Opinion ID: 2429291
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: State v. Martin

Text: The episode underlying the convictions in State v. Martin also involved a robbery. The defendant, James Marvin Martin, entered the office of the C.H. McMillan Insurance Agency on the Asheville Highway in Knoxville around 12:30 p.m. one afternoon. C.H. McMillan, Sr., the owner of the agency, was talking with a customer on the telephone when he heard the building's back door open. McMillan turned around to see the defendant standing behind him with a gun in his hand. Martin first ordered McMillan to hang up the telephone. He then took the phone out of McMillan's hand and told McMillan to lie on the floor. The defendant ordered Ruth Needham, a secretary who had been working at a nearby desk, to give him all the money. Needham gave him $150.00 of the agency's money and a dollar from her own billfold. Martin also demanded and got $41.00 from McMillan. Holding McMillan by the upper arm, the defendant next ordered McMillan and Needham to go through a door into a hallway. At first he instructed them to enter a door at the end of the hall that led into a dental laboratory. He later changed his mind and ordered both of them to go into the men's restroom and stay there. Once inside, McMillan slammed the door shut and locked it from the inside. Almost as soon as he heard the defendant go out the back door, McMillan hurried out of the restroom and observed the defendant as he entered his automobile. More cautious, Needham waited a minute or two before coming out. The entire episode encompassed only about four minutes. The defendant was convicted of the separate armed robberies of McMillan and Needham and of the aggravated kidnappings of both victims. Again, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that the defendant was guilty only of the armed robberies of the two victims and that the evidence did not support the convictions for aggravated kidnapping. In a unanimous opinion, the court concluded that ... it is clear that appellant placed the victims in the restroom for the sole purpose of facilitating his getaway. There was no evidence presented that appellant locked them in; on the contrary, Mr. McMillan locked the door from the inside. Nor was there evidence that appellant ordered them to stay in there a certain amount of time under threat of harm. The entire episode took place in a matter of minutes or less. It is, therefore, obvious that the detention of the two victims was an integral part of the robbery. We, therefore, do not find from the evidence the necessary break in the acts to support separate charges for two crimes as is required by [ State v.] Mackey, 638 S.W.2d 830 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1982). State of Tennessee v. James Marvin Martin, Court of Criminal Appeals at Knoxville, slip op. at 3 (July 24, 1990).