State of Tennessee Roderick Darnell Stafford

CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMay 28, 2026
DocketM2025-01230-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished
AuthorJudge Timothy L. Easter

This text of State of Tennessee Roderick Darnell Stafford (State of Tennessee Roderick Darnell Stafford) 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
State of Tennessee Roderick Darnell Stafford, (Tenn. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

05/28/2026 IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE Assigned on Briefs May 12, 2026

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. RODERICK DARNELL STAFFORD

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Davidson County No. 2023-D-2126 Jennifer Smith, Judge ___________________________________

No. M2025-01230-CCA-R3-CD ___________________________________

Defendant, Roderick Darnell Stafford, was indicted by the Davidson County Grand Jury for two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Counts 1 and 2, one count of possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony drug offense in Count 3, and one count of possessing a firearm after being convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence in Count 4. Defendant pleaded guilty as charged in Counts 2 and 3, with the trial court to determine the length, manner, and alignment of service. After a sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced Defendant to four years’ confinement for Count 2 and five years’ confinement for Count 3, ordering the sentences to run consecutively for an effective sentence of nine years’ confinement. The remaining counts were dismissed. On appeal, Defendant argues that the trial court erred by (1) imposing enhanced sentences, (2) ordering consecutive alignment of his sentences, and (3) ordering him to serve his sentences in confinement. After review, we remand the matter to the trial court for entry of judgment forms for Counts 1 and 4. In all other respects, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed and Case Remanded

TIMOTHY L. EASTER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which ROBERT L. HOLLOWAY, JR., and STEVEN W. SWORD, JJ., joined.

David Von Wiegandt, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Roderick Darnell Stafford.

Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Caroline Weldon, Assistant Attorney General; Glenn R. Funk, District Attorney General; and Brian Ewald, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION

At the plea hearing, the State summarized the factual basis of the plea agreement as follows:

[O]n January 24[,] 2023, at approximately 4:30 p.m., officers responded to [Andrew Jackson Courts] in Davidson County, in response to a report of a person with a weapon. They made contact with one of the victims, Brenda Stafford.

According to Ms. Stafford, [D]efendant . . . is her brother-in-law, and on January 24[, Defendant] came to the area of Ms. Stafford’s residence holding two handguns and threatening to shoot Ms. Stafford and her son Juwaun Martindale. The victims were in fear of their life.

This incident was captured on video surveillance[.] The video shows [Defendant] approached the victim and her son holding two guns in his hands and waving them around.

...

And [Defendant] has previously been convicted of a felony drug offense which prohibits him from carrying a weapon.

Defendant stipulated to the State’s recitation of the facts, and he pleaded guilty as a standard offender to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Count 2 and possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony drug offense in Count 3. As part of the agreement, Defendant agreed to have the length, manner, and alignment of his sentences determined by the trial court after a sentencing hearing. In addition, the plea agreement specified that the remaining counts would be dismissed. The trial court accepted the plea agreement and set the case for a sentencing hearing.

At the sentencing hearing, the State introduced Defendant’s presentence report, which documented Defendant’s seventeen prior convictions between 1997 and 2017. The convictions included seven counts of assault; one count of resisting a stop, frisk, halt, arrest, or search; one count of criminal impersonation; one count of driving without a license; one count of possessing a Schedule II drug—cocaine, less than 0.5 grams; two counts of criminal trespass; one count of casual exchange; one count of theft of a vehicle; and one count of violating the driver’s license law. -2- The State also introduced surveillance footage obtained from a camera at Andrew Jackson Courts. The footage showed Defendant arriving at Andrew Jackson Courts in a black SUV and immediately entering a building. Minutes later, Defendant exited the building and left Andrew Jackson Courts in his SUV, but he returned around eleven minutes later. Upon returning, Defendant parked on the side of the road and approached a white sedan occupied by Mr. Martindale. As Mr. Martindale exited the sedan to confront Defendant, Defendant produced two handguns from his person. In response, Mr. Martindale removed his sweatshirt, partially pulled down his pants, and placed a handgun on the ground. During this exchange, various individuals, including an unnamed man standing next to Mr. Martindale’s sedan, congregated at various distances around the confrontation. Nevertheless, Defendant continued to verbally engage with Mr. Martindale and repeatedly and erratically waved his two handguns in multiple directions. Defendant disengaged from and reengaged with the confrontation multiple times, pointing the handguns at Mr. Martindale upon each reengagement. Defendant eventually returned to his SUV and drove out of view, and Mr. Martindale picked up his handgun and ran out of view in the direction of Defendant’s SUV.

Defendant testified that his brother was killed in 2017 while he was incarcerated for another matter. He claimed that charges were brought against a suspect of the killing but were dismissed after Ms. Stafford told law enforcement that the death was Defendant’s brother’s fault. Defendant claimed that Ms. Stafford and Mr. Martindale were in the same home when his brother was killed. Defendant testified that he “tr[ied] to get answers” from Ms. Stafford and Mr. Martindale regarding the death of his brother, but “they avoided [him].” Defendant further testified that Mr. Martindale began threatening Defendant’s daughter, prompting Defendant to obtain two handguns.

Defendant testified that on the day of the incident, he went to speak with Ms. Stafford at her residence in Andrew Jackson Courts regarding Mr. Martindale’s threats. Defendant asked Ms. Stafford to tell Mr. Martindale to leave his daughter alone. Defendant also spoke with Ms. Stafford about his brother’s death, but he told Ms. Stafford that he “didn’t care nothing about the death” and that he “let that go.” Defendant testified that his conversation with Ms. Stafford was “calm” and that the two “sat there and talked on the sidewalk outside the building.” Defendant admitted that he went inside the building to speak with Ms. Stafford at one point during the conversation, but he denied having a handgun on his person, claiming that he left the handguns in his SUV. After he finished speaking with Ms. Stafford, Defendant left Andrew Jackson Courts and went to the store.

In a somewhat confusing recitation, Defendant testified that he drove “back through Andrew Jackson [Courts]” to “see where [his] daughter was at.” When he approached the premises, he saw Mr. Martindale sitting in a white sedan parked on the side of the street. -3- Defendant parked his SUV and approached Mr. Martindale’s sedan on foot with two handguns “in [his] pockets.” Defendant claimed that Mr. Martindale said, “[M]an, cool, man,” when he saw Defendant approaching. Defendant asked Mr. Martindale about his threatening Defendant’s daughter. Mr. Martindale exited the sedan, and the unnamed man, whom Defendant identified as Mr. Martindale’s friend, approached. Defendant claimed he noticed that Mr. Martindale and the unnamed man had handguns, so Defendant decided to pull out his handguns and tell Mr. Martindale to “[q]uit messing with [his] f[****]ing kids.” Defendant acknowledged that Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
State of Tennessee Roderick Darnell Stafford, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-roderick-darnell-stafford-tenncrimapp-2026.