State v. Thomas, W2019-01202-CCA-R3-CD
| Decision Date | 28 October 2021 |
| Docket Number | W2019-01202-CCA-R3-CD |
| Parties | STATE OF TENNESSEE v. TONY THOMAS and LARONDA TURNER |
| Court | Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals |
February 3, 2021 Session
Appeal from the Criminal Court for Shelby County Nos. C17-00608 C17-00609, & 17-00382 J. Robert Carter, Jr., Judge
The Defendants, Tony Thomas and Laronda Turner, were convicted of three counts of first-degree premeditated murder and received life sentences on each count. On appeal, they raise the following issues: (1) whether the evidence was sufficient to support their convictions, specifically whether the co-defendant's testimony was reliable and sufficiently corroborated; (2) whether the trial court erred by denying the Defendants' motion to dismiss the indictment due to the State's Ferguson violation by failing to preserve the photographic lineups shown to the witnesses and the co-defendant's cell phone taken upon his arrest; (3) whether the trial court erred by not granting a new trial because the State committed a Brady violation by failing to disclose all inconsistent statements made by the co-defendant during proffer sessions; (4) whether the trial court committed error when it sua sponte prohibited the introduction of the printout of the co-defendant's message to his girlfriend implicating himself in the murders and in so doing, made an improper comment on the evidence and (5) whether the trial court erred in instructing the jury by including the language "or either of them" throughout the jury instructions.[1] Following our review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed
Harry E. Sayle III (on appeal), Memphis, Tennessee; Phyllis L. Aluko (of counsel), District Public Defender [2] and Jennifer H. Case and Samuel Christian (at trial), Assistant District Public Defenders, for the appellant, Tony Thomas.
Josie S. Holland (on appeal), and John R. Scott (at trial and on appeal), Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Laronda Turner.
Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Samantha L. Simpson, Assistant Attorney General; Amy P. Weirich, District Attorney General; and Paul Hagerman and Austin B. Scofield, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
D. Kelly Thomas, Jr., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which and J. Ross Dyer, J., joined. Camille R. McMullen, J., filed a dissenting opinion.
This case arises from the shooting deaths of Anthony Isom, Michael Glover, and Chastity Springfield that occurred inside Anthony's[3] residence on Lake Grove Street in Memphis between the hours of 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. on September 26 2015. Thereafter, on January 26, 2017, a Shelby County grand jury indicted Defendants Thomas and Turner, along with co-defendant Demarco Hawkins, for three counts of first-degree premeditated murder in relation to these deaths. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-202. Co-defendant Hawkins's case was severed from the Defendants, and they proceeded to a joint trial in May 2019.
A. State's proof. Terry Jennings testified that he lived on Lake Grove Street in September 2015 next door to Anthony's duplex. Mr. Jennings testified that early in the morning on September 26, 2015, he heard a knock on his front door, so he got out of bed. While he was sitting on his couch, he heard people talking next door. Mr. Jennings said that he heard someone say, "Don't shoot me," and that he then heard a different individual say, "You done [sic] messed up." After these statements, Mr. Jennings heard "[a] lot of shooting" from what sounded like an automatic weapon. He also heard a woman scream. When he looked out his living room window, he saw two Black men walking away from the duplex-one trailing about five feet behind the other. Mr. Jennings described the first man as shorter, dark-skinned, "a lot of hair on his head," and shirtless, and the second man as approximately six feet tall with light skin. Mr. Jennings stated that he did not observe any tattoos on the dark-skinned man and that he had seen the dark-skinned man at the residence previously. According to Mr. Jennings, the two men got into a "big" burgundy vehicle, which was parked across the street from Anthony's residence, and the car proceeded toward Chelsea Avenue, where it went out of Mr. Jennings's sight.
After the vehicle left, Mr. Jennings immediately called 911. During the 911 call, which was placed at 1:31 a.m., Mr. Jennings stated that he heard "a whole lot of shooting" coming from a pistol, approximately fifteen gunshots total, from the residence next door.
Mr. Jennings informed the 911 operator that he did not recognize anyone but that he saw two Black men leaving the residence. Mr. Jennings further informed that he saw the men leave the house and get inside a four-door maroon-colored vehicle, but that he did not see which direction they went.
Memphis Police Department ("MPD") Detective Nick Dandridge responded to Anthony's residence to investigate, which was the left side of the duplex. According to Detective Dandridge, officers were unable to enter through the front door because it was blocked by Anthony's body. After entering the residence through a side door, Detective Dandridge observed Anthony's body lying between the front door and the bed in the front room, Ms. Springfield's body "hanging out" of the rear-bedroom window, and Mr. Glover's body lying in a closet in the rear bedroom. All three had been shot multiple times, and there were shell casings throughout the house. Also, Anthony's pants had been pulled down below his hips.
Detective Dandridge also found broken glass and baggies of marijuana across the street from Anthony's house where the suspect car had been parked. When shown a photograph of keys hanging on the inside of Anthony's security door, Detective Dandridge opined that Anthony kept the keys in the door with the door locked and only let inside people he knew. Detective Dandridge acknowledged that no fingerprints or DNA evidence were found at the crime scene.
In addition, Detective Dandridge discovered a green notebook inside the residence and a writing on the wall "that said rest in peace Ralph" dated September 2, 2015. He described the notebook's contents for the jury, which included a list of names of who was present on a certain date. Detective Dandridge opined that the notebook contained recordings of gang activity.
After assessing the crime scene, Detective Dandridge spoke with Mr. Jennings, and Mr. Jennings went to the police station and gave a formal statement. In that statement, Mr. Jennings described the "second guy" as being five feet, nine inches tall.
Though Mr. Jennings could not remember an exact number, Mr. Jennings confirmed that he was shown more than one photographic lineup of male suspects and that he was unable to make any identification from the lineups. Mr. Jennings said that he "got a good enough look at the men as they left the house" and that he would have been able to recognize them if the photograph appeared in the lineup. Mr. Jennings explained that he saw the men's side profiles from the light of a street lamp. Mr. Jennings indicated that he did not see anyone other than the two men inside the car that night and confirmed that he never saw a woman. Mr. Jennings also testified that the police told him that the car was burgundy when he kept describing it as red.
Detective Dandridge confirmed that Mr. Jennings was shown lineups labeled A and B and that Defendant Thomas's picture was included in a photographic lineup A. Photographic lineups labeled A and B were admitted into evidence. Lineup B did not include a photograph of either of the two male defendants, and the names of the individuals shown in the photographs were apparent from the copy entered into evidence. Detective Dandridge testified that when Mr. Jennings viewed the lineup containing Defendant Thomas's photograph, Mr. Jennings was unable to identify anyone and that he explained it was too dark and "only saw silhouettes" of the men while they were running. Detective Dandridge reviewed Mr. Jennings's police statement and affirmed that it appeared from the statement that Mr. Jennings was only shown the two photographic lineups. Detective Dandridge could not recall if anyone ever spoke to Mr. Jennings again during the investigation.
Shortly after the killings, Detective Dandridge learned that the Louie & Sue Supermarket across Chelsea Avenue had a security camera that "point[ed] directly" at the area of Lake Grove Street where Anthony lived. The jury was shown the surveillance recording. However, the recording was from a relatively far distance away; the angle, in addition to crossing the street, crossed a "long[] and broad" vacant field lot before showing a residence at the end of Lake Grove Street. Anthony's residence was next door to the residence at the end of the street; Anthony's duplex was not visible from the camera's angle. In addition, the events occurred at nighttime, so the recording provided only a dark view of the area. The video depicted that around 10:30 p.m., a vehicle arrived and parked on Lake Grove Street across the street from Anthony's residence. At that time, there appeared to be "some movement in the car" when the vehicle's doors opened and closed. After the initial movement, no additional movement occurred inside or around the vehicle until shortly after 1:30 a.m. After the individuals appeared to get inside the car, the car was driven away from the residence at approximately 1:33 a.m. It turned left off of Lake Grove Street onto Chelsea Avenue and passed directly in front of the store.
Detective Dandridge testified that the car in the...
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