State of Tennessee v. Cortney R. Logan

CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 8, 2015
DocketM2014-01687-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished

This text of State of Tennessee v. Cortney R. Logan (State of Tennessee v. Cortney R. Logan) 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 v. Cortney R. Logan, (Tenn. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE June 10, 2015 Session

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. CORTNEY R. LOGAN

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Davidson County No. 2009-C-2822 Seth Norman, Judge

No. M2014-01687-CCA-R3-CD – Filed October 8, 2015

The Defendant-Appellant, Cortney R. Logan, and his co-defendant, Joseph Leon Jackson, Jr., were indicted by the Davidson County Grand Jury for attempted first degree premeditated murder in count 1 and employment of a firearm during the flight or escape from the attempt to commit a dangerous felony in count 3. Although Logan was not charged in count 2 of the indictment, Jackson was charged in count 2 with employing a firearm during the attempt to commit a dangerous felony. Following a jury trial, Logan was convicted as charged, and the trial court imposed mandatory consecutive sentences of twenty-five years for the attempted first degree murder conviction and six years for the employment of a firearm during the flight or escape conviction. On appeal, Logan argues: (1) the trial court erred in allowing the State to present proof of his role in Jackson‘s escape from custody in Mississippi to show Logan‘s motive and intent to commit the offenses in Tennessee under a theory of criminal responsibility; (2) the evidence is insufficient to sustain his convictions; and (3) his effective sentence of thirty- one years is excessive. Upon review, we affirm Logan‘s convictions but remand the case for entry of a corrected judgment showing a conviction for employment of a firearm during the flight or escape from the attempt to commit a dangerous felony in count 3 and either redacting the word ―Violent‖ and leaving the 100% release eligibility designation or using the ―Special Conditions‖ section of the judgment form to specify that Logan received a sentence of six years at one hundred percent release eligibility for his conviction under Code section 39-17-1324(b)(4). In all other respects, the judgments of the trial court are affirmed.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed and Remanded for Entry of Corrected Judgment

CAMILLE R. MCMULLEN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which THOMAS T. WOODALL, P.J., and JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, J., joined.

Manuel B. Russ, Nashville, Tennessee, for the Defendant-Appellant, Cortney R. Logan. Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Brent C. Cherry, Senior Counsel; Victor S. Johnson, III, District Attorney General; and John C. Zimmermann, Assistant District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

Trial. Sergeant Mark Chestnut, an officer with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department for the last twenty-four years, testified that his career ended the day he initiated a traffic stop of Logan and was shot five times by Jackson, the co-defendant passenger. On June 25, 2009, he stopped a rental car with a Georgia tag driven by Logan because Logan was not wearing his seat belt. The stop occurred on Interstate 40 near the Bellevue area just outside of Nashville. Sergeant Chestnut approached the car on the passenger‘s side and asked Logan for his driver‘s license and either the registration papers or the rental documents for the car. Logan provided his license and confirmed that the car was a rental car but was unable to locate the rental papers for the vehicle. While Sergeant Chestnut was talking to Logan, he observed another person sitting in the back seat of Logan‘s vehicle. Because Sergeant Chestnut ―thought it was unusual‖ that a person was sitting in the back seat when the front passenger seat was empty, he asked Logan to step out of his vehicle. He then asked Logan about the car he was driving, where he was coming from, and where he was going. Logan replied that he had rented the car from the airport in Louisville, Kentucky, although he could not recall the rental company. Logan claimed he was coming from Nashville, but he gestured that he had come from a different direction. Logan also said he was going to a small community in north Nashville known as Dodge City.

Sergeant Chestnut noticed that Logan hesitated before answering nearly all of his questions. Logan continued to provide evasive responses when he was asked about his employment. After talking with Logan, Sergeant Chestnut spoke to the other occupant of the car. Although Logan had said that his passenger‘s name was ―James Gibbs,‖ the passenger told Sergeant Chestnut that his name was Joseph Jackson. The passenger was unable to provide any identification. When Sergeant Chestnut observed one or two sets of handcuffs on the floorboard of the car beneath Jackson‘s feet, he asked Jackson about them but did not recall his answer. He also asked Jackson where they had been, and Jackson replied, ―Louisiana.‖ He noted that Jackson‘s responses to his questions differed from the responses given by Logan.

After talking with Jackson, Sergeant Chestnut walked back to Logan. He asked that Logan stand on the shoulder, near the right front bumper of his patrol car, while Jackson remained in the back seat of the rental car. Sergeant Chestnut then returned to -2- his patrol car and called for backup. Although he felt Logan and Jackson were involved in ―some serious criminal activity,‖ he did not indicate this to the suspects. Sergeant Chestnut called the Blue Lighting Operation Center (BLOC) to get national record checks for Logan and Jackson, and while he was on the phone, Jackson exited the rental car and walked to the front passenger window of his patrol car. When Sergeant Chestnut rolled down the window, Jackson gave him a telephone number for his father, so that his father could verify his identity, before returning to the rental car. A few moments later, while Sergeant Chestnut was still on the phone with BLOC, he saw that Jackson had returned and was standing near the front bumper of his patrol car.

Sergeant Chestnut stated that Jackson approached and said ―something normal[.]‖ He then pulled the gun from his waistband and pointed at him, shooting him four times. During the shooting, Logan was standing twelve or thirteen feet away from Jackson. After he was shot, Sergeant Chestnut ―saw Mr. Jackson coming back toward [him].‖ He thought, ―[Jackson‘s] coming back to kill me or make sure I‘m dead.‖ Sergeant Chestnut was able to reverse his car away from Jackson and Logan, and observed them run back toward their car and take off. Logan was driving when he and Jackson left the scene. As soon as Sergeant Chestnut put his car in reverse, he relayed a message on his radio stating that he had been shot, providing his location, and giving a description of the two suspects and their vehicle.

Sergeant Chestnut identified Jackson from a photograph entered into evidence and stated that Jackson was wearing the same clothes in the photograph as the ones he was wearing the day he was shot. He also identified Logan from another photograph and observed that Logan was also wearing the same clothes in the photograph as the ones he had on the day of the shooting. In addition, he identified a photograph of the inside of his police car, which showed a silver revolver in the area between the front passenger seat and the door. He confirmed that this revolver did not belong to him and that he had been shot with ―a silver revolver.‖

At this point during Sergeant Chestnut‘s testimony, the jury was excused, and the trial court conducted a Rule 404(b) hearing in which four Mississippi witnesses and Detective Norris Tarkington testified. At the conclusion of this hearing, the trial court took the matter under advisement.

The jury was brought back into the courtroom, and Sergeant Chestnut continued his testimony in the presence of the jury. The State played a video/audio recording of the traffic stop taken from equipment inside Sergeant Chestnut‘s patrol car.

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Bluebook (online)
State of Tennessee v. Cortney R. Logan, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-v-cortney-r-logan-tenncrimapp-2015.