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Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 30, 2020

The Defendant, Jonathan Richens, appeals from the Sevier County Circuit Court’s revocation of probation for his effective six-year sentence for resisting arrest and aggravated assault. The Defendant contends that the trial court erred by revoking his probation and ordering him to serve the remainder of his sentence in confinement. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 30, 2020

The Appellant, Dane Lee Duckett, appeals the Cumberland County Criminal Court’s denial of his motion to withdraw his guilty pleas to three counts of possession of one-half gram or more of methamphetamine with intent to sell, which resulted in an effective ten-year sentence. Based upon the record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 30, 2020

This appeal concerns the trial court’s dismissal of termination petitions upon remand. We reverse the dismissal of the petition as applied to the father but affirm the dismissal of the petition as applied to the mother.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 30, 2020

SUTTON, Circuit Judge. A prosecutor plays many roles on the stage of a criminal case. Sometimes an advocate, sometimes an investigator, and sometimes an administrator. As an advocate, she can present her case with complete immunity from after-the-fact lawsuits about the prosecution. But as an investigator or administrator, the immunity comes with qualifications.

Officers Pat Stockdale and Shane Dunning sued prosecutor Kim Helper after she sent an email to the Fairview City Manager that prompted their firing. The district court denied Helper’s claims of absolute and qualified immunity. Because Helper’s actions were not closely tied to the judicial process, absolute immunity does not apply. But because her conduct did not violate any clearly established law, qualified immunity protects her. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 30, 2020

KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge. In March 2007, at a border crossing near Tijuana, Mexico, Susana Mireya Morales Bribiesca (“Morales”) presented a fraudulent birth certificate to a United States Customs and Border Protection Officer on behalf of her cousin Jorge, who lacked documentation to enter the country legally. After a removal hearing at which numerous witnesses testified, an immigration judge found that Morales—who was then a lawful permanent resident of the United States—had tried to smuggle Jorge into the United States and that she was therefore inadmissible under the Immigration Act. The Board of Immigration Appeals agreed and entered a final order of removal. Morales now argues on various grounds that insufficient evidence supported the immigration judge’s finding that she engaged in alien smuggling. We reject her arguments and deny the petition.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 30, 2020

The Defendant, Antonio Toomes, appeals his convictions for felony murder and especially aggravated burglary, for which he received an effective sentence of life imprisonment plus thirty years. On appeal, the Defendant contends: (1) the trial court erred in ordering him to proceed pro se at trial on the day before trial; (2) the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his statements to law enforcement; and (3) the prosecutors made improper comments during voir dire and closing arguments. We conclude that the trial court erred in finding that the Defendant implicitly waived or forfeited his right to counsel and in requiring the Defendant to proceed pro se at trial. Accordingly, we reverse the judgments of the trial court and remand for a new trial.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 30, 2020

A Shelby County jury convicted the defendant, Joseph Moran, of two counts of sexual battery and one count of domestic assault by provocative contact. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court imposed an effective sentence of two years, suspended to supervised probation after serving sixty days in confinement. On appeal, the defendant argues the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. Upon our review of the record, arguments of the parties, and pertinent authorities, we agree the trial court erred in denying the defendant’s motion to suppress, but given the otherwise overwhelming evidence presented at trial, this error was harmless. Therefore, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 30, 2020

On November 9, 2018, the Defendant, Jose Hernandez, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, a Class A misdemeanor. The trial court sentenced him to 11 months and 29 days in a workhouse, which the court suspended to 11 months and 29 days on supervised probation. The Defendant argues on appeal that: 1) the trial court imposed supplemental probation conditions that were preempted by federal law; 2) the Defendant’s supplemental probation conditions did not provide sufficient notice of what was expected of him on probation; and 3) the trial court violated the Defendant’s due process rights by failing to give notice of his probation violation and a revocation hearing. After thorough review, we reverse and remand for a probation revocation hearing.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 29, 2020

In 1995, the Defendant, Eric D. Wallace, was convicted in the Shelby County Criminal Court in case number 95-03054 of first degree felony murder and in case number 95-03055 of attempted first degree murder and was sentenced to consecutive terms of life and fifteen years. The judgment forms reflected over 1,000 days of jail credit awarded in each case. In April 2019, apparently in response to a declaratory judgment action filed by the Defendant against the Department of Correction in the Davidson County Chancery Court, pretrial jail credits that were erroneously included in case number 95-03055 were presumably deleted from the judgment form by notation on the original judgment. The pro se Defendant is now attempting to appeal to this court the trial court’s alleged correction of the judgment in case number 95-03055 to remove the erroneously applied jail credits. In the meantime, the Defendant has an appeal of the decision of the Davidson County Chancery Court in his declaratory judgment action pending before the Court of Appeals. Because the record in this case is wholly inadequate for this court to determine what, if anything occurred in the criminal court, and the Defendant appears to have an appeal pending concerning the same matter in the Court of Appeals, we dismiss this appeal.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Oct 29, 2020

The Defendant, Terry Wayne Henson, was convicted by a McNairy County jury of two counts of rape of a child, a Class A felony; one count of incest, a Class C felony; and one count of violation of the sex offender registry, a Class E felony. He was sentenced by the trial court to an effective term of thirty-five years at 100% in the Department of Correction. On appeal, he challenges the sufficiency of the evidence in support of his child rape and incest convictions, arguing that the State failed to prove that the alleged offenses occurred during the time frame set out in the indictment and that there was insufficient proof of penetration of either victim. Following our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.


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