State of Tennessee v. Robert Jason Burdick

395 S.W.3d 120, 2012 WL 6587523, 2012 Tenn. LEXIS 903
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 18, 2012
DocketM2010-00144-SC-R11-CD
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 395 S.W.3d 120 (State of Tennessee v. Robert Jason Burdick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court 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. Robert Jason Burdick, 395 S.W.3d 120, 2012 WL 6587523, 2012 Tenn. LEXIS 903 (Tenn. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

GARY R. WADE, C.J.,

delivered the

opinion of the Court,

in which JANICE M. HOLDER, CORNELIA A. CLARK, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined.

In 2000, an affidavit of complaint was issued charging “John Doe” with an aggravated rape that had occurred in 1994. The affidavit, which included a detailed DNA profile of “John Doe,” led to the issuance of an arrest warrant. In 2008, police officers discovered that fingerprints taken from the scene of the crime matched those of the defendant. Later, police determined that the DNA profile was that of the defendant, and a superseding indictment was issued in his name. The defendant was tried and convicted of attempted aggravated rape, and the trial court imposed a ten-year sentence. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed, holding that the “John Doe” warrant with the DNA profile was adequate to identify the defendant and commence prosecution within the applicable statute of limitations. Because *122 the issue is one of first impression in this state, this Court granted an application for permission to appeal. We hold that a criminal prosecution is commenced if, within the statute of limitations for a particular offense, a warrant is issued identifying the defendant by gender and his or her unique DNA profile. Furthermore, a superseding indictment in the defendant’s proper name provides the requisite notice of the charge. The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

I. Facts and Procedural History

On the evening of February 28, 1994, P.Y. (the “victim"), 1 a female attorney in Nashville, Tennessee, returned to her residence after work. At approximately 8:80 p.m., she fell asleep. She was awakened by a telephone call at 10:00 p.m., but soon went back to sleep while lying on her stomach. Before daylight on the next morning, she was awakened by something touching her on her neck and shoulders. Initially believing it to be one of her cats, she tried to shove it away, but when she turned her head, she saw the face of a man by the light of a lamp in her room. Her assailant sprawled across her body, pinning her down onto her stomach. She screamed, “No,” and, as she reached backward with her right hand, she discovered that the assailant was wearing a stocking over his face. When her assailant inflicted a staggering blow to the side of her head, the victim again reached backward and felt her assailant’s naked thigh. She bit his hand as she resisted the attack. He struck her again, ordered her to put her hands over the back of her head, and displayed a piece of nylon cord. Fearing that he would try to tie her, the victim continued to struggle for several more minutes. Each time her assailant attempted to reach underneath her, she bit his hand. He retaliated by striking her in the head, as many as fifteen to twenty-five times during the course of the assault.

At some point, the victim and her assailant fell to the floor. Afterward, when the victim realized that she had bitten off a piece of skin from his finger, she pulled it from her teeth and placed it under the bed. The assailant continued his attack, pressing his hand toward her vaginal area. The victim continued to resist, begging him to stop. Eventually, the assailant discontinued his attack, forced the victim into her bathroom, ordered her to stay inside for five minutes, and left the residence. After several moments, the victim returned to her bedroom, took her handgun from a bedside table, and called 911.

Upon arriving at the scene, officers with the Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County Police Department dispatched a K-9 unit but were unable to track the assailant. The officers discovered an open window in the garage and a torn window screen in the yard. The officers took possession of the piece of skin the victim had bitten off from the finger of her assailant. A partial fingerprint was developed from the skin, and a palm print was lifted from the garage window sill. Neither that fingerprint nor the palm print produced a match in the databases available to police at that time. A deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”) profile also was developed from the skin, but no match was found in the Combined DNA Index System (“CODIS”) database. 2

*123 On February 2, 2000, almost six years after the attack, 3 Police Officer Rita Brockmann Baker filed an affidavit of complaint in the Davidson County General Sessions Court. The affidavit contained allegations that a “John Doe” had committed aggravated rape in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-502 (1991) and included the following assertions:

On March 1, 1994, [the victim] was in her residence.... At approximately 0350 to 0400 hours, she was awakened in her bed by John Doe defendant on top of her. Defendant repeatedly beat her. [The victim] struggled against his attack. Defendant tried unsuccessfully to tie her hands. Defendant put his hand against her vaginal area, but did not make penetration. [The victim] fought him until she was exhausted. She thought she was going to die. [The victim] begged for him to stop. Defendant stopped his attack, had her wait inside her bathroom, and left her residence.
During this attack, [the victim] was able to bite the defendant on the hand. This bite produced a piece of skin that was submitted to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Forensic Services Crime Laboratory for DNA analysis. This analysis produced a profile on John Doe that can exclude any other possible suspect. (See attached DNA profile identifying John Doe.)

The affidavit of complaint contained a detailed STR DNA profile of the John Doe. 4 Based on the information provided by Officer Baker, the Davidson County Clerk issued an arrest warrant, bearing the number GS122, for “John Doe.” Later, in April of 2006, over twelve years after the offense, a grand jury issued a multi-count indictment charging the John Doe with several crimes, including counts for aggravated rape as to the victim and aggravated burglary of her residence. 5 Two months later, as a result of the indictment, the Davidson County Criminal Court issued a capias, “replacing] unserved warrant GS122,” for “John Doe,” also known as the “Wooded Rapist.”

In 2008, the police discovered that the partial fingerprint developed from the skin recovered at the scene matched a print provided by Robert Jason Burdick (the “Defendant”), which was taken in 1999 when he applied for work at the Department of Correction. Further, the palm print lifted from the garage window sill was found to match the Defendant’s right hand. After obtaining a warrant, the police administered a cheek swab of the Defendant and subsequently determined that his DNA matched the profile developed from the piece of skin that was recovered after the 1994 attack. In May of 2008, a superseding indictment was returned against the Defendant, replacing the “John Doe” indictment. Following a two-day trial, the jury found the Defendant guilty of attempted aggravated rape, a lesser-in- *124

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
395 S.W.3d 120, 2012 WL 6587523, 2012 Tenn. LEXIS 903, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-v-robert-jason-burdick-tenn-2012.