State v. Brock

• Decision Date: 29 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. E2007–00766–CCA–R3–CD.,E2007–00766–CCA–R3–CD.
• Citation: 327 S.W.3d 645
• Parties: STATE of Tennesseev.Jamie Scott BROCK.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals

327 S.W.3d 645

STATE of Tennessee

v.Jamie Scott BROCK.

No. E2007–00766–CCA–R3–CD.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, at Knoxville.

March 25, 2008 Session.June 29, 2009.Application for Permission to Appeal

Denied by Supreme Court

Jan. 25, 2010.

Wesley D. Stone, Franklin, Tennessee, for the appellant, Jamie Scott Brock.Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Renee W. Turner, Assistant Attorney General; William Paul Phillips, District Attorney General, and Jared Effler, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

JERRY L. SMITH, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER and J.C. McLIN, JJ., joined.JERRY L. SMITH, J.

The Claiborne County Grand Jury indicted Appellant, Jamie Scott Brock, for the murder of his wife. After a lengthy trial, he was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He now appeals his conviction. He does not appeal his sentence. Appellant argues several issues on appeal: (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress; (2) the trial court erred in excluding evidence of three anonymous letters; (3) the trial court erred in allowing evidence in at the trial concerning the autopsy because the order was illegally obtained; (4) the trial court erred in admitting autopsy photographs into evidence; (5) the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss based upon the State's failure to preserve evidence; (6) the trial court erred in allowing the State to introduce evidence through a rebuttal witness; and (7) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. After a thorough review of the record and the law, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

On the morning of August 28, 2005, Appellant's wife was found beaten to death in their bedroom. Appellant was arrested after confessing to the murder during a polygraph examination. In December of 2005, the Claiborne County Grand Jury indicted him for one count of first degree murder.

Motion to Suppress

On March 29, 2006, Appellant filed a motion to suppress evidence. In this motion, Appellant requested that items taken from or photographs taken at the Appellant's home, which was also the site of the murder, were taken without a warrant of any kind and prior to his arrest. Appellant also sought to suppress the items taken from his truck based upon the fact that there was no warrant. He argues that these seizures violated his Constitutional rights and should, therefore, be suppressed.

On July 27 and 28, 2006, the trial court held a hearing on Appellant's motion to suppress. Several witnesses were called at this hearing. J.D. Tolliver, the victim's father, was the first witness. He testified that early in the morning on the date of the murder Appellant called him to say that he could not get in touch with the victim. Mr. Tolliver stated that he called the victim but received no answer. Mr. Tolliver went to his daughter's house to check on her. When he got to her house, the door was unlocked, and he went inside. Mr. Tolliver first looked for his daughter in his grandchildrens' room. She was not in their room, but he found them asleep in their beds. Mr. Tolliver proceeded to his daughter's bedroom. When he turned on the light, he saw blood everywhere and his daughter in the corner of the room. He called 911. Mr. Tolliver took the children to a neighbor's house. Mr. Tolliver did not notice that anything in the house had been disturbed. The police arrived shortly thereafter. The officers entered the house. An ambulance also arrived on the scene.

Detective Rick Davis with the Claiborne County Sheriff's Department was the next witness to testify. He received a notification of a serious crime just before 7:00 a.m. on the morning of August 29, 2005. Officer Robert Chadwell was the first officer to arrive on the scene. Detective Davis was about six minutes behind Officer Chadwell. An ambulance was already there when Detective Davis arrived. When he arrived, Detective Davis first spoke with Mr. Tolliver about what had happened. Mr. Tolliver told him that Appellant had called him to check on the victim. Appellant told Mr. Tolliver that he had called the victim several times, and she had not answered the telephone. After speaking with Mr. Tolliver, Detective Davis approached Officer Chadwell who was in the victim's bedroom. While walking to the bedroom, Detective Davis noticed small blood splatters on the floor of the kitchen and in the bathroom, as well as some blood smears on the wall. Detective Davis noticed numerous pieces of evidence in the bedroom that were clearly visible. Detective Davis did not notice that anything was obviously disturbed elsewhere in the house. Detective Davis also checked the exterior of the house for forced entry but found nothing. Detective Davis checked the telephone caller i.d. and answering machine. There were two calls, one at 6:36 a.m. and one at 6:38 a.m. The calls were from the victim's sister's house and the victim's parents' house. There was also a message from a female asking “Where are you at? Jamie is looking for you.”

When other family members arrived, Detective Davis asked them questions about Appellant, such as what kind of vehicle he drove, where he worked, and what kind of work he did. They told Detective Davis that Appellant worked for an insulation company with family members, and they thought he was working around Walters State Community College in Morristown that day. The family also told Detective Davis that Appellant drove a small white pick-up truck. A neighbor told Detective Davis that Appellant usually left early in the morning for work. Detective Davis put out a “be on the lookout” (“BOLO”) for Appellant's truck. Detective Davis issued the BOLO because there had been a serious crime committed at Appellant's house; he was concerned for Appellant's safety; and Appellant needed to be informed of what had happened at his house. At some point, Detective Davis discovered that Appellant was returning to the house with another individual who turned out to be Michael Miller, the victim's brother-in-law. Detective Davis was not originally thinking of Appellant as a suspect. Detective Davis wanted to see Appellant's truck because it was the last known vehicle to leave the house. At the time that Appellant was being brought to his home, the baseball bat and bicycle had not been found.

Detective David Daniels arrived after Detective Davis. The first-responding officers pointed out some blood on the door of the victim's house to Detective Daniels. Detective Daniels got his camera and went into the house to survey the scene. Detective Daniels took some pictures of blood on the door frame, blood on the countertop in the kitchen and a small pantry, blood smears in the hallway leading to the bedroom, as well as pictures of the scene in the bedroom. Detective Daniels stated that the officers did not have a warrant or consent to search the home at that point, but he contended that exigent circumstances existed due to the blood on the back door and the fact that the officers did not know if someone was still inside the house.

Detective Harrison Cornett, with the Claiborne County Sheriff's Department, arrived shortly thereafter and the law enforcement officers decided to call the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (“TBI”). Detective Cornett did not notice any disturbance in the house such as someone trying to find valuables. After arriving at the scene and viewing the victim, Detective Cornett went back outside. While outside he walked around the house and found no evidence of a forced entry. Detective Cornett was told that Appellant's vehicle had been found at Walters State Community College. At this point, Detective Cornett and Sergeant Cline left the scene to go to Morristown. On the way to Morristown they passed Appellant and his brother-in-law returning to the scene. The officers notified Officer Seals. They told Officer Seals that Appellant would be safer arriving at the scene in his patrol car because many people had gathered at the scene before he left. Detective Cornett did not intend for Officer Seals to arrest Appellant at that time. The officers located the vehicle around 10:00 or 10:30 a.m. in a public parking area. It was locked. Officers with the Morristown Police Department were watching the vehicle. They did not search the vehicle in the parking lot because it was locked. The officers called a tow truck to have the vehicle towed to Claiborne County to the tow truck owner's garage where the vehicle was locked inside the building. The T.B.I. searched the vehicle later that night. Detective Cornett called a locksmith to have the locks “popped” on the vehicle.

Ms. Judy Faye Miller, the victim's sister, testified that she worked for Breeding Insulation with the Appellant at the time of the incident. Appellant was working at Walters State Community College and Mrs. Miller's husband, Michael Miller, would work with him sometimes. On the date in question, Mrs. Miller was not at work. She received two or three telephone calls from Appellant asking if she had spoken with the victim that morning. She called the victim's house and her parents' house, and no one answered the telephone at either residence. Around 7:30 or 8:00 a.m., she spoke with Appellant and told him she called the school to see if the victim had gone to work. When she discovered that the victim was not at work, she went to the victim's house and discovered what had happened. She spoke with the officers and told them where Appellant was working that day. Mrs. Miller called her husband and told him to get Appellant and bring him home because, “Someone has broke in on [the victim] and she's gone.” The officers did not tell Mrs. Miller to get Appellant back to the house. She made that decision on her own. When Appellant and Mr. Miller were on their way to the house, Appellant asked Mrs. Miller what had happened. Sh...