State v Reid, 00-02619
| Decision Date | 20 July 2001 |
| Docket Number | 00-02619 |
| Parties | STATE OF TENNESSEE v. ANTHONY REIDIN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals |
Direct Appeal from the Criminal Court for Bradley County, No. M-99-338
The defendant, Anthony Reid, was convicted by a Bradley County jury of first degree felony murder and especially aggravated robbery, Class A felonies, aggravated robbery, a Class B felony, attempted aggravated robbery, a Class C felony, and evading arrest, a Class E felony. Thereafter, the trial court sentenced Defendant to life imprisonment for his first degree murder conviction, twenty-five years for his especially aggravated robbery conviction, ten years for his aggravated robbery conviction, six years for his attempted aggravated robbery conviction, and two years for evading arrest. The trial court further ordered Defendant's sentence for life imprisonment to be served consecutively to his other four sentences, which were ordered to be served concurrently with each other, for an effective sentence of life plus twenty-five years. On appeal, Defendant contends that his convictions cannot stand because the State failed to comply with the mandatory procedures concerning proper presentation and filing of the indictment in his case as required by statute, and the trial court erred by refusing Defendant's request for a mistrial after the State improperly solicited testimony concerning the fact that Defendant invoked his right to remain silent upon arrest. Defendant also alleges that the trial court erred by imposing consecutive sentences. Following a review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Criminal Court Affirmed.
William J. Brown, Cleveland, Tennessee, for the appellant, Anthony Reid.
Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Peter M. Coughlan, Assistant Attorney General; Jerry Estes, District Attorney General; Carl Petty, Assistant District Attorney General; and Steven Crump, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
OPINIONOn May 22, 1998, Lebron Hensley, a patrolman for the Cleveland Police Department, received a report that a shooting had occurred at the apartment complex located at 580 Dooley Street in the city of Cleveland. The first officer to arrive at the scene, Hensley observed two gunshot victims on a balcony of one of the apartments. One victim was sitting in a chair and bleeding from the head. The other was lying on the floor face down in a pool of blood. Hensley immediately checked their condition. The victim in the chair was conscious but unresponsive--he was leaning over with his face in his hands and appeared to have been shot somewhere in the head. The victim on the ground exhibited no vital signs at all. Within a matter of minutes, the ambulance and additional officers arrived at the scene. The victims on the balcony were later identified as Kenneth Blair and Charles Massengill. Blair was the victim on the ground, and Massengill was seated in the chair. Hensley did not see any other victims at that time.
Barry Snyder, a paramedic working for Bradley County EMS, was a member of the emergency medical team called to the crime scene. When Snyder arrived, he found Massengill sitting in a chair with his head in his hands and what appeared to be a gunshot wound to his right eye. Another gunshot victim, Blair, was lying on the floor. Blair had been shot in the head and was in worse shape than Massengill. The medical team placed Massengill and Blair on backboards and then into the ambulance. By that time, Blair was in cardiac arrest. They performed CPR, but Blair died after arriving at Erlanger Hospital. Later that same day, the EMS team was called back to 580 Dooley Street to transport a third victim of the incident, Marcus Williams, to Bradley Memorial Hospital. Williams had complained earlier of a pain in his lower back and, upon closer inspection, it turned out that he had a bullet lodged in it.
Sergeant Randy Gates, an officer with the Cleveland Police Department, testified that he was the second or third officer to arrive at the scene. When he reached the upstairs balcony area, he observed Blair lying on the floor in "bad shape" and the other victim, Massengill, slumped over the railing with an eye wound. Because the balcony was congested with medical personnel, Gates decided to assist with securing the area downstairs. On his way he encountered two more victims: Eric Benion and Marcus Williams. Benion had been shot in the hand and Williams had gunshot wounds in his leg and back.
Once the victims were removed for medical treatment, Gates and the other police officers began interviewing witnesses and searching the area for evidence. The police located a set of keys belonging to one of the victims, several spent rounds of ammunition (later identified as .22 caliber shell casings), a baseball cap, and a bottle of some kind of alcoholic beverage in the gravel parking lot below the stairs. County officials reported spotting persons and a car matching the witnesses' description of the suspects and their vehicle: three black males in a small, white four-door car, with a "drive-out tag" in the rear window.
Jimmy Woody, a patrolman for the Bradley County Sheriff's Office, testified that he was one of the police officers involved in the pursuit of the shooting suspects. The chase began shortly after Officer Paul Leroy initially spotted the suspects' vehicle near the Waffle House on Georgetown Road. Leroy reported observing the vehicle drive onto Interstate 75, near exit 25, and he followed it for several miles while waiting for assistance. When the suspects reached exit 33, Woody was within a mile of Leroy and both officers activated their blue lights and sirens. The suspects responded by accelerating. They drove recklessly, at speeds of 70 to 80 miles per hour, constantly switching lanes and also traveling in the emergency lane. The chase continued for approximately two miles. Then the driver of the vehicle suddenly pulled over and stopped the car in the median on the left side of the interstate, between the Charleston exit and the river on the northbound side. The passenger in the front seat remained in the vehicle, but the driver and backseat passenger leaped out of the car and ran west toward the southbound lane. Sergeant Collins and Clancy Bryson, also involved in the pursuit, chased the fleeing suspects on foot. One was captured in the woods, and the other was apprehended sometime later near the truck stop at exit 33. Woody identified Defendant as the driver of the vehicle, but did not testify as to whether Defendant was the suspect captured in the woods or the one apprehended later, near the truckstop.
Sergeant John Collins, a patrolman for the Bradley County Sheriff's Office, testified that he also participated in the pursuit of Defendant. As the officers were closing in on the vehicle, Collins made eye contact with the driver, who grinned at him as he pulled alongside the suspects. Collins identified Defendant as the smiling driver and corroborated the testimony given by Officer Woody regarding the pursuit. Collins also confirmed that both he and Officer Bryson chased the two suspects who fled on foot. Apprehending the first suspect rather quickly, the officers then searched the woods with police dogs for the second but were initially unsuccessful. Upon returning to their units, a dispatcher informed them that someone from the truck stop at exit 33 reported a person matching the description of the missing suspect standing on the interstate trying to flag a ride. Detective Quinn drove to the exit and picked him up. During his testimony, Collins was not asked whether Defendant was the first suspect, apprehended in the woods, or the one discovered later at the truckstop.
Steve Bennett, a detective with the Cleveland Police Department, testified that he assisted with the search of the crime scene and the defendants' car after they were apprehended. At the scene of the shooting, the police found five .22 shell casings. Inside the car, the police discovered two boxes of .22 rimfire ammunition, a black stocking-type mask, a cap, and articles of clothing. Two days later, on Interstate 75, northbound, the police also discovered the three guns involved in the crime: a .22 caliber revolver pistol, a Phoenix .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and a Haskell .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol. Two of the weapons were wrapped in a black shirt, and the third was laying close by. The particular type of .22 revolver discovered on the interstate can hold six rounds in its chamber, and it contained five rounds when the police found it. The Phoenix .22 semi-automatic is capable of holding eight rounds, fully loaded, and it had five rounds remaining in the clip. (Bennett was not questioned about the status of the .45 weapon upon discovery.) The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation crime lab matched the five casings recovered from the crime scene to the Phoenix .22 semi-automatic handgun.
Detective Bennett testified that he first encountered Defendant and the codefendants, O'Neil Sanford (Defendant's half-brother) and Orlando Malone, at the Bradley County Sheriff's Department an hour or two after the shooting occurred. Upon searching the suspects, the police discovered approximately $40.00 in cash on Sanford and 79 cents or so in change on Malone. Defendant had no cash on his person. When Bennett was asked by the prosecutor whether he attempted to get a statement from Defendant and whether he cooperated, Bennett replied "Yes" and "No," respectively. Defense counsel objected. A bench conference was then held out of the presence of the jury. When the jury returned, the trial judge instructed them, inter alia,...
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