State of Tennessee v. Parker Odell Doney, Jr.

CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 17, 2001
DocketM2001-01187-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished

This text of State of Tennessee v. Parker Odell Doney, Jr. (State of Tennessee v. Parker Odell Doney, Jr.) 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. Parker Odell Doney, Jr., (Tenn. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE Assigned on Briefs December 12, 2001

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. PARKER ODELL DONEY, JR.

Direct Appeal from the Criminal Court for Sumner County No. 370-2000 Jane Wheatcraft, Judge

No. M2001-01187-CCA-R3-CD - Filed January 17, 2001

The defendant, Parker Odell Doney, Jr., appeals his convictions for one count of aggravated robbery and two counts of aggravated assault and his sentences totaling fifteen years in the Department of Correction. The defendant contends the evidence presented against him at trial was insufficient to support his convictions, and the trial court erred in sentencing him. After a thorough review of the record, we reduce the aggravated assault sentences but otherwise affirm the judgments of the trial court.

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

JOE G. RILEY, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JAMES CURWOOD WITT, JR. and JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, JJ., joined.

Mike Carter, Gallatin, Tennessee, for the appellant, Parker Odell Doney, Jr.

Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Kim R. Helper, Assistant Attorney General; Lawrence Ray Whitley, District Attorney General; and Sallie Wade Brown, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

The state’s proof revealed that on March 3, 2000, the defendant, along with Antonio Cartwright, Corey Jones, and Brandon Moore, walked into the apartment of victims Ricky Ramsey and Robert Bracey. The defendant struck Ramsey on the head with a pistol and then with a beer bottle. The defendant and Cartwright assaulted Ramsey while the others restrained and assaulted Bracey. The defendant's companions took property from the apartment and divided it with the defendant.

Ricky Ramsey testified Martez Fitts stopped by his apartment, and the two of them played a video game in the living room. Ramsey stated he had known Fitts for years and, more recently, they were employed together. While they were playing the video game, Robert Bracey and his sister, Katrina Bracey, entered the apartment. Ramsey said there was a knock at the door, and the defendant entered uninvited along with the other men. Ramsey testified he did not know the men, but he recognized Antonio Cartwright, a relative of Fitts.

According to Ramsey, the men remained silent. Ramsey said he "knew something wasn't right," so he told Robert Bracey and his sister, who were leaving to go to their mother’s home, that he would leave with them. Ramsey testified that as he stood up and began walking, the defendant pulled out a gun, jumped at him, and struck him on the head with the gun. Ramsey described the gun as having a silver barrel and black handle. Ramsey said the defendant lost control of the gun, and it fell to the floor. Two of the other men charged Robert Bracey. Ramsey said he was hit over the head with something "glass and wet" as he and the defendant were struggling for the gun. Ramsey testified he was dazed after being struck and lay still for an unknown period of time. Then he went to his bedroom in response to an order by the defendant, who was holding the gun. While he was in the bedroom, Cartwright struck Ramsey in the mouth. Ramsey testified Cartwright and the defendant kicked, stomped and hit him while he was curled up in a ball. The defendant then ordered Ramsey to lie on the living room floor. Ramsey observed one of the men on top of Robert Bracey, who was on the floor.

As the three other men started to leave, the defendant stopped, grabbed a bar stool, and used it to again strike Ramsey. Then the defendant and the others left the apartment. Ramsey testified the apartment was ransacked during the incident. He also stated he had about $500 in cash in the locked closet in his bedroom. Ramsey said the money, his video game, and a set of wheels were taken from the apartment. According to Ramsey, Fitts knew he was saving money for a car and was working a great deal of overtime. Ramsey testified Fitts was not involved in the assault, and he did not know what happened to him. Fitts was not charged with the crime.

Robert Bracey testified he heard a knock on the door, and the defendant entered the apartment along with the other men. Bracey testified the defendant promptly reached into his waistband and brought out a pistol, lunged at Ramsey, and struck Ramsey in the head with the pistol. The defendant and Ramsey struggled for the pistol, which had fallen to the floor. Bracey described the gun as being a black semi-automatic pistol approximately eight inches long. Bracey stated he attempted to “go for the weapon,” but he was struck in the back of the head and dragged into the bathroom, where he was ordered to lie face down. Then someone stood on the back of his neck and repeatedly struck him in the back, near his kidneys. Minutes later, someone removed his wallet, containing $35, from his pants pocket. Bracey testified he heard breaking glass and “stuff being rumbled through” while he was lying in the bathroom, and he could see objects being thrown.

Katrina Bracey testified she heard a knock on the door, and Ramsey rose from the couch to answer the door. Robert Bracey asked who was at the door, and Katrina Bracey heard a mumble from the other side of the door before the defendant entered with three other men. She testified the men spread out in a line in front of them and, after a brief exchange of words, the defendant pulled a gun from his waistband, lunged at Ramsey, and hit Ramsey in the head with the gun. She observed

-2- the defendant struggling with Ramsey. Brandon Moore and Corey Jones were struggling with her brother. She stated the defendant hit Ramsey on the head with a beer bottle.

Katrina Bracey said she tried to leave the apartment to seek help, but Fitts shut the door in her face. Then the defendant turned towards her, pointed the gun at her, and told her to go to a bedroom and put her head down. As she complied, she observed Jones and Moore holding her brother down on the floor. She stated the defendant and Cartwright took Ramsey into the other bedroom. She also observed the men strike Ramsey while he lay in the living room floor with a couch cushion over his head. Before they left, the men yelled, “Call the cops and see what happens!” and “Get ready. Here it comes!” Then Ramsey was hit with the bar stool. She stated the apartment was “in shambles” following the incident.

Investigator Alicia Pack testified the apartment was ransacked, with drawers and cabinets open and their contents strewn in the floor. She described the apartment as being "really, really small" such that a person could stand in the living room and see all of the apartment. Pack noticed blood underneath the coffee table in the living room, blood splatters on the kitchen floor, bloody fingerprints on a bedroom closet door, and blood smeared on a wall near the closet.

Detective Stan Hilgadiack testified the defendant denied any knowledge of the crime during an interview on March 29, 2000. Hilgadiack stated the defendant also denied knowing Ricky Ramsey, Brandon Moore, or Corey Jones, and further denied owning a b.b. gun or any other weapon. On April 5, 2000, during an interview with Investigator Pack, the defendant admitted he was present at the apartment at the time of the crime. He said he struck Ramsey with a b.b. gun and a beer bottle.

Corey Jones, who pled guilty to two counts of facilitation to commit aggravated robbery in connection with the incident, testified for the defendant. Jones stated the defendant, Antonio Cartwright, Brandon Moore, and Martez Fitts were with Jones at Jones’s home, where they were all using cocaine, except the defendant. Jones said he had never known the defendant to use drugs.

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