Donald Wayne Holt v. State

CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedSeptember 20, 1999
Docket01C01-9805-CC-00201
StatusPublished

This text of Donald Wayne Holt v. State (Donald Wayne Holt v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Donald Wayne Holt v. State, (Tenn. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE

AT NASHVILLE FILED JUNE 1999 SESSION September 20, 1999

Cecil Crowson, Jr. DONALD WAYNE HOLT, ) Appellate Court Clerk ) No. 01C01-9805-CC-00201 Appellant, ) ) Rutherford County v. ) ) Hon. James K. Clayton, Jr., Judge STATE OF TENNESSEE, ) ) Appellee. ) (Post-Conviction)

For the Appellant: For the Appellee:

W.H. Stephenson II Paul G. Summers 311 White Bridge Road Attorney General and Reporter Nashville, TN 37209 and Marvin E. Clements, Jr. Assistant Attorney General Cordell Hull Building, 2nd Floor 425 Fifth Avenue North Nashville, TN 37243-0493

William C. Whitesell, Jr. District Attorney General 303 Rutherford Co. Judicial Bldg. Murfreesboro, TN 37130

OPINION FILED:

AFFIRMED

Joseph M. Tipton, Judge OPINION

The petitioner appeals as of right from the order of the Rutherford County Circuit

Court denying him post-conviction relief from his 1991 conviction for aggravated rape

and his resulting twenty-two year sentence. This court affirmed the conviction on direct

appeal. See State v. Donald Wayne Holt, No. 01C01-9503-CC-00053, Rutherford

County (Tenn. Crim. App. Sept. 27, 1995). The petitioner contends that the trial court

erred in determining that he received the effective assistance of counsel at his trial.

Upon a complete review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

A Rutherford County jury convicted the petitioner of aggravated rape. This court

set forth the following statement of the facts on direct appeal:

On July 11, 1990, the victim became 21 years of age. After her date for the evening did not show up, she left home and consumed a considerable amount of liquor. Around midnight, the victim stopped at the Kroger parking lot in Smyrna, Tennessee to use the telephone. She planned to call her brother because she was too intoxicated to drive. The appellant and two of his acquaintances were at the parking lot. The appellant walked over and introduced himself to the victim. After conversing for about twenty minutes, the appellant persuaded the victim to allow him to drive her home.

After leaving the parking lot, the victim passed out and awoke when the appellant was stopped by the police for speeding. At that point, they were in LaVergne, Tennessee. The appellant and the victim followed the police to the police station. When the appellant went into the station, the victim attempted to drive her vehicle away, but one of the [policemen] prevented her from doing so because of her intoxication. The victim passed out again and woke up when the appellant came back to the car. The victim again asked the appellant to carry her home, but, instead, the appellant drove to a secluded area.

After stopping, the appellant removed the victim's pants, and forced her to have oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex, and oral sex again. During this time, the victim screamed and attempted to push the appellant away, but she could not get up. After the appellant made the victim engage in oral sex the second time, she pretended she was vomiting and then acted as if she could not breathe. This alarmed the appellant, and, consequently, they left to seek medical treatment.

2 The appellant and the victim stopped at a convenience store, and the victim requested the attendant call an ambulance.1 The appellant then came into the store, and the victim began kicking her feet and throwing her hands at him. He was told to leave by the attendant. The victim told the attendant that she had been raped. The attendant called 911 which called the police and an ambulance.

Dr. Sharon Piper, a medical doctor specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, testified as an expert witness. Dr. Piper treated the victim at the Vanderbilt hospital and assisted in surgery. The victim sustained painful injuries to her vagina, rectum, and perineum. Over the objection of the appellant, Dr. Piper gave the following testimony:

"Q. Doctor, again, do you have a medical opinion as to what caused this type of injury?

A. Well, her external exam had revealed the possibility of forced intercourse. We weren't quite sure about the internal injury. The thought did cross my mind, was a blunt instrument used.

Q. Could the injury that you observed, the laceration inside the vagina based upon a reasonable degree of medical certainty, could that have been caused by the fact that the vagina did not expand and did not lubricate?

A. Yes, sir. . .

Q. Now, back to the question I started to ask, do you have an opinion based upon a reasonable medical certainty, based upon the injuries that you observed as to whether this intercourse was forced or not forced intercourse?

A. Due to the extent of her injuries, I do not feel that this can be voluntary."

The appellant’s defense was that the victim consented to sex.

The appellant testified that he saw the victim at the Kroger parking lot at approximately midnight. He found her attractive and engaged her in conversation. After talking for about twenty minutes, the victim gave the appellant the keys to her car. The victim told him it was her birthday, and she wanted to party. They went to LaVergne because a convenience store there sold beer until 3:00 a.m. He was stopped by police for speeding but gave the officers his brother's name because he did not have a license. After leaving the police station, the victim said she wanted to go home, but then said she did not because she would get into trouble. While driving down the road, the victim grabbed the appellant by the neck, kissed him, and told him he was cute. The appellant suggested they go

1 A reading of the original trial transcript shows that petitioner, not the victim, requested that the clerk call for help.

3 parking and have sex to which the victim agreed. According to [petitioner], the victim willingly engaged in the sexual activities which she had earlier described, and she enjoyed the sexual acts. After the victim became ill, they left to seek medical treatment.

The appellant attempted to corroborate his claim of consent by testimony that he was struck by lightning a few days before the incident, and this injury incapacitated him to a degree that he could not physically force the victim to have sex.

Donald Wayne Holt, slip. op. at 2-5. Additional information was included in footnotes

one and two of the opinion:

1. The victim is five foot two inches tall and weighs 88 pounds. She testified that she had not previously engaged in sex, and her testimony was corroborated by Dr. Sharon Piper. The victim had a number of medical conditions including a common variable hypogammaglobulinenia, a blood disorder, severe bronchiectasis, a condition of the lungs, and a nutritional condition which required a porta-cath (a permanent IV) in her chest.

2. Dr. Piper testified to these specific injuries. There was a one centimeter tear on the right lateral aspect of the urinary opening. There were multiple abrasions on the labia. There was a one centimeter perennial tear. The entire perennial area was undergoing the initial stages of severe bruising. The victim had partial rectal prolapse. Her rectum was actually coming outside of her body. The anal area was very swollen and the muscle tone was gone. The victim had a five centimeter laceration in her vagina. These injuries necessitated extensive surgery and the victim was hospitalized at Vanderbilt from July 12, 1990 to July 21, 1990. The total medical bills were in excess of $ 19,000.00.

Id. at 3.

In his direct appeal, the petitioner challenged the sufficiency of the evidence, the

admission of Dr. Sharon Piper’s testimony that the victim’s injuries were caused by

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