State v. Johnson
| Decision Date | 07 February 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. W2011-01786-CCA-R3-CD,W2011-01786-CCA-R3-CD |
| Parties | STATE OF TENNESSEE v. MAHLON JOHNSON |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals |
Direct Appeal from the Criminal Court for Shelby County
A Shelby County jury convicted the Defendant, Mahlon Johnson, of one count of aggravated assault and two counts of sexual battery, and the trial court sentenced him to an effective sentence of twenty-seven years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant contends that: (1) the evidence is insufficient to sustain his convictions for sexual battery; (2) the trial court erred when it failed to merge the sexual battery convictions; (3) the Defendant's convictions for sexual battery and aggravated assault violate double jeopardy protections; and (4) the trial court improperly sentenced him. The State agrees that there is insufficient evidence to support the Defendant's sexual battery convictions, and it asks us to reverse those convictions and dismiss the indictments. After a thorough review of the record and applicable authorities, we conclude there exists in the record sufficient evidence to support the Defendant's convictions and that the trial court did not err when it did not merge those convictions. We further conclude that the trial court did not err when it sentenced the Defendant. We, therefore, affirm the Defendant's convictions and sentence.
ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which ALAN E. GLENN and JEFFREY S. BIVINS, JJ., joined.
R. Todd Mosley, Memphis, Tennessee (on appeal) and James Thomas and Mark Saripkin, Memphis, Tennessee (at trial) for the appellant, Mahlon Johnson.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Rachel E. Willis, Assistant Attorney General; Amy P. Weirich, District Attorney General; and Pam Fleming, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
OPINIONThis case arises out of an altercation that occurred on October 31, 2008, between the Defendant and his wife, the victim, from whom he was separated at the time of these events. A Shelby County grand jury indicted the Defendant for two counts of aggravated rape, aggravated assault, and aggravated burglary. At his trial on these charges, the parties presented the following evidence: Tonya Johnson, the victim, testified that she and the Defendant had been married but that, at the time of trial, they were divorced. She said that she and the Defendant separated in July 2007, and he moved out of the home ("796 Olympic").
The victim described how she came to be in possession of 796 Olympic, saying that her mother's neighbor willed the house to her and her sister when he died. When they first gained possession of the house, her sister moved into it. Some time "in the 2000s", the victim's sister vacated the house, and the victim moved into the home. Two weeks before October 31, 2008, the victim moved out of 796 Olympic and moved into her daughter's apartment.
The victim testified that after leaving work on October 31, 2008, she went to the home of a friend, "Cindy," to have a drink. She said she knew she stayed at the house until after midnight, because Cindy wished the victim, whose birthday was November 1, a happy birthday before the victim left Cindy's house. The victim said that she did not go to her daughter's house when she left; rather she went to 796 Olympic because it was closer for her, and she had a meeting at her church the following morning.
The victim said that, when she arrived at 796 Olympic, no one was there, and she took a shower and went to bed, ensuring she had locked the door before going to sleep. She was awakened during the night by an "unusual noise." She saw the Defendant, who did not have a key to the house, standing in her bedroom. The Defendant asked her where she had been and who she had been with while she was gone. He said that he had been calling her phone because he wanted to spend her birthday with her. The victim said she sat up in bed and tried to answer all his questions. The Defendant took off his jacket and his shirt, and, when the victim saw his "aggressive" facial expression, she became scared and got out of the bed.
The victim said that the Defendant continued asking her questions and then he grabbed her by her neck and pushed her into the hallway, pinning her against the wall. The Defendant "took off her shirt" and then "took his finger and rubbed it between [her] butt and he smelled it and said it smelled like [she had] been f***ing." He then took his finger, "rammed it in [her] vagina and said it was sticky." The Defendant then began choking the victim until the victim slid down onto the floor.
The victim recalled that the Defendant then began running through the house saying "the nigga must be still in the house." The victim said she remained on the floor because her "body was just numb" from the strangulation. The Defendant returned, snatched her legs apart, and rammed an object into her rectum. He then removed the object, put his hand into her vagina, and told her she had "nut coming out of [her]." The victim said the Defendant then began beating her in the back of the head. He snatched her up from the floor and said, "I'm going to kill this bitch" and "I want to knock out about three of her teeth out of her mouth." The victim said she was "screaming and screaming" for help.
The victim said the Defendant dragged her through the house, beating her while he dragged her. At some point, he grabbed a vase, and hit her with it. The Defendant then obtained a knife and started stabbing her. She said he stabbed her repeatedly, cutting patches of hair from her head. She grabbed the knife from his hand, and the Defendant bit her to keep control of the knife. At some point during the struggle, the knife broke. The Defendant took a screwdriver and began stabbing the victim in her ear and asked her, The Defendant then said, The victim said she felt a liquid pouring on her, and, when she looked, she saw it was water from her iron. The Defendant then used the iron to beat her.
The victim said, throughout this incident, she repeatedly told the Defendant that she was not being intimate with anyone and that he was beating her for nothing. She said she screamed until she was hoarse and no sound would come out from her voice. The Defendant also hit her "across" the head with a large vase. The victim said that she was lying on the floor waiting "to die," while the Defendant sat on top of her saying
The victim recalled that, while the Defendant was on top of her he told her that he saw her "getting f***ed in an empty heroin house." He said he saw her there getting out of a red car. The victim recalled that, at that point, everything "got calm." She asked the Defendant if she could lay in her bed to die, and the Defendant said The victim said she waited a few more minutes before asking the Defendant again if she could get into her bed to die. This time the Defendant allowed her to get into her bed.
The victim testified that, while she lay in her bed believing she was dying, the Defendant told her the financial problems he was having as a result of the actions of his girlfriend or ex-girlfriend. The victim said she asked the Defendant for a sip of water, and he said "bitch, we are going to die together." He then gave her a sip of Sprite from a bottle that was lying on the bed. She again asked the Defendant for water, and he got up and went toward the back of the house to get her water. The victim said that, when she heard the waterrunning, she jumped up and ran out the front door of her house. She said she was naked, and she ran screaming to the house of her neighbor, Doris Leaham Johnson ("Ms. Doris").1 The victim recalled that, at first, the Defendant ran behind her, but then he returned to 796 Olympic.
The victim testified that Ms. Doris asked her what had happened and gave her clothes to put on. By that time, the police had arrived. The victim recalled that, at that point, she urinated and defecated on herself. The victim then began vomiting as well. The victim was transported by ambulance to the hospital.
At the hospital, doctors checked her rectum and told her that they needed to consult a surgeon. They gave her a blood transfusion because blood was running out of her rectum. A nurse from "MSARC" performed a sexual assault examination on the victim. The victim identified and described multiple pictures from the crime scene, which were then offered and admitted into evidence.2
During cross-examination, the victim testified that the Defendant was twelve years her junior. She conceded that the two first began dating when the Defendant was seventeen years old, and they were married in 1999, when the Defendant was twenty years old and she was thirty-one years old. The two were married for nine years before divorcing in 2009, almost a year after this incident. The victim conceded that between the time of their separation and divorce, the two engaged in intimate contact. She said, however, that they had not been together in that manner in September or October before this incident. The victim denied that a man ran out of the house shortly before the Defendant arrived.
About her injuries, the victim said that she did not receive any stitches for any of her wounds. The victim said that, before this incident, she had once suffered from a hemorrhoid.
Ms. Doris testified that, in October and November 2008, she lived at 798 Olympic Street, next door to 796 Olympic. Ms. Doris said that she and the victim had grown up living on the same street, and the victim went...
To continue reading
Request your trial