IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE

AT NASHVILLE

Assigned on Briefs November 8, 2016

WALTER LEE HICKS v. STATE OF TENNESSEE

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Marshall County

No. 2015-CR-134 Forest A. Durard, Jr., Judge

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No. M2016-01050-CCA-R3-PC

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Petitioner, Walter Lee Hicks, was indicted for aggravated assault, evading arrest, reckless 

endangerment with a deadly weapon, driving on a revoked driver’s license, speeding, and 

making a false report. Following a jury trial, Petitioner was convicted of the lesserincluded offense of assault, evading arrest, reckless endangerment, driving on a revoked 

driver’s license, speeding, and making a false report. The trial court imposed a 17-year 

sentence. A panel of this court affirmed Petitioner’s convictions and sentence on direct 

appeal, but the panel remanded the case for entry of corrected judgments to reflect that 

the conviction for misdemeanor assault merged into the conviction for felony reckless 

endangerment. State v. Walter Lee Hicks, Jr., No. M2013-01410-CCA-R3-CD, 2014 WL 

2902277, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App., June 26, 2014), perm. app. denied (Tenn., Oct. 22, 

2014). Petitioner timely filed a petition for post-conviction relief. Following a hearing 

on the petition, the post-conviction court denied relief. On appeal, Petitioner alleges that 

he received ineffective assistance of counsel because trial counsel omitted portions of a 

state trooper’s dash camera video when presenting that evidence at trial. After a 

thorough review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court. 

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed

THOMAS T. WOODALL, P.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which ALAN E. GLENN

and ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JJ., joined.

M. Wesley, Hall IV, Jr., Unionville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Walter Lee Hicks.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Courtney N. Orr, Assistant 

Attorney General; Robert James Carter, District Attorney General; and Weakley E. 

Barnard, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

05/15/2017
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OPINION

Facts

In its opinion on direct appeal, a panel of this court summarized the facts 

underlying Petitioner’s convictions as follows:

Trooper John Judge is a Tennessee Highway Patrolman who was 

stationed in Marshall County at the time of the incident that gave rise to 

this appeal. On the evening of August 20, 2012, he was on duty with a 

radar gun on the southbound side of Highway 431. The posted speed 

limit at that location is 55 miles per hour. Sometime around 9:15 or 9:20 

at night, the radar gun clocked an approaching car at 87 miles per hour. 

Trooper Judge activated the blue lights on his patrol car, and the 

speeding vehicle pulled over. When the blue lights came on, it 

automatically turned on the patrol car video camera. 

The stopped vehicle was an orange Dodge Caliber with Florida plates. 

Trooper Judge observed two people in the car, both in the front seat. He 

exited the patrol car and approached the driver’s side of the Dodge. He 

told the driver, [Petitioner], why he had stopped him. [Petitioner] said 

he was sorry. Trooper Judge then asked to see a driver’s license. 

Petitioner said he had an Illinois license, but he was unable to produce it. 

Trooper Judge then asked [Petitioner] for his name and date of birth. 

[Petitioner] said his name was Stevie Hicks and he gave an inaccurate 

birth date. He was also asked for his social security number, but he said 

he didn’t know it. Because [Petitioner] claimed the car was a rental, 

Trooper Judge asked him for the rental contract, but [Petitioner] was 

unable to produce it. 

Trooper Judge then returned to his patrol car and tried to run the 

information [Petitioner] had given him, using his computer and radio. 

He was unable to find a drivers license for the name and date of birth he 

had been given. He returned to [Petitioner]’s car and asked him to step 

out. The ignition key remained in the ignition of the rental car. Trooper 

Judge instructed [Petitioner] to sit in the back seat of the patrol car while 

he tried once again to verify his identity. He tried several different 

spellings, and the dispatcher checked all fifty states, but they could not 

find a driver’s license for Stevie Hicks. 
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Trooper Judge then opened the rear door of the patrol car and told 

[Petitioner] to step out because he was going to be arrested for driving 

without a license. After briefly searching [Petitioner] and finding and 

confiscating a box cutter, the trooper attempted to handcuff him. But 

[Petitioner] pulled away from his grasp and ran from the passenger side 

of the patrol car to the front of the rental car, where Trooper Judge 

briefly lost sight of him in the dark shadows. 

Trooper Judge drew his gun and advanced towards the driver’s side of 

the rental car, ordering [Petitioner] to show his hands and get down. But 

[Petitioner] instead popped up, turned the corner to the driver’s side of 

the rental car and opened the door to get in. The trooper testified that as 

he held the weapon in his left hand, he used his right arm to try to pull 

[Petitioner] out of the car. But [Petitioner] somehow managed to get 

behind the wheel and start the car with the door still open and the trooper 

half in and half out of the car. At some point, the trooper switched his 

weapon from his left hand to his right hand. He said “[d]on’t put that 

vehicle in drive and try to drive off and drag me, because I will shoot 

you.” [Petitioner] turned around and said “shoot me,” threw the car into 

drive and took off. Trooper Judge testified that the next thing he 

remembered was lying in the middle of the highway firing shots towards 

the fleeing car. He got up, ran back to his patrol car and gave chase 

while radioing dispatch. The chase went on for over fourteen miles at 

speeds that averaged 92 miles per hour and sometimes exceeded 100 

miles per hour. [Petitioner]’s driving was erratic. He drove on the 

wrong side of the road for a significant amount of time. There were 

other vehicles on the highway, and at one point [Petitioner] came upon 

an oncoming vehicle while he was driving in the wrong lane, nearly 

causing a high-speed head-on collision. About a mile from the 

Fayetteville city limits, the road was blocked by line of patrol cars with 

their blue lights flashing. [Petitioner] stopped his car and was ordered to 

step out. He crawled out of his car, covered in blood, and was taken into 

custody. The proof showed that he had been shot in the left arm. 

State v. Walter Lee Hicks, Jr., No. M2013-01410-CCA-R3-CD, 2014 WL 2902277, at 

*1-2 (Tenn. Crim. App., June 26, 2014), perm. app. denied (Tenn., Oct. 22, 2014). 

Post-conviction hearing

Trial counsel acknowledged that the dash cam video was not played in its entirety 

at trial. Counsel testified, 
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We played everything that was relevant, which was from the time that he 

was pulled over for the traffic offense, up until the point where 

[Petitioner] was driving in to almost the Fayetteville city limits. 

And a few hundred yards from where the Fayetteville city police set up 

the road block, [Petitioner] stopped, gets out of the car and is arrested.

That’s where we had an agreement with the State to cut it off, because 

everything after that was essentially the police officers talking to the 

trooper. It was all hearsay. And the trooper was basically recounting his 

side of things. 

Counsel testified that he viewed the video “numerous times.” He and co-counsel 

made a tactical decision because the portion of the video that was omitted contained “the 

trooper’s side of things[.]” Counsel testified that he believed a better strategy was to 

thoroughly cross-examine Trooper Judge. The omitted portion of the video showed 

Trooper Judge telling other officers that he had been dragged and showing the officers his 

injuries and torn uniform. Counsel believed that if the jury heard Trooper Judge’s 

excited description of the incident in the video, it would be more likely to convict 

Petitioner of aggravated assault. Counsel replayed a portion of the video that was 

admitted into evidence at the trial during his cross-examination of Trooper Judge “to 

show that it wasn’t a situation of the trooper actually being dragged. It looked more like 

he had stumbled and fallen down[.]” Counsel believed his strategy was successful 

because Petitioner was convicted of a lesser-included offense of the charged offense of 

aggravated assault. Counsel testified that he discussed the video with Petitioner but that 

he could not recall whether Petitioner agreed with the decision not to play the entire 

video. 

Petitioner’s co-counsel testified that he agreed with trial counsel’s assessment of 

why the video was not played in its entirety. He testified that he and trial counsel “had 

several discussions with [Petitioner] about the playing of the entire video.” He testified 

that Petitioner agreed that the decision to stop the video before Trooper Judge began to 

recount his version of events. 

Petitioner testified that his attorneys never discussed the decision not to play the 

entire video with him. He testified that he asked “constantly” to view the video, but 

counsel did not discuss trial strategy regarding the video. Petitioner testified that he 

expressed his desire to play the entire video “[f]rom the get.” 
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Analysis

Petitioner contends that his trial counsel were ineffective because they failed to 

play the video from Trooper Judge’s dash camera in its entirety. The State responds that 

trial counsel made an informed strategic decision not to play the entire video and that 

Petitioner has failed to demonstrate that the outcome of his trial would have changed had 

the video been played in its entirety. We agree with the State. 

Post-conviction relief is available when a “conviction or sentence is void or 

voidable because of the abridgment of any right guaranteed by the [c]onstitution of 

Tennessee or the Constitution of the United States.” T.C.A. § 40-30-103. The burden in 

a post-conviction proceeding is on the petitioner to prove his allegations of fact 

supporting his grounds for relief by clear and convincing evidence. T.C.A. § 40-30-

110(f); see Dellinger v. State, 279 S.W.3d 282, 293-94 (Tenn. 2009). On appeal, we are 

bound by the trial court’s findings of fact unless we conclude that the evidence in the 

record preponderates against those findings. Fields v. State, 40 S.W.3d 450, 456 (Tenn. 

2001). Additionally, “questions concerning the credibility of the witnesses, the weight 

and value to be given their testimony, and the factual issues raised by the evidence are to 

be resolved” by the post-conviction court. Id. Because they relate to mixed questions of 

law and fact, we review the trial court’s conclusions as to whether counsel’s performance 

was deficient and whether that deficiency was prejudicial under a de novo standard with 

no presumption of correctness. Id. at 457. 

Criminal defendants are constitutionally guaranteed the right to effective 

assistance of counsel. Dellinger, 279 S.W.3d at 293 (citing U.S. Const. amend. VI; 

Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 344 (1980)). When a claim of ineffective assistance of 

counsel is made under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the burden 

is on the petitioner to show (1) that counsel’s performance was deficient and (2) that the 

deficiency was prejudicial. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984); see 

Lockhart v. Fretwell, 506 U.S. 364, 368-72 (1993). “Because a petitioner must establish 

both prongs of the test, a failure to prove either deficiency or prejudice provides a 

sufficient basis to deny relief on the ineffective assistance claim.” Goad v. State, 938 

S.W.2d 363, 370 (Tenn. 1996). The Strickland standard has been applied to the right to 

counsel under article I, section 9 of the Tennessee Constitution. State v. Melson, 772 

S.W.2d 417, 419 n.2 (Tenn. 1989). 

Deficient performance requires a showing that “counsel’s representation fell 

below an objective standard of reasonableness,” despite the fact that reviewing courts 

“must indulge a strong presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of 

reasonable professional assistance.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688-89. In reviewing 

counsel’s conduct, a “fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort 
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be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances 

of counsel’s challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel’s perspective 

at the time.” Id. at 689. “Thus, the fact that a particular strategy or tactic failed or even 

hurt the defense does not, alone, support a claim of ineffective assistance.” Cooper v. 

State, 847 S.W.2d 521, 528 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1992). Deference is made to trial strategy 

or tactical choices if they are informed ones based upon adequate preparation. Hellard v. 

State, 629 S.W. 2d 4, 9 (Tenn. 1982). 

Prejudice requires proof of “a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s 

unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” 

Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694. “A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to 

undermine confidence in the outcome.” Id.

In its order denying relief, the post-conviction court found that the excluded 

portion of the video showed officers “milling about attending to their duties, interviewing

of Judge and attending to his injuries, a call to Judge from his spouse to tell her he was 

fine, a call from Judge’s sergeant about the events, a search of the Petitioner’s vehicle 

and other general chatter about the events among the various persons on scene, none of 

which included the Petitioner.” The post-conviction court stated that it “agree[d] with 

counsel that the playing of the post[-]arrest video would only serve to reiterate the events 

in front of the jury and would serve to hurt the Petitioner.” The court found that “[t]he 

proof [at trial] was absolutely overwhelming against the Petitioner.” The court concluded 

that “[t]here is nothing to suggest whatsoever” that counsel’s performance was deficient 

or that Petitioner suffered prejudice as a result of trial counsel’s strategic decision not to 

play the post-arrest video. 

Petitioner has failed to show that the record preponderates against the postconviction court’s findings. In fact, in his brief on appeal, Petitioner fails to even 

accurately state his claim. In the one paragraph in which Petitioner argues trial counsel’s 

alleged deficiencies, he erroneously asserts as follows:

Petitioner contends that trial counsel was ineffective in not properly 

advising him about the law, with regard to his entering a plea of guilty. 

Petitioner contends his right to assistance of counsel applies not only 

during trial, but also when the defendant is advised to plead guilty and 

that the competency of counsel should be subject to review in both 

instances. Petitioner contends counsel did not advise him as to what the 

law was regarding his sentence pleading and the possible ranges of 

punishment which he faced.
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Additionally, Petitioner fails to set forth in his brief on appeal any facts from the 

post-conviction hearing. Despite the fact that Petitioner’s inadequate brief on appeal

results in waiver of his issues, we conclude on the merits that the record supports the 

post-conviction court’s findings and conclusions. See Tenn. Ct. Crim. App. R. 10(b). 

Accordingly, the Petitioner is not entitled to relief.

CONCLUSION

Based upon consideration of the foregoing and the record as a whole, the postconviction court’s denial of the petition for post-conviction relief is affirmed.

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THOMAS T. WOODALL, PRESIDING JUDGE