Opinion ID: 2429291
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: State v. Anthony

Text: The episode giving rise to the convictions in State v. Anthony occurred shortly after 11:00 p.m. one night, when the defendant, Dennis Anthony, and another man robbed the Shoney's Restaurant on Lovell Road in Knox County. The restaurant had just closed, and three employees  Christopher Smith, Brian Seals, and Jimmy Joyce Livingood  were emptying trash into dumpsters behind the building when the defendant and his companion drove up in a red Camaro. After requesting a cigarette from Seals, the defendant asked Seals and Livingood if they knew where Magnolia Avenue was. Before they could answer, the defendant, who was carrying a revolver, got out of the car and ordered the three employees to lie on the ground near the dumpsters. Leaving his confederate to watch Smith, Seals, and Livingood, the defendant entered the restaurant through the back door. The accomplice detained the three employees until the defendant returned and they fled the scene together. Manager Al Kesterson was in the front section of the restaurant when he heard a shout. He turned around to find the defendant pointing a gun at him. The defendant ordered Kesterson to accompany him to the office. As they went, the defendant spotted another employee, waitress Laurie Lexvold. The defendant grabbed Lexvold, held the gun to her head, and took both Kesterson and Lexvold back through the kitchen into the office. When the defendant demanded that the safe be opened, Kesterson informed him that the safe was in the front of the restaurant by the cash register. At the defendant's orders, Lexvold remained in the office while the two men returned to the front of the restaurant, where the defendant directed Kesterson to open the safe and a separate cash box. After taking some of the contents of the safe and the money from the box, the defendant headed through the kitchen on his way out of the restaurant. While the defendant was making his way through the building, he happened upon another employee, Floyd Lundy, Jr., as Lundy was coming out of the restroom. The defendant stuck his gun in [Lundy's] face and told him to get back in the men's room and stay there. Lundy remained in the restroom until the defendant left the restaurant. The defendant and his accomplice left as soon as the defendant came out of the building. Once they were certain that the two robbers had gone, the victims called the police. The entire episode took slightly more than five minutes. The defendant was convicted of the armed robbery of Al Kesterson, the armed burglary of the restaurant, and the aggravated kidnappings of Kesterson, Lexvold, Lundy, Smith, Livingood, and Seals. The Court of Criminal Appeals, in a split opinion, held that none of the kidnapping convictions could stand. Two members of the panel concurred in the following reasoning: Without an obvious and clear break in the chain of events that took place at the Shoney's, we hold that only one offense occurred, i.e., armed robbery. Unless independent and separate fact patterns for both the armed robbery and the aggravated kidnapping can be proven, appellant can be convicted of only the armed robbery.       With the robbery beginning with the detention of the three employees outside and culminating in a matter of a few minutes with the robbery and detention of the other three inside, there was but one intent and one crime. (Citation omitted.) Summed up, there was no clear break in the events to support the separate crime of kidnapping. State of Tennessee v. Dennis D. Anthony, Court of Criminal Appeals at Knoxville, slip op. at 2, 1990 WL 83416 (June 21, 1990) (citation omitted). While agreeing with the majority's decision to set aside the kidnapping convictions involving the various employees inside the restaurant, the third member of the panel dissented as to the kidnapping convictions involving the three employees detained outside the restaurant. He wrote, Even though the outside kidnappings ... were committed for the purpose of facilitating the robbery, obviously, the facts of the kidnapping were not essential parts or elements of the robbery, and both the robbery and the kidnapping convictions can stand. Id. Reid, J., dissenting (emphasis in original).