Opinion ID: 2358953
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: STATE v. BOWERS

Text: On the afternoon of April 21, 1996, victim Peter Whatmough and his girlfriend Stacy Yessler stopped in Knoxville en route from Florida to Ohio. They drove to the Walter P. Taylor housing project, purchased three rocks of crack cocaine, and then drove to a motel room where they ingested the cocaine. Later that day, they drove back to the housing project to purchase more cocaine. While driving through the area, Yessler recognized Artis Bonner as the person from whom she had purchased the cocaine earlier that day. Yessler called Bonner over to the vehicle and inquired about purchasing more cocaine. While Yessler and Whatmough waited in the van, Bonner entered one of the apartments in the housing complex. A few minutes later, Bonner came running out of the apartment and jumped into the vehicle with Yessler and Whatmough, telling them to hurry up and get on out of [here]. As Whatmough started the engine and placed the vehicle in drive, he was fatally shot in the head by a man through the driver's window as they were attempting to leave. The bullet traveled through Whatmough's head, grazed Yessler's arm, and ultimately struck Bonner. During the police investigation that followed, Bonner identified the defendant as the person who shot Whatmough. Another witness at the scene, Regina Chatham, told police that she had seen the defendant running from the scene with a gun. At trial, Bonner identified the defendant as the person whom he saw in the driver's window at the time Whatmough was shot. However, he recanted that portion of his statement in which he had claimed that the defendant was the person who actually fired the shot that killed the victim. Bonner testified that because he was originally charged with the murder in this case, he had implicated the defendant only to get himself out of jail. Furthermore, witness Regina Chatham also recanted her previous statement, claiming that she had previously identified the defendant as the man she saw running from the scene with a gun because she was mad at him. Stacy Yessler was unable to identify the defendant as the person who shot Whatmough. The defendant was originally charged with two counts of felony murder: one in the perpetration of a robbery and one in the perpetration of a theft. At the conclusion of the State's proof, the defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal on both counts of felony murder on the grounds that no underlying felony had been proven. The State conceded the issue, and the trial court dismissed both felony murder counts. The defense presented no proof. Over the defendant's objection, the trial court then instructed the jury on second degree murder, reckless homicide, and criminally negligent homicide as lesser-included offenses of felony murder. The jury found the defendant guilty of second degree murder. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that second degree murder was a lesser-included offense under section (b) of the lesser-included offense test adopted by this Court in State v. Burns, 6 S.W.3d 453 (Tenn.1999). On appeal to this Court, both cases were consolidated, and we heard oral argument in Knoxville during our September 2000 session. The panel hearing the consolidated cases during that session consisted of four Justices, including Chief Justice Anderson, Justice Birch, Justice Holder, and Justice Barker. After oral argument, and upon further consideration of the record in this case, we requested reargument before the full panel of this Court at our May 2001 session in Knoxville. In addition to the issues previously designated as being of concern to this Court, we directed the parties to specifically address whether a failure to instruct a jury on a lesser-included offense is subject to harmless error analysis, and if so, whether the harmlessness of any such error is determined by a constitutional, statutory, or other standard of harmless error analysis. For the reasons given herein, we conclude that the offenses of second degree murder, reckless homicide, and criminally negligent homicide are lesser-included offenses of felony murder. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals in Bowers's case. In Ely's case, we find that the failure to instruct the jury as to second degree murder was error. Applying a constitutional harmless error standard, we cannot conclude that this error is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, and we reverse the judgment of the intermediate court in Ely's case. Ely's case is remanded to the Criminal Court of Anderson County for a new trial.