State v. Davis

• Decision Date: 17 October 2008
• Docket Number: No. M2006-00198-SC-R11-CD.,M2006-00198-SC-R11-CD.
• Citation: 266 S.W.3d 896
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. Phedrek T. DAVIS.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

266 S.W.3d 896

STATE of Tennessee v. Phedrek T. DAVIS.

No. M2006-00198-SC-R11-CD.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Nashville.

June 4, 2008 Session.

October 17, 2008.

Kathleen G. Morris and Anne M. Davenport, Nashville, TN, for the appellant, Phedrek T. Davis.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General & Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; Rachel E. Willis, Assistant Attorney General; Victor S. Johnson III, District Attorney General; Renee Erb, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

CORNELIA A. CLARK, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JANICE M. HOLDER, C.J., and WILLIAM M. BARKER, and WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., JJ., joined. GARY R. WADE, J., filed a concurring opinion.

We granted the Defendant's request for permission to appeal to address the propriety of jury instructions requiring the jury to reach a unanimous decision to acquit of a greater offense before considering a lesser-included offense. We hold that such jury instructions are proper and do not violate the Defendant's right to trial by jury. We also hold that the trial court's imposition of consecutive sentences did not violate the Defendant's federal Sixth Amendment rights. While the Defendant has raised several other issues, we have determined that the Court of Criminal Appeals correctly held that they do not entitle the Defendant to relief. Accordingly, we affirm the Defendant's convictions and sentences.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This case arises out of the shooting death of Susan Phelps on August 21, 2003, as she stood inside her apartment in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee.

Mr. Eula Beasley testified that he had known the victim two to three months prior to her death and had visited her apartment "a lot." On the day of the shooting, Mr. Beasley was at the victim's apartment along with several other people. Because the electricity was out in the apartment, the victim had run an extension cord from the Defendant's apartment to hers. According to Mr. Beasley, the Defendant (appellant Phedrek T. Davis) saw the victim coming out of his apartment and accosted her on the sidewalk. Mr. Beasley was standing next to the victim when this occurred. The Defendant slapped her across her face and said, "bitch, I'm going to get you, don't be in this house when I come back." Mr. Beasley had previously told one of the detectives that the Defendant also threatened "to kill her when he come [sic] back, he was going to shoot up the house and everything."

After this altercation, Mr. Beasley and the victim were both in the victim's living room "having fun." Mr. Beasley explained that he had not taken the Defendant's threats seriously. Within fifteen minutes, Mr. Beasley saw the Defendant walking fast toward the victim's apartment. As the Defendant came abreast of the living room window, which was open, he began shooting into the apartment through the window. The Defendant continued walking and shooting. Mr. Beasley described the gun as an automatic which the Defendant was firing with one hand. The victim was standing "right in front of the window." When the gunfire began, Mr. Beasley turned and ran to a back room where he broke a window and jumped out. He did not see the victim get shot. He did, however, hear "a bunch" of shots.

After jumping through the window, Mr. Beasley ran up the alleyway, where he hid in some bushes out of fear. From there, he saw the Defendant drive by.

On cross-examination, Mr. Beasley admitted that he had been smoking crack cocaine on the day of the shooting. He also admitted to an aggravated burglary and several theft convictions.

George Boone testified that he had known the victim several months before her death. On the day of the shooting, he and several other people were at the victim's apartment. The victim was walking outside. Mr. Boone stated that, while he was standing in her living room looking out the door, he saw an altercation between the Defendant and the victim; he saw no one else present during the argument. Mr. Boone heard the Defendant call the victim "bitch" and state, "somebody got my stuff." He saw the Defendant slap the victim, after which she walked a short distance away. The Defendant also left. After the victim returned to her apartment, the Defendant "came to the door after that and said, somebody got my shit, you-all need to get up out of here." Mr. Boone testified, "He said I don't care if it's your husband or whoever is in there, when I come back I'm going to shoot this m* * * * * f* * * * * up." None of the other people in the apartment responded to the Defendant, but Mr. Boone "told them, they need to come out of there because of what he said." Although the others did not take the Defendant's threat seriously, Mr. Boone did, and he walked out of the apartment.

Mr. Boone stationed himself a short distance away, in front of the apartment. From his position, he could look through the living room window; he saw the victim sitting in front of it. Fifteen to thirty minutes later, he saw the Defendant returning. The Defendant walked over to near where Mr. Boone was standing, reached down, and "come [sic] up with a pistol." The Defendant pointed the gun and "opened fire." Mr. Boone stated that the Defendant shot through the window and that he shot from right to left. Neither man spoke to the other. When he was done shooting, the Defendant "just walked on back around the building" where he got in a car and drove away.

Mr. Boone went to the apartment and looked in. He saw the victim lying on the floor.

Dr. Stacy Turner testified about the victim's autopsy. According to Dr. Turner, the victim had suffered a gunshot wound to the face in which the bullet perforated the victim's right carotid artery and caused her death. The bullet was recovered from the victim's body.

Officer William Kirby, a member of the identification crime scene section of the Metro Nashville Police Department, testified that he reported to the scene of the crime at about 4:30 in the afternoon on the day it occurred. He stated that it was a bright and sunny day and that he could see through the apartment's living room window (which was open) into the interior. Officer Kirby confirmed that the apartment had no electricity. He composed an accurate, although not to scale, drawing of the scene. The drawing depicted an apartment with a front door between two front windows. The door and window to the right of the door (from the perspective of one approaching the door from the outside) were along the outside wall of the living area. The window to the left of the door was along the outside wall of a bedroom. The living room window bore three bullet strikes: two to the frame and one through the screen. The front door frame bore one bullet strike. The bedroom window bore four bullet strikes-one to the frame and three through the glass-and the interior wall of the bedroom (parallel with the outside wall in which the window was located) also bore four bullet strikes. In the area in front and outside of the bedroom window, six 40 caliber shell casings were found. In the living room, a lead bullet was found; in the kitchen, near where the victim fell, a copper jacket was found. In the bathroom, another copper jacket was found and in the back bedroom, another lead bullet.¹

Officer Kirby testified that, although he and other members of the unit searched "front, back and side" for shell casings, the only ones they found were in the area fronting the bedroom window. He also opined that "at least five [bullets] made it inside of the apartment."

Detective David Achord testified that he was the primary investigator in the case. He attended the victim's autopsy. He took custody of the bullet recovered from the victim's body and submitted it for ballistics testing. He also submitted for ballistics testing the projectiles and shell casings recovered from the crime scene. He took out a warrant for the Defendant's arrest on August 22, 2003, the day after the victim was killed, but the Defendant was not taken into custody until September 30, 2003.

Officer Kendall Jaeger testified that he is a "firearm tool mark examiner in the forensics and firearms section of the identification section" of the Metro Nashville Police Department. He examined the projectiles and discharged cartridge cases that were recovered during the investigation of this case. He determined that the six cartridge cases had all been discharged from a single weapon and that the weapon was a semi-automatic handgun.

Officer Jaeger was unable to identify the bullet that was recovered from the victim's body because the metal jacket surrounding the lead core had been stripped away. He identified two complete bullets recovered from the scene and two bullet jackets recovered from the scene as having been fired from the same gun. Because the gun that fired the cartridges was not recovered, however, he was unable to state conclusively that the cartridge cases and the bullets/bullet jackets were fired from one and the same gun. He acknowledged, however, that it was reasonable to infer that the same gun fired both the cartridge cases and the bullets.

Detective Roy Dunaway testified that he assisted in booking the Defendant. Using a photograph known to be of the Defendant, Det. Dunaway asked the Defendant if the photograph was of him. The Defendant acknowledged that the photograph was of him and inquired, "what's this about?" Det. Dunaway told the Defendant that there was a criminal homicide warrant on him but that he did not know anything about the case. The Defendant stated that he had not killed anyone. Det. Dunaway said that he did not have any information on the case and that he did not "know anything about the dude that got killed." The Defendant then stated, "it wasn't a dude, it was a lady." Det. Dunaway acknowledged that the police department had publicized the murder and its search for the Defendant prior to his...