State v. Jennings

• Docket Number: W2022-01533-CCA-R3-CD
• Decision Date: 27 December 2023
• Parties: STATE OF TENNESSEE v. GIORGIO JENNINGS
• Court: Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals

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STATE OF TENNESSEE
v.
GIORGIO JENNINGS

No. W2022-01533-CCA-R3-CD

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, Jackson

December 27, 2023

Assigned on Briefs October 3, 2023

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Shelby County No. 18-00842 Chris Craft, Judge

The Appellant, Giorgio Jennings, was convicted by a Shelby County jury of six counts of aggravated rape, five counts of aggravated robbery, three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of facilitation of aggravated assault, three counts of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, and employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. The trial court sentenced the Appellant to an effective sentence of one hundred and thirty-two years in confinement. In this appeal, he challenges: (1) the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his convictions; and (2) the trial court's imposition of partial consecutive sentences. After review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed

Phyllis Aluko, District Public Defender, and Barry W. Kuhn (on appeal), Assistant District Public Defender, and Charles Waldman, Memphis, Tennessee (at trial) for the Appellant, Giorgio Jennings.

Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Katharine K. Decker, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Steve Mulroy, District Attorney General; and Abby Wallace, Assistant District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee.

Camille R. McMullen, P.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Robert H. Montgomery, Jr., and J. Ross Dyer, JJ., joined.

OPINION

CAMILLE R. MCMULLEN, PRESIDING JUDGE

On January 17, 2011, five friends were gathered at 4388 Owen Road in Memphis, Tennessee, when three masked men with guns entered the home looking for drugs and money. There was one tall man, and two shorter men. Based on the State's theory, the Appellant was the tall man. The tall man and one of the shorter men took the two women,

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L.R. and M.J.,^[1] to the bedrooms and raped them. A third woman, S.H., arrived during the home invasion, and the tall man and one of the shorter men also raped her. Meanwhile, the third masked man remained in the living room with the male victims, K.S., S.R., and M.G.^[2] He shot two of them in the hand and hit the other with a pistol when they denied having drugs in the home. The masked men ransacked the home and the victims' pockets, taking numerous items.

One of the items taken, an Xbox, was linked to the Appellant shortly after the home invasion. The Appellant admitted involvement to the police, but claimed he was the driver. Three years later, testing confirmed that sperm found on a papasan chair, where one of the women was raped, belonged to the Appellant. Another three years passed before the Appellant was located in another state using an alias, and he was apprehended. A Shelby County grand jury indicted the Appellant on twenty-three counts-six counts of aggravated rape, six counts of aggravated robbery, six counts of aggravated assault, three counts of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, and employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.

Trial. The Appellant's five day trial began on November 8, 2021. The proof relevant to the issues raised in this appeal is summarized below.

L.R. L.R. testified that in January 2011, she was living at 4388 Owen Road with her then-fiance K.S. The front door of the home opened into the living room. In the living room, there was a couch, oversized chair, television, PlayStation, and Xbox. The couch was against the back wall, under a window looking into the kitchen. The home also contained two bedrooms, one of which they used as a game room. The game room contained a television and a papasan chair.

On January 17, 2011, L.R. and K.S. invited friends over to eat dinner and watch Jersey Shore. Around 8:00 p.m., L.R. was in the living room with M.J. and M.G., while K.S. and S.R. were in the kitchen preparing their dinners. Suddenly, three black men with hoods on their heads and bandanas covering their faces kicked in the front door. The three men were each holding a gun and told everyone to get on the ground. One of the men jumped onto the couch, held his gun through the window looking into the kitchen, and told K.S. and S.R. to come into the living room and get on the ground. One of the guns was a black Uzi and one was a black and brown revolver. She could not remember what the third gun looked like. One of the men "was tall and kind of [skinnier]" and wore blue plaid pajama pants. The other two men were shorter and wore jeans.

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L.R. said that after everyone got on the ground, the men made her and M.J. remove their clothes. They searched everyone, taking their phones. They did not take L.R.'s phone because, when the men initially entered, L.R. had called 911 and had hidden her phone. When they made her remove her clothes, she called 911 again and threw her phone under the couch. The men asked if anyone had a gun, and M.G. told them he had one in his waistband. The men took M.G.'s gun and "hit him upside the back of the head[.]"

One of the shorter men then took L.R. to the game room. He asked her to perform oral sex on him and she told him that she had HIV, which was not true, "just to try to get him to leave [her] alone." The man took her back to the living room. When she returned to the living room, she saw that M.G. and K.S. had both been shot in the hand. At some point, S.H. arrived at the home, opened the door, and took off running. The men brought her back inside and made her remove her clothes.

Next, L.R. said the tall man in the pajama pants hit her on the buttocks and took her to the bedroom. In the bedroom, he said he had been told they had "dope" and kept asking her where it was. She told him they had real jobs and did not sell "dope." He made her get on her knees, and he inserted his penis into her mouth. He held a gun to her forehead and threatened to "blow [her] brains out" if she bit down." He made her bend over the bed and inserted his penis into her vagina. She told him that he was hurting her, and he said he did not care. He used a condom when he penetrated her vagina, but not when he penetrated her mouth. She did not know whether he ejaculated.

When L.R. returned to the living room, the men were still searching for drugs. They had flipped over her furniture and ripped into its fabric. At some point, one of the shorter men took L.R. back to the bedroom. She was unsure if he was the same man who took her to the game room initially. The shorter man said he wanted a second girl, so another man brought M.J. to the bedroom. He said he wanted the other one, so the man brought him S.H. instead. He put a condom on, held a gun to their heads, and inserted his penis into their mouths. L.R. was unsure if he ejaculated. He made them stop because L.R. started gagging and S.H. was "crying so bad[.]" He took them back to the living room.

L.R. said one of the shorter men was in the living room at all times, armed with a gun, with K.S., M.G., and S.R. He seemed to be the leader. When the men were walking out, they saw L.R.'s puppy in a cage and took her. She begged them not to take the puppy and one of the men said, "bitch, I'll take whatever I want[.]" The men took her television, jewelry, laptop, and puppy. They also took the PlayStation, Xbox, Wii, swords, phones, and wallets. L.R. only saw three men, but it was possible that a fourth man came in at some point. She thought that there was a fourth person outside because a horn honked and the leader said "that's our [c]ue." When the men left, they told L.R. and her friends to

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"count to [one hundred] and don't come out." When they shut the door, L.R. jumped up and locked it. A few minutes later, L.R. and her friends ran to the neighbor's house and had them call 911.

On cross-examination, L.R. said that the tall man was "over six feet" tall. She agreed, however, that she had previously testified that he was six feet, five inches tall. She acknowledged that the men stole "a little sack" of marijuana from the home. She also discussed the incident that she believed led to the home invasion. The day before, M.G.'s friend "Heath" came over while she was gone and "supposedly sold some [marijuana] to some people" outside of her home.

K.S. K.S. testified that he heard a loud bang while in the kitchen with S.R. He looked through the window into the living room and saw three masked men, each holding a gun. The men were black and wore bandanas and hooded sweatshirts. Two of the men were "medium height" and one of them was "kind of tall." One of the men immediately jumped over the couch and put his gun through the window and into K.S.'s face. He ordered K.S. and S.R. to get down. They complied, and the masked men started screaming, "Where is the [k]ush? We know it's here." K.S. tried to tell them they had the wrong house.

K.S. said after twenty to twenty-five minutes, the men made L.R. and M.J. remove their clothes. Shortly after, S.H. arrived to see if M.G. was at the home. A fourth man outside saw S.H., held a gun to her, and pushed her into the home. The men made her remove her clothes. Two of the men took L.R. and M.J. to the bedroom and game room. Shortly after, they took S.H. to the room where L.R. was. The third man stayed in the living room with K.S., S.R., and M.G. the entire time "making sure [they] didn't go [anywhere]." He walked up and down the hall toward the bedroom and game room, saying things like "y'all are raping these bitches. We're gonna have to kill these folks."

K.S. stated that after M.G. continued to deny that there were drugs in the home, the man in the living room asked him which hand he rolled marijuana with. M.G. responded his left, and the man shot him in his right hand. The man then turned his attention to K.S. K.S. told the man it was his house but...