State v. Watkins

• Decision Date: 16 December 2021
• Docket Number: M2020-00035-CCA-R3-CD
• Citation: 648 S.W.3d 235
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. Demontez D. WATKINS
• Court: Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals

648 S.W.3d 235

STATE of Tennessee

v.Demontez D. WATKINS

No. M2020-00035-CCA-R3-CD

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, AT NASHVILLE.

March 23, 2021 Session

FILED December 16, 2021

Martesha L. Johnson, District Public Defender; Jeffrey A. DeVasher (on appeal), Patrick Hakes (at trial and on appeal), Kristin Neff (at trial), and Jessica Dragonetti (at trial), Assistant District Public Defenders, for the Appellant, Demontez D. Watkins.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; T. Austin Watkins, Assistant Attorney General; Glenn R. Funk, District Attorney General; Doug Thurman and David Orlando Jones, Jr., Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Robert H. Montgomery, Jr., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Norma McGee Ogle and D. Kelly Thomas, Jr., JJ., joined.

Robert H. Montgomery, Jr., J.

The Defendant, Demontez D. Watkins, was convicted by a Davidson County Criminal Court jury of first degree felony murder; two counts of attempted first degree premeditated murder, a Class A felony; second degree murder, a Class A felony; attempted especially aggravated robbery, a Class B felony; and two counts of employing a firearm in the commission of a dangerous felony, a Class C felony. See T.C.A. §§ 39-13-202(a)(2) (2018) (first degree murder), 39-13-210 (2014) (subsequently amended) (second degree murder); 39-13-403 (2018) (especially aggravated robbery); 39-17-1324(b)(1), (2) (2018) (employing a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony); 39-12-101 (2018) (criminal attempt). The trial court merged the first degree felony murder and second degree murder convictions and imposed an effective sentence of life plus twenty-seven years. On appeal, the Defendant contends that: (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions, (2) the trial court erred in admitting expert testimony regarding probabilistic genotyping regarding DNA evidence, (3) the court erred in denying his motion to suppress his pretrial statement, (4) the court erred in admitting evidence because the chain of custody was not adequately shown, and (5) the court erred in imposing consecutive sentencing. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

The Defendant's convictions relate to the homicide and attempted especially aggravated robbery of Reginald Ford, Sr.¹ and other offenses occurring contemporaneously. The Defendant was indicted with codefendants Davonta Jewan Sherrill, Rolandus Latraye Denzmore, and Troyvonte Deshawn Watkins, but the Defendant was tried separately.

At the trial, Cheressa Miller, the victim's wife, testified that she and the victim lived with their children in a duplex. She said the victim had two children from other relationships. She said that on the night of August 5, 2015, the victim had been at work and that she expected him to come home after work. She said she heard banging noises around midnight. She said her son ran into the room and said the victim had been shot. She said she went outside to the victim, who was lying on his back with his right foot in his car and who had been shot in the head. She said she administered CPR and called the police. She said that the victim was not known to carry a gun and that she did not think he had a gun that night.

Linnea Harris testified that she and the victim had a child together and that she saw the victim on the night of August 5, 2015. She said that after they were together, they had a telephone conversation and that she knew he reached his house because she heard his car door open and dinging sounds. She said that during their conversation, the victim suddenly said, "I ain't got nothing, I ain't got nothing." She said he sounded panicked. She did not hear other voices or any threats in the background. She said she heard gunshots ten to twelve seconds later. She said she called the victim's cousin, Tony, and 9-1-1.

Ms. Harris testified she had never heard the names of the Defendant or the codefendants in her conversations with the victim.

Demetria Lavender testified that in August 2015, she lived in the duplex which was part of the same building where the victim and his family lived. She said she lived with Derek Mitchell, who was her husband, and their three children. She said her seven-year-old child and her thirteen-year-old child were asleep in a bedroom which had a window facing a parking lot. She said her husband woke her about an hour after she went to bed and asked if she had heard a noise that sounded like gunshots. She said her husband activated their home alarm system and that she heard Ms. Miller screaming outside. Ms. Lavender said she noticed bullet holes in the curtains, dresser, headboard, a pillow, and walls of the bedroom in which the seven-year old and the thirteen-year old had been sleeping. She said hallway walls, the kitchen, and the laundry room door were also damaged by the gunfire. Photographs of the damage in the bedroom were received as exhibits.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Officer Chase Burnett testified that he was dispatched to the victim's address around 12:05 a.m. on August 6, 2015. He said that when he arrived, he saw the victim lying on his back on the ground with one leg "hanging out of a maroon Dodge Charger." Officer Burnett recognized the victim as a civilian employee of the Davidson County Sheriff's Department. Officer Burnett said the victim had a gunshot wound to the head and was not breathing or conscious. He said that he and other officers found about nine shell casings about twenty feet from the victim's body. He identified photographs of the area where the shell casings were found, and the photographs were received as exhibits. He agreed that he did not state in his report that the victim's pockets had been "turned out."

MNPD Crime Laboratory forensic scientist Christina Dradt testified that she went to the scene around 1:30 a.m. on August 6, 2015. She said she collected evidence and prepared a diagram of the scene. The diagram was received as an exhibit. She said that four cars were in a parking lot, that fourteen nine-millimeter bullet cartridge casings were found behind a red Mustang near an alley, that another car had two bullet "strike marks," and that a bullet projectile was lodged in a building's exterior wall. She said the victim lay face-up on the driver's side of a car with his right leg partially inside the car. She said Officer McClendon photographed the scene, and she identified evidentiary items depicted in the photographs. She said hair found at the scene was in a braid or dreadlock style. Ms. Dradt said she went inside the residence, where she observed evidence of gunfire.

MNPD crime scene investigator Justin Cregan testified that he went to the scene on August 6, 2015, where he saw a "couple" of cars in the parking lot. He said the victim was on the driver's side of one of the cars. He said the victim's car and the fascia of the house contained bullet strikes. The house's window facing the parking lot had bullet holes. Inside the residence, which other evidence showed to be Ms. Lavender's, Investigator Cregan observed two bullet projectiles, which were collected as evidence.

Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County Medical Examiner Feng Li, M.D., an expert in forensic biology, testified that he performed the autopsy of the victim's body. Dr. Li stated that a bullet entered the victim's body at the left earlobe; traveled into the ear canal, brain, and cerebellum; and did not exit the victim's head. Dr. Li identified two bullet fragments that were recovered from the victim's head. Dr. Li said the victim had a "powder tattoo" on the victim's head, which was caused by a gunshot burying gunpowder in human skin, which caused Dr. Li to conclude that the victim had suffered an intermediate range gunshot wound. Dr. Li said he wore gloves when he removed the victim's clothing. Dr. Li's report was received as an exhibit and reflected that the victim's cause of death was a "gunshot wound of the head" and that the manner of death was homicide.

MNPD Crime Laboratory employee Donald Carman, an expert in firearms and toolmark identification, testified that he examined evidentiary items collected in this case, which included a fired metal bullet jacket, fourteen fired nine-millimeter cartridge casings, several bullet fragments, and two nine-millimeter bullets. He said bullet fragments recovered by the medical examiner were .40 caliber. He said that all of the nine-millimeter cartridge casings had been fired from the same gun and noted that the bullets had been made by two different manufacturers. He said the firing pin impressions on the casings were consistent with their having been fired from a gun manufactured by Glock. He said the .40-caliber bullet fragments recovered by the medical examiner had markings which were consistent with the bullet having been fired from a Smith & Wesson gun.

MNPD Crime Laboratory DNA Analyst Julie Ellis, an expert in forensic serology and DNA analysis, testified that she received the Defendant's buccal swab containing his DNA, a sample of the victim's blood, and the victim's pants. Ms. Ellis stated that both front pockets and the back right pocket were "partially pulled out." She said she swabbed the inside of the right front pocket to collect DNA evidence. She said that after analysis of the items by another individual in the laboratory, she prepared a disc containing data related to the samples and the analysis.

Ms. Ellis testified that trace DNA referred to DNA evidence which was sometimes created when a person had limited contact with a surface. She said that trace DNA evidence might remain on a surface for a year. She said it was possible for a person to leave trace DNA evidence on clothing. She said DNA secondary transfer may occur when a person touches an object previously touched by another person, whereby the first person's DNA is transferred upon the second person's contact with the object. She said that the...