State v. Williams

• Court: Supreme Court of Tennessee
• Citation: 977 S.W.2d 101
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee, Appellant, v. Willie WILLIAMS, Jr. Appellee.
• Decision Date: 21 September 1998

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977 S.W.2d 101 STATE of Tennessee, Appellant,
v.
Willie WILLIAMS, Jr. Appellee. Supreme Court of Tennessee,
at Knoxville. Sept. 21, 1998.
Rehearing Denied Oct. 19, 1998.

John Knox Walkup, Attorney General and Reporter, Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General, Michael W. Catalano, Associate Solicitor General, Nashville, William H. Cox, III, District Attorney General, Thomas J. Evans, Assistant District Attorney General, Chattanooga, for Appellant.

Alan R. Beard, Chattanooga, for Appellee.

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DROWOTA, Justice.

The defendant, Willie Williams, Jr., was convicted of first degree premeditated murder. ¹ In the Court of Criminal Appeals, Williams challenged his conviction, arguing that prejudicial error resulted when the trial court refused to instruct the jury with respect to the offense of voluntary manslaughter. A majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals Panel reversed his conviction and remanded the case for a new trial, finding that the trial court should have given an instruction on voluntary manslaughter under the proof presented at trial, that the failure to give the instruction deprived the defendant of his right to a trial by jury, an error which is not subject to harmless error analysis. Judge Jerry Smith dissented. He agreed that there was sufficient evidence in the record to trigger the need for an instruction on voluntary manslaughter and that failure to do so was error. He reasoned, however, that the error was harmless because it was apparent from the jury's verdict of guilt on the greater offense of first degree murder and its disinclination to consider the lesser included offense of second degree murder that it certainly would not have returned a verdict on voluntary manslaughter.

Thereafter, we granted the State permission to appeal primarily to determine whether the trial court's erroneous failure to instruct the jury as to the offense of voluntary manslaughter is subject to harmless error analysis. Upon careful consideration, we have determined that the trial court's failure to instruct the jury as to voluntary manslaughter is harmless error because the jury was instructed as to the lesser included offense of second degree murder but convicted the defendant of the greatest charged offense, first degree premeditated murder. We have also determined that the trial court did not erroneously permit the jury to consider inadmissible hearsay testimony. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals and reinstate the judgment of the trial court. ²

BACKGROUND

At approximately 4:40 a.m. on July 24, 1993, Delaney Thomas' automobile was found in an alley adjoining his mother's home. Thomas was inside the car dead from a gunshot wound to his head. The car's engine was still running.

Prior to discovering the victim's body, the Chattanooga Police Department had received two Emergency 911 calls involving Thomas and the defendant. At 3:37 a.m. an Emergency 911 dispatcher received a call from Thomas reporting that he had "a conflict" with the defendant, and that Williams had shot at his car "for no reason." Deanna Taylor, a Chattanooga patrol officer, was the first to respond to the dispatch to the defendant's residence. Officer Taylor said Williams seemed surprised to see her and nervous when she asked him if he had reported some property damage from a shooting incident. Nevertheless, Williams told Officer Taylor that Thomas had driven by his house shooting a gun and that he had returned fire. After interviewing Williams, Officer Taylor alerted other officers to be on the lookout for Thomas.

Approximately one hour later, at 4:37 a.m., the Emergency 911 dispatcher received a call from the defendant. Williams told the dispatcher "I believe I shot somebody. I followed him and he laying in the car.... Get the police out here right now. The man might be dying, he might be dead. I don't know. He around the corner from me. He in a Cadillac ... I got the gun in the house now...."

Cherilyn Bryant, also a Chattanooga patrol officer, was the first officer to arrive at the defendant's residence in response to this call. She was escorted by the defendant and his brother to an alleyway a short distance from Williams' house. Though not visible from the road, when Officer Bryant entered the alleyway, she observed a Cadillac automobile parked in the alleyway. The engine of the

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car was running, and when she approached the car, Officer Bryant observed Thomas in the driver's seat of his car. He had sustained a gunshot wound to the head, and appeared to be dead. Blood on Thomas' body was dry and caked, indicating that some time had passed since the gunshot wound had been inflicted. No weapons were found in the victim's car. Officer Bryant, the defendant and his brother returned to Williams home. The defendant's brother went into the Williams' house, retrieved a Norinco AK-47 semi-automatic rifle, and turned it over to Officer Bryant. Fourteen shells of bullets from the rifle were found in Thomas' car and on the street nearby.

After waiving his right to counsel, the defendant gave officers a statement at the scene, relating that Thomas had shot at his house in a "drive-by" fashion earlier in the evening, and that he had reported the incident to the police. Thereafter, Williams had driven to a nearby intersection, where he encountered Thomas. He fired his weapon into the air to frighten Thomas. Then, he saw Thomas point a handgun through the passenger window at him, so he fired his gun in Thomas' direction. When he realized that the bullet had struck Thomas, he returned home and called the police.

Williams testified in his own behalf at trial stating that after he left work at midnight, he went to a bar called "The Shack" and remained there until it closed at about 2:30 a.m. He then went directly home. As he was backing into his driveway, a car he recognized as belonging to Thomas drove by, and the driver fired shots in his direction. He ran inside the house and told his wife and children to go to the back of the house where they would be safer. He took his gun, the AK-47, inserted a clip, and left the house to go to his grandmother's home. Williams said he thought Thomas would not cause trouble at his house if his car was not there. Williams said that when he came upon Thomas by chance during the drive to his grandmother's home, he panicked and fired his gun several times at the ground in an attempt to scare Thomas. When Thomas drove into an alleyway, the defendant assumed he had succeeded in scaring Thomas away, so he returned to his residence.

The defendant further testified at trial that after he returned home, Officer Taylor arrived. In response to her inquiries, the defendant told her that Thomas had driven by and shot at the house. At trial, he denied telling her that he returned fire. After Officer Taylor left, Williams called his brother and asked him to look for Thomas and talk to him. The defendant's brother found Thomas sitting in his car. He returned, telling the defendant that Thomas had been shot. At that point, the defendant made the 4:37 a.m. call to 911. The defendant denied wanting to kill the victim; he stated that he was extremely upset over his death.

The Hamilton County medical examiner testified that Thomas had not been facing his killer when he had been shot. He also stated that had Thomas been holding a gun, the gun would have been found either in his hand or nearby in his automobile. The medical examiner also testified that the gunshot wound would have caused immediate death within seconds to a minute at the longest and that Thomas would have been incapable of any voluntary activity after sustaining the gunshot wound, such as disposing of a weapon or driving an automobile.

One of the defendant's neighbors testified that she heard shots, and then saw a man drive up in a small car, exit the car, approach the alley, return to his car and leave. Soon afterward, she saw two men walk down the street, reach behind a wall, retrieve a gun while furtively looking around, and walk away from the area.

Gloria Buchanan, the woman with whom Thomas had been living at the time of his death also testified at trial. Buchanan stated that on the night of the murder she had seen the defendant and his brother at a bar called "The Shack." The defendant's brother approached her and asked about the victim's whereabouts, but she did not tell him anything. The defendant had been standing nearby when this conversation occurred. Buchanan also testified that Thomas was the father of a child borne by the defendant's sister, Valencia Williams. Buchanan's daughter, Glorissa Buchanan, had been in a

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knife fight with Valencia. As a result of that fight, Glorissa had been sent to a juvenile detention facility after having been found delinquent at a juvenile hearing which occurred the week before Thomas was murdered. At that hearing, Thomas had testified that after Glorissa had stabbed his sister, the defendant had twice hit Glorissa with his rifle.

Based on the evidence as summarized above, the trial court instructed the jury on the offenses of premeditated first degree murder, second degree murder, and reckless homicide. The court rejected the defendant's request for an instruction on voluntary manslaughter. The jury convicted the defendant of first degree murder and imposed a sentence of imprisonment for life.

On appeal, a majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals' Panel reversed his conviction and remanded the case for a new trial because the trial court refused to instruct the jury as to the offense of voluntary manslaughter. Thereafter, we granted the State permission to appeal, and for the reasons that follow, now reverse the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals and reinstate the judgment of the trial court.

HARMLESS ERROR ANALYSIS

In this appeal, the State concedes that the proof introduced at trial was legally sufficient to warrant an instruction...