State of Tennessee v. Michael Ward, II

CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJune 22, 2004
DocketM2003-00734-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished

This text of State of Tennessee v. Michael Ward, II (State of Tennessee v. Michael Ward, II) 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. Michael Ward, II, (Tenn. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE April 7, 2004 Session

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. MICHAEL WARD, II

Direct Appeal from the Criminal Court for Coffee County Nos. 30, 857 L. Craig Johnson, Judge

No. M2003-00734-CCA-R3-CD - Filed June 22, 2004

The Defendant, Michael Ward, II, was convicted by a jury of attempted second degree murder, aggravated spousal rape, especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary. In this direct appeal, the Defendant raises five issues: (1) whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain his five convictions; (2) whether double jeopardy bars multiple convictions that all require proof of the element of serious bodily injury; (3) whether the trial court erred by admitting evidence of the Defendant’s prior bad acts; (4) whether the Defendant was prejudiced by the State’s failure to provide him with discovery items; and (5) whether the Defendant is entitled to a new trial based on the cumulative effect of the alleged trial errors. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Circuit Court Affirmed

DAVID H. WELLES, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which ALAN E. GLENN and ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JJ., joined.

Anthony Avery, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Michael Ward, II.

Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Elizabeth Marney, Assistant Attorney General; C. Michael Layne, District Attorney General; and Jason Ponder, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

The victim, Michelle Ward, was married to the Defendant on November 9, 1997. They separated in August of 2000. The Defendant moved out, leaving Ms. Ward to care for her three children and the Defendant’s son. In October of 2000, Ms. Ward obtained an order of protection against the Defendant which prohibited direct communication between them and which also denied the Defendant access to Ms. Ward’s residence. Ms. Ward moved to a new residence in November of 2000. Ms. Ward testified that the Defendant violated the order of protection numerous times by calling her, spying on her, following her, and threatening her. He told her that he wanted to get back together with her and that he was addressing his problems with medication and therapy. On one occasion, while Ms. Ward was returning home from shopping, she noticed someone in the back of her van. When she got home, she and her sister, Ashley Cupp, opened the back of the van and found the Defendant. He got out of the van and walked away from them. He later returned to their home yelling profanities and demanding that Ms. Ward give him his son, which she ultimately did. Approximately thirty minutes later, the Defendant returned and apologized, saying “he just wanted [Ms. Ward] back in his life, and he was going to do whatever it took.”

On the night before the attack that is the subject of this appeal, the Defendant sent Ms. Ward several electronic pages using a numeric code that they devised while they were married. According to Ms. Ward, the pages read, “‘Till death do us part” and “Death by rape.” Ms. Ward did not take the pages seriously because she was accustomed to his threats.

On the next day, November 20, 2000, the Defendant called Ms. Ward at her office in the early afternoon. He apologized for the pages and said that he had a chemical imbalance. He assured her that he was in therapy and he would work his problems out so that he could be good to her and the children. A few minutes after 10:00 that evening, Ms. Ward made a trip to her old residence to do laundry and make telephone calls because her washing machine and phone were still located there. As she was about to leave through the front door, someone forced the door closed. She felt an arm go around her neck and force her into “a headlock position.” Then she felt several blows to the left side of her head. She yelled for the Defendant to stop, but he did not. She urinated and collapsed to her knees. The Defendant forced Ms. Ward onto her back and planted his knees on her chest while he continued hitting her in the head with his fists. The victim testified that “he looked right at me in my eyes, and then he started to choke me.” The victim kept saying their daughter’s name, hoping to “snap [the Defendant] out of it.” Eventually the victim lost consciousness.

When she regained consciousness, she was still on the floor, but the Defendant had removed her pants and was “pulling [her] up onto [her] knees.” As he did so, he told her to not make a sound, and he hit her a few more times in the head. The Defendant then anally penetrated the victim with his penis for thirty seconds or a minute. The Defendant then rolled her onto her back and climbed on top of her. Ms. Ward kicked him, but that “just made him madder.” In her words, “He told me he was going to kill me, and he put his arms and his hands around my neck, and that time, I wanted him to just finish it, just go, but I just went unconscious. I didn’t die.”

When Ms. Ward regained consciousness the second time, she was naked on the floor in her van. She heard the Defendant say that he had a place picked out where he was going to dump her body, and he would get away with it. The victim looked out the window and saw a sign for Sewanee; therefore she knew that she was near Monteagle. She found her clothes on the floor of her van, but they were wet with urine. She testified that the Defendant said he could not believe that she was alive. He also said “he thought for sure he had [her] that time.” Ms. Ward testified that the Defendant had a metal pipe with him that was “about two feet long” and “heavy.” The Defendant threatened to hit her with it. For about an hour Ms. Ward stayed down, and the Defendant talked about where he was going to bury her. Eventually the victim began begging the Defendant to let her

-2- sit up front with him so they could work things out. She kissed and held his hand, and he let her sit in the front seat. Ms. Ward explained to him that she needed to get home so her daughter would not be worried. The Defendant apologized and said that, if he took her home, she would have to wait until after 6:00 a.m. to call the police so he would have time to kill himself. Ms. Ward promised to abide by his wishes, and he eventually let her go at an automobile body shop. He gave her his “84 Lumber” cap, his watch, his necklace, and his wedding ring to give to his children “to remember him by.”

After the Defendant got out, Ms. Ward immediately left in her van. She got lost, but she eventually got home between 3:00 and 3:30 in the morning. Shortly after she got home, the Defendant returned in his truck. He stopped in front of her house, honked his horn, and placed an object in her mailbox, which turned out to be a cassette tape of his “last will and testament” and a statement to the victim and their children.

Eventually the police came, and Ms. Ward was taken to the emergency room, where she stayed for approximately three hours. Meanwhile, the Defendant called the victim’s former residence and left a message on her answering machine. In the message, he apologized and asked her to page him on the pager he took from her. In addition to the pager, she determined that the Defendant had taken eighty dollars from her. Acting on the advice of police officers, the victim contacted the Defendant and arranged a meeting, and the police apprehended him.

Ms. Ward testified that, after the attack, her “whole body hurt.” Her head hurt and was swollen, so doctors performed a CAT scan. She was unable to take a shower for days because of the pain. When she finally did, her mother had to help her. She was unable to wash or brush her hair because her head was so sore, and she had trouble urinating.

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State of Tennessee v. Michael Ward, II, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-v-michael-ward-ii-tenncrimapp-2004.