Opinion ID: 2738560
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: The defendant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions, saying that it is insufficient to establish premeditation and his identity as the perpetrator and that the physical facts rule requires the reversal of his convictions. Once a jury finds a defendant guilty, his presumption of innocence is removed and replaced with a presumption of guilt. State v. Evans, 838 S.W.2d 185, 191 (Tenn. 1992). On appeal, the convicted defendant has the burden of demonstrating to this court why the evidence does not support the jury’s verdict. State v. Carruthers, 35 S.W.3d 516, 557-58 (Tenn. 2000); State v. Tuggle, 639 S.W.2d 913, 914 (Tenn. 1982). To meet this burden, the defendant must establish that no “rational trier of fact” could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979); State v. Evans, 108 S.W.3d 231, 236 (Tenn. 2003); Tenn. R. App. P. 13(e). In contrast, the jury’s verdict approved by the trial judge accredits the State’s witnesses and resolves all conflicts in favor of the State. State v. Harris, 839 S.W.2d 54, 75 (Tenn. 1992). The State is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the evidence and all reasonable inferences which may be drawn from that evidence. Carruthers, 35 S.W.3d at 558; Tuggle, 639 S.W.2d at 914. Questions concerning the credibility of the witnesses, conflicts in trial testimony, the weight and value to be given the evidence, and all factual issues raised by the evidence are resolved by the trier of fact and not this court. State v. Bland, 958 S.W.2d 651, 659 (Tenn. 1997). We do not attempt to reweigh or reevaluate the evidence. State v. Reid, 91 S.W.3d 247, 277 (Tenn. 2002); Bland, 958 S.W.2d at 659. Likewise, we do not replace the jury inferences drawn from the circumstantial evidence with our own inferences. See State v. Elkins, 102 S.w.3d 578, 582 (Tenn. 2003); Reid, 91 S.W.3d at 277. First degree murder is defined as the “premeditated and intentional killing of another.” Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-202(a)(1). An intentional act requires that the person have the desire to engage in conduct or cause the result. Id. § 39-11-106(a)(18). A premeditated killing is one “done after the exercise of reflection and judgment.” Id. § 39-13-202(d). Premeditation means that the intent to kill must have been formed prior to the act itself. It is not necessary that the purpose to kill pre-exist in the mind of the accused for any definite period of time. The mental state of the accused at the time the accused allegedly decided to kill must be carefully considered in order to determine whether the accused was sufficiently free from excitement and passion as to be capable of premeditation. Id. Whether premeditation is present is a question of fact for the jury, and it may be determined from the circumstances surrounding the killing. Bland, 958 S.W.2d at 660; State v. Anderson, 835 S.W.2d 600, 605 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1992). Circumstances that may be indicative of premeditation include declarations of the intent to kill, procurement of a weapon, the use of a deadly weapon upon an unarmed victim, the fact that the killing was -2- particularly cruel, infliction of multiple wounds, the making of preparations before the killing for the purpose of concealing the crime, destruction or secretion of evidence, and calmness immediately after the killing. State v. Jackson, 173 S.W.3d 401, 409 (Tenn. 2005); State v. Nichols, 24 S.W.3d 297, 302 (Tenn. 2000). A defendant’s failure to render aid to a victim can also indicate the existence of premeditation. State v. Lewis, 36 s.W.3d 88, 96 (Tenn. Crim. App. 2000). In cases where a defendant has been charged with the attempted commission of a crime, there must be evidence that the defendant acted “with the kind of culpability otherwise required for the offense” and acted “with intent to cause a result that is an element of the offense, and believes the conduct will cause the result without further conduct on the person’s part.” Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-12-101(a)(2). Criminal attempt also occurs when the defendant “[a]cts with intent to complete a course of action or cause a result that would constitute the offense, under the circumstances surrounding the conduct as the person believes them to be, and the conduct constitutes a substantial step toward the commission of the offense.” Id. § 39-12-101(a)(3).
The defendant argues that the evidence at trial established that he committed the crimes while in a state of excitement and passion. In support, he points to his statement to police in which he related how he and Cecil were arguing and that Cecil was waving a gun around when the defendant grabbed his own gun and started shooting. The defendant argues that there is no evidence that he was “sufficiently free of that ‘excitement and passion’ before the children were assaulted, some of them fatally.” We respectfully disagree. Viewed in the light most favorable to the State, the evidence established that the defendant shot the adult victims multiple times and then repeatedly stabbed and beat the young children, moving from room to room to do so. Although the defendant told police that he first began shooting after Cecil reached for a shotgun, he told his mother that he began shooting after Cecil laid down his gun and that he attacked the children because they had seen him. We note that Sergeant Mullins testified that the shotgun appeared to have been placed in the corner near Cecil, the position in which police discovered it, as part of the staging of the scene. Moreover, the killings and attempted killings were particularly cruel. Seals was shot in the face and chest, and the gun was close enough to Seals’s face that it left stippling on his face when fired. Williams was shot in the head, chest, leg, thigh, and abdomen. Roberson was shot in both thighs and the left knee twice. Cecil had eight gunshot wounds, including to the head, neck, chest, thigh, and foot, and there was material on his face consistent with -3- a pillow having been placed over his face and a gun fired through the pillow. The children were repeatedly and violently stabbed with knives and beaten with wooden boards, and C.D.1. was left in the bathtub with a knife sticking out of his head. In addition, the defendant talked to some of the victims, rejecting their claims that they loved him and continuing with his violent attacks. The defendant altered the scene to make it appear as if the murders were drug or gangrelated, moved bodies, disposed of or hid kitchen knives and handles, and collected the cartridge casings. He escaped on a bicycle and hid it in his girlfriend’s shed. Instead of attempting to render aid or summon help, he went to a restaurant for dinner the next night and reported to work on the Monday following the attacks, without telling anyone about the crimes. He also lied to his family about the last time he had seen Cecil. This evidence was more than sufficient to establish the element of premeditation in the defendant’s convictions for first degree murder and attempted first degree murder.
The defendant also contends that the evidence against him was largely based on the testimony of C.D.1, portions of which were negated by the “physical facts rule,” requiring reversal of his convictions. We, again, respectfully disagree. The physical facts rule is “‘the accepted proposition that in cases where the testimony of a witness is entirely irreconcilable with the physical evidence, the testimony can be disregarded.’” State v. Allen, 259 S.W.3d 671, 679 (Tenn. 2008) (quoting State v. Hornsby, 858 S.W.2d 892, 894 (Tenn. 1993)). When a witness’s testimony “cannot possibly be true, is inherently unbelievable, or is opposed to natural laws, courts can declare the testimony incredible as a matter of law and decline to consider it.” Id. (quotation omitted). For the physical facts rule to apply, the testimony “must be unbelievable on its face, i.e., testimony as to facts or events that the witness physically could not have possibly observed or events that could not have occurred under the laws of nature.” Id. at 680. For example, testimony that a witness “saw the sun set in the east” could be disregarded. Id. The physical facts rule, however, is a power “that should be used sparingly.” Hornsby, 858 S.W.2d at 895. When the testimony “is capable of different interpretations, the matter should be left for the jury to decide as the sole arbiter of credibility.” Id. The determination of whether there are inconsistencies in testimony, the reconciliation of conflicts in testimony, and the determination of how this might affect a witness’s credibility, are within the province of the jury. Id. “[T]he improbability of the truth of the testimony, which justifies rejection under the physical facts rule, cannot rest upon any theory involving the consideration of the comparative credibility of the witnesses.” Id. at 896 (quotations -4- omitted). The physical facts rule may not be invoked “where its application depends upon assumptions or calculations based upon estimates as to speed, distance, time, and other such uncertain matters in the movement of objects.” Allen, 259 S.W.3d at 680 (quotations omitted). The defendant asserts that although C.D.1 testified that he saw the defendant attacking his siblings and speaking to Williams while C.D.1 was in the bathtub, “it would have been impossible to see inside the bedroom from his vantage point in the tub.” The defendant also asserts that C.D.1’s testimony that he was stabbed in the neck while lying on the bed in his sister’s room was contradicted by the lack of his blood on that bed. C.D.1 did not, however, testify that the defendant “stabbed” him in the neck, but instead that the defendant “cut” his neck. We note that Dr. Muhlbauer confirmed that C.D.1 had a superficial laceration across his neck and that no evidence was presented regarding what amount of blood, if any, such a superficial laceration would have produced. Regardless, we cannot conclude that C.D.1’s testimony regarding the attack violated the physical facts rule. As this court has previously noted, “the fact that a witness testifies and that testimony ends up being inconsistent with other testimony raised at trial, . . . even if [it is] scientific testimony, does not make it inadmissible testimony.” Lemar Brooks v. State, No. M2010-02451-CCA-R3-PC, 2012 WL 112554, at  (Tenn. Crim. App. Jan. 11, 2012), perm. app. denied (Tenn. May 16, 2012) (quotations omitted). Throughout his testimony, C.D.1 identified the defendant as the perpetrator. The jury could have resolved any conflicts and discrepancies in his testimony by attributing them to his youth, his head injury, or the extreme trauma he must have experienced by witnessing and experiencing the horrific attacks against him and his family members. We conclude, therefore, that this issue is without merit.
Lastly, the defendant contends that the evidence is insufficient to establish his identity as the perpetrator. Specifically, he argues that his statement was inconsistent with the physical evidence and that the forensic evidence excluded him as the perpetrator. However, he confessed that he was the perpetrator, both in a statement to police and during his conversation with his mother. In addition, two of the child victims identified him as their attacker. By convicting the defendant of the indicted crimes, the jury obviously rejected the defendant’s trial testimony in which he claimed to have been hiding under the bed while the murders and attempted murders were perpetrated by others. We conclude, therefore, that the evidence is more than sufficient to sustain the defendant’s convictions.