State v. Collier
| Decision Date | 12 August 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. W2010–01606–SC–R11–CD.,W2010–01606–SC–R11–CD. |
| Citation | 411 S.W.3d 886 |
| Parties | STATE of Tennessee v. DeWayne COLLIER aka Patrick Collier. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Phyllis Aluko, Assistant Public Defender, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, DeWayne Collier.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; William E. Young, Solicitor General; Rachel E. Willis, Senior Counsel; Sophia S. Lee, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General; and Damon Griffin, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
A Shelby County jury convicted the defendant of aggravated statutory rape, and the trial court imposed a sentence of four years. On appeal, the defendant, who was forty-two years old at the time of the offense, argued that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction because the testimony of the fourteen-year-old female victim, a consenting accomplice in the crime, was not adequately corroborated by other proof. The Court of Criminal Appeals found that the victim qualified as an accomplice to the crime but affirmed the conviction, holding that her testimony was sufficiently corroborated by the evidence in the record. This Court granted review to determine whether a victim of statutory rape qualifies as an accomplice such that his or her testimony must be corroborated in order to support a conviction. We hold that the testimony of a victim of statutory rape does not require corroboration. Because the evidence is sufficient to sustain the conviction, the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is affirmed.
On Friday, September 5, 2008, the victim, C.D.,1 was a fourteen-year-old student in the ninth grade at a high school in a small town in Arkansas located less than thirty miles from Memphis, Tennessee. At that time, she lived with her father, her mother, and her two brothers. A member of the school marching band, the victim was scheduled to perform that evening in the school's first football game of the season.
Instead of attending the game, however, the victim left school, traveled to the residence of a friend, and borrowed her friend's mother's cell phone to call DeWayne Collier (the “Defendant”), whom the victim had known through his acquaintance with her father. The purpose of her call was to ask the Defendant to take her to his house in Memphis so that they could “spend time together.” During the conversation, the Defendant mentioned that he was still at work but agreed to meet her at the YM Grocery Store, a convenience market located within walking distance of the victim's friend's residence. The victim told her friend that she intended to meet “her uncle” at the store and, after approximately fifteen minutes, left the residence. On the way, she happened to see a former boyfriend, who walked with her to the grocery. By the time they arrived at the grocery, the Defendant was waiting. The victim entered his vehicle, and the Defendant drove away.
After teasing the victim about her former boyfriend, the Defendant drove some forty minutes to his residence in Memphis, stopping on the way at a liquor store to buy twelve mini-bottles of margarita. Upon their arrival, the Defendant opened a bottle of margarita, the Defendant and the victim undressed, and the two took a bath together. During this time, the victim observed that the Defendant had a tattoo of a panther high on his chest near a scar and also noticed scars on his back. The two stayed in the bathtub for about thirty minutes before going into a bedroom. The victim put on her underwear and a tank top that the Defendant had given her and drank a margarita. After some fifteen to twenty minutes, the two engaged in sexual intercourse. Afterward, the Defendant ordered take-out food from a restaurant on Beale Street. After eating and watching a movie on television, the Defendant and the victim engaged in sexual intercourse a second time. They “washed up” and then slept together throughout the night.
After waking up at 7:00 a.m. on the following morning, a Saturday, the two engaged in sexual intercourse a third time. The Defendant did not use a condom on this occasion, whereas he had used a condom at least once the night before. Three or four hours later, the Defendant's brother knocked on the door. Neither the Defendant nor the victim answered, and the victim quickly moved to an adjoining room. The Defendant's brother also tapped on the bedroom window, but when the Defendant did not respond, he left. Afterward, at approximately 11:30 a.m., the Defendant and the victim engaged in sexual intercourse a fourth time.
Later, the victim washed again, and the Defendant laundered her clothes. A fifth sexual encounter apparently took place in the late afternoon on Saturday. The victim did not shower, bathe, or douche afterward, and she wore the same underwear on both Friday and Saturday.
After dark, at about 9:15 p.m., the Defendant drove the victim back to her residence in Arkansas, a distance of fifteen to twenty miles. The Defendant dropped her off at the entrance of the driveway in an effort to avoid any suspicion that he had been with the victim during the time she was away. When the victim entered her residence, her mother, who was crying, questioned her about where she had been. Fearing that the truth would get the Defendant in trouble, she falsely claimed that she had spent the night at a friend's house. When the police arrived several minutes later in response to a prior call from the victim's mother, the victim changed her story, admitting that she had been with the Defendant and providing details of what had actually transpired. The officer drove her to Crittenden Regional Hospital in West Memphis, Arkansas, where she was examined for several hours. She acknowledged to a nurse that she and the Defendant had engaged in sexual intercourse, during which he had ejaculated in her vagina. The victim claimed to the police that she had attempted to contact her mother by telephone, but was unable to do so because her mother had blocked all calls from unknown numbers. She also stated that she chose to return to her home after dark because her father worked outside during the day, implying that he would have seen her with the Defendant had she returned earlier.
Ebertina Halfacre, a lieutenant in the sex crimes unit of the Memphis Police Department, interviewed the victim on the following Monday. The victim identified the Defendant from a photographic array, and afterward, Lieutenant Halfacre was able to determine that the Defendant was forty-two years of age. Lieutenant Halfacre acquired a warrant and conducted a search of the Defendant's residence. Bed linens and towels were taken for testing, and the police took several photographs of the interior of the residence. On the day following the search, a warrant was issued for the Defendant's arrest. He was later indicted by the Shelby County grand jury for aggravated statutory rape. SeeTenn.Code Ann. § 39–13–506(c) (Supp.2008).
At trial, the victim offered testimony largely consistent with her statement to the police. Lieutenant Halfacre testified that the victim had provided an accurate description of the interior of the Defendant's residence with only minor exceptions; for example, the victim had told her that there were photographs of children on the wall, and she remembered where the face towels were kept. According to Lieutenant Halfacre, the victim was also able to describe the black shower curtain, the white bathroom floors, the floral comforter on the bed, the television in the bedroom, the layout of the kitchen, and the color of the sofa.
The victim's mother testified that when she did not hear from her daughter after school on Friday, she went to the location of the football game. Unable to find her daughter there, she returned to her residence at 6:30 or 7:00 p.m., thinking she had just missed her. The victim's mother further testified that she stayed up late waiting for the victim and, when she did not return, assumed that the victim had spent the night with a girlfriend, which was unusual because she had not asked permission to do so. She recalled that at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, she drove to the victim's friend's residence and was then directed to the residence of another friend. At about 10:00 or 11:00 a.m., when the victim's mother discovered that neither of the victim's friends had seen her, she contacted the police, who issued an AMBER alert.2 The victim's mother then showed a photograph of the victim to several of the young people in the area in an effort to find her. At approximately 1:00 p.m., she went to the YM Grocery Store. The owner confirmed that he had seen her, but had no knowledge as to her whereabouts. When the victim returned on Saturday night, her mother contacted the police and, as indicated, overheard much of the victim's statement to the police before she was taken to the local hospital for examination. The victim's mother acknowledged that the Defendant had been to her residence on prior occasions, explaining that her husband and the Defendant had grown up together.
When the State rested its case, the Defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal, asserting that the evidence offered by the State was insufficient as a matter of law to support a conviction for aggravated statutory rape. The trial court denied the motion.
Although the Defendant did not testify at trial, he called several witnesses to testify on his behalf. Tim Chandler, owner of Chandler Demolition Company, testified that the Defendant had worked from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Levy Road landfill location on Friday, September 5, 2008. Mr. Chandler estimated that he would have last seen the...
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