standstill before exiting a private drive onto a public street.Prior to pulling Whitley over, law-enforcement officers had been surveilling Whitley for suspected drug trafficking. During the stop, the officers noticed a digital scale sitting on Whitley’s lap. They asked Whitley to exit the vehicle so that they could further investigate the scale. Whitley initially refused, but he eventually complied after his mother arrived. At that point, a drug-detection dog was brought on the scene and alerted to the presence of narcotics in Whitley’s vehicle. The officers then conducted a warrantless search. In the vehicle, they found a Glock 19mm handgun with an extended magazine, ammunition, over $7,600 in cash, a digital scale, and a pound and a half of marijuana.

Whitley moved to suppress this evidence, as well as several post-Miranda statements that he made, as fruits of an unlawful stop and search. The district court denied the motion. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 18, 2022

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge. This consolidated action involves a group of plaintiffs who worked, or had spouses or next of kin who worked, on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) coal-ash cleanup, removal, and recovery project at the Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant (the Plant) in Roane County, Tennessee. Plaintiffs sued Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. (Jacobs)—an entity that has served as the TVA’s prime contractor for the coal-ash cleanup since February 2009—for numerous common-law torts.

Both before and after Phase I of the trial, Jacobs filed motions seeking derivative immunity from suit based on its status as a government contractor. The district court denied Jacobs’s motions. Jacobs subsequently filed yet another motion seeking derivative immunity based on what it claimed were intervening changes in the applicable law. The district court construed the motion as one for reconsideration under Rule 54(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. It again denied Jacobs’s motion. This interlocutory appeal concerning Jacobs’s alleged immunity followed. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the district court’s denial of derivative contractor immunity.


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