State of Tennessee v. Levester Taylor

CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 4, 2014
DocketM2012-00732-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished

This text of State of Tennessee v. Levester Taylor (State of Tennessee v. Levester Taylor) 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. Levester Taylor, (Tenn. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE Assigned on Briefs December 11, 2013

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. LEVESTER TAYLOR

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Davidson County No. 2009A934 Monte Watkins, Judge

No. M2012-00732-CCA-R3-CD - Filed February 4, 2014

The Defendant, Levester Taylor, was convicted by a Davidson County jury for multiple counts of aggravated sexual battery and rape of a child. The trial court imposed a sentence of 10 years at 100% for each aggravated sexual battery and 20 years at 100% for each rape of a child, and ordered the sentences to run consecutively for an effective sentence of 200 years in the Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant argues that the evidence is insufficient to sustain his convictions and that the trial court erred imposing an effective sentence of 200 years. Upon review, the Defendant’s judgments of conviction are affirmed, the sentences imposed by the trial court are vacated, and the case is remanded for a resentencing hearing, following the Defendant’s election to proceed under the pre-2005 sentencing act or the amended sentencing act accompanied by the Defendant’s written waiver of his ex post facto protections.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Vacated and Remanded for Sentencing

C AMILLE R. M CM ULLEN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which J ERRY L. S MITH and A LAN E. G LENN, JJ., joined.

Michael A. Colavecchio, for the Defendant-Appellant, Levester Taylor.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Rachel Harmon, Assistant Attorney General; Victor S. Johnson, III, District Attorney General; and Sharon Reddick, Assistant District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION

The Defendant, Levester Taylor, was indicted for multiple counts of aggravated sexual battery and rape of child against his minor step-daughter, T.R.1

Trial. Brenda Marable, the mother of the minor victim, testified that the victim was born on January 7, 1994. She identified the Defendant at trial as her ex-husband and the biological father of her younger son, Q.T. The Defendant began living with Ms. Marable and her children in 1997 and the two married in 1998, when the victim was four years old. He continued to live with them until the victim was in the seventh grade. During that time period, the family lived in four different residences throughout the Davidson County area. They lived on Lakehurst Drive from 1998 to 2000, when the victim was ages four to six years old; on Jones Avenue from 2000 to 2004, when the victim was ages six to ten years old; on Westchester from 2004 to 2005, when the victim was ages ten to eleven years old; and on Cooper Terrace from 2005 to 2006, when the victim was ages eleven to twelve years old.

Ms. Marable testified that she confronted the Defendant about possible abuse when the victim was eleven years old after getting a phone call from the victim alleging inappropriate behavior by the Defendant. The Defendant denied the allegations and continued to live with the family for the next nine months. Ms. Marable testified that she did not call the police at that time because she “wanted to believe it wasn’t true.” She began saving money to move to a new house with her children. She ended her relationship with the Defendant and ultimately divorced him in 2007 or 2008, after she and her children moved out of the house. An investigation into the alleged sexual abuse was not initiated until several years later, when the victim was in the ninth grade and disclosed the abuse at school. On cross-examination, Ms. Marable acknowledged that she and her children continued to live with the Defendant for nine months to a year after the victim’s initial allegations of abuse. She also agreed that she never saw or heard anything that would indicate abuse.

T.R., the victim in this case, was seventeen years old at the time of trial. She identified the Defendant in court and testified that he sexually abused her from the ages of six to twelve. She testified that the first incident of abuse occurred when she was six years old while the family was living at the house on Lakehurst Drive. She recalled that the Defendant came into her bedroom at night while her mother was sleeping and “began rubbing on” her vagina over her underwear. She cried during the incident and the Defendant told her “shh” and then left her bedroom. The victim described another incident that occurred while the family was living on Jones Avenue. During this incident, the Defendant

1 It is the policy of this Court to refer to minor victims of sexual abuse and their minor family members by their initials.

-2- came into her bedroom at night while her mother was sleeping and “examined [her] private parts.” She recalled that the Defendant slid her clothes off partially and touched her inside and outside of her vagina. He also lifted her shirt and rubbed on her breasts. After he left, the victim went into her closet and slept there for the rest of the night. Another time, while still living at the house on Jones Avenue, the Defendant came into the victim’s bedroom while it was raining and touched the outside of her vagina. She pretended to be asleep because she “didn’t want to get in any trouble.” On another occasion, the Defendant came into the victim’s bedroom and she attempted to leave, but he “grabbed her” and “laid [her] back down so [she] wouldn’t move.” He held her down with his arm across her stomach, opened her legs, and touched the outside of her vagina. The victim recalled that all of the incidents at the house on Jones Avenue occurred while her mother was asleep or at work. On two occasions, the victim told the Defendant that she was going to tell her mother, but he warned her not to because she would get in trouble.

When the victim was eleven, her family moved into a house on Westchester. One morning after the victim’s mother left for work, the Defendant came into the victim’s bedroom and touched on the inside and outside of the victim’s vagina and on the victim’s breasts. The victim “got scared” and ran into the bathroom. After the Defendant left for work, the victim called her mother and told her what the Defendant had done. She did not tell her mother everything that had happened over the years because she was “scared” of her “family getting hurt.” She clarified that she “wasn’t sure if [the Defendant] would take his anger out on [her] mom” because she had told on him. The victim’s mother confronted the Defendant about the allegations and he apologized to the victim and said it would not happen again.

When the victim was twelve years old, her family moved into a house on Cooper Terrace. One day while her mother was at work, the victim came home from school and found the Defendant watching pornography on television. After she went to sleep that night, the Defendant came into her room, picked her up and carried her to his bedroom, and rubbed his penis on the inside and outside of her vagina and “put his lips on” her vagina. The victim was scared and started to cry. The Defendant continued to rub her and it “started to hurt” so she cried harder and the Defendant told her she could go back to her own room. On another occasion, the Defendant came into the victim’s bedroom and touched the inside and outside of her vagina. He left her room when she started to cry. Another time, right before the victim started her monthly period, the Defendant took the victim into his bedroom and fully penetrated her vagina with his penis. She cried because it hurt and he told her to be quiet. She kept crying and he told her to go back to her bedroom. The incident caused her to bleed into her underwear and her vagina was sore. Soon after this incident, the Defendant moved to Louisiana and the abuse never happened again.

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Bluebook (online)
State of Tennessee v. Levester Taylor, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-v-levester-taylor-tenncrimapp-2014.