State v. Gennoe

851 S.W.2d 833, 1992 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 622
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 16, 1992
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 851 S.W.2d 833 (State v. Gennoe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gennoe, 851 S.W.2d 833, 1992 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 622 (Tex. 1992).

Opinion

OPINION

WADE, Judge.

The defendant, Tony Gennoe, and his co-defendant, Randy Knox, were tried for aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping. The jury received instructions on the lesser offense of sexual battery. Each was found guilty of facilitation of sexual battery, a Class A misdemeanor. The defendant was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in the county jail. No fine was imposed.

Two issues have been presented for review:

(1) whether the jury’s failure to convict Knox of sexual battery barred the defendant’s conviction for facilitation of sexual battery; and
(2) whether the trial court erred by denying probation.

We affirm.

The proof presented a classic jury question. The victim, a student at Tennessee Wesleyan College, made plans to celebrate her twentieth birthday. She was to meet her roommate and a few other friends at Mark Gibson’s apartment at midnight. During the course of the evening, the victim drank a few beers with another friend, Melody Barker, and went to a night club. Barker then dropped her off at Gibson’s apartment at approximately 11:45 P.M. No [835]*835one was there. After waiting for several minutes, the victim decided to walk the half-mile distance to her dorm.

The victim testified that she had walked about a quarter of a mile when the defendant stopped his vehicle and asked if she wanted a ride. When she declined, Knox, the passenger, opened the door and pulled her into his lap. She crawled through the bucket seats to the back.

The victim testified that the defendant drove out into the country and eventually asked her to have sex. Knox and the defendant then got into the back seat and tried to kiss the victim. The victim resisted by biting, kicking, and fighting. As Knox held the victim’s hands, the defendant pulled down the victim’s pants and digitally penetrated her vagina. The victim continued to resist then tried to break the car window with her heel. Both men got out of the vehicle. When the victim tried to get away, the men forcibly returned her to the car. Eventually, the defendant decided to “let this bitch out.” She ran to a motel office, got help, and was taken to the Athens Hospital emergency room.

The physician described the defendant as hysterical. She had scratches on her fingers and wrists and fresh bruises on her cheek and knee. The victim’s vaginal area was tender, consistent with having been digitally penetrated.

The defense theory was that the victim, drinking and disappointed when her friends failed to show for her birthday celebration, asked for the ride. That the defendant and Knox, handsome men in their late twenties, willingly permitted her to join them as they drank beer and drove about the Athens area. The victim, overweight and unattractive, made sexual overtures to the defendant and that there was consensual fondling between the two until it appeared that the defendant wanted Knox to share in the activity. The defense theorized that the victim was later embarrassed by her actions and needed to make the complaint to excuse her late return to the dormitory.

The defendant testified that the victim stuck out her thumb for a ride as she was walking to her dormitory. He stated that when he stopped to offer a ride, the victim got in the car. She had a beer under her jacket, talked about playing soccer, and told of a nightclub in Knoxville. The defendant related that he eventually drove to a place called Well’s Hollow. Knox walked away from the car and the victim initiated the encounter by kissing the defendant and rubbing his private parts.

Knox quickly returned to the car saying that he had seen several men with guns. They all left and found another place to park. Knox again walked away. The defendant stated that he and the victim began to kiss. He said that the victim then got out of the car, pulled her pants down, and urinated on the ground. The two got into the back seat. When Knox returned, the defendant said, “Hey, this girl is hot. She will probably take both of us on.” When Knox began to rub the victim’s breasts, she said, “Hell no, not both of you.” The defendant stated that the victim reacted angrily, got out of the car, but did not try to leave. When the defendant told her he would not let her walk, she got back into his car voluntarily. When they reached a motel, the victim threatened to report the incident to the police, kicked the backseat, and told them to let her out. The defendant admitted that he had inserted his finger into the victim’s vagina, and admitted lying in his initial statement to police because he did not want his wife to find out.

Randy Knox, the co-defendant, verified the defendant’s account of the incident. He stated that the encounter was consensual and the victim had no reason to be afraid.

I

The defendant initially contends that he cannot be convicted of facilitation of sexual battery without another being convicted as the principal in the crime. This argument is predicated upon the old common law principle that aiders, abettors, and accessories cannot be tried absent the conviction of the principal. During the 19th century, however, this state enacted legislation permitting the prosecution and conviction of the aider and abettor whether [836]*836the principal had been convicted or not. Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-1-304 (now repealed).

This offense took place after the passage of the Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1989. The defendant acknowledges the existence of the following statute:

In a prosecution in which a person’s criminal responsibility is based upon the conduct of another, the person may be convicted on proof of commission of the offense and that the person was a party to or facilitated its commission, and it is no defense that ... [t]he person for whose conduct the defendant is criminally responsible has been acquitted, has not been prosecuted or convicted, has been convicted of a different offense or different type or class of offense, or is immune from prosecution.

Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-11-407 (Supp.1989) (emphasis added).

The defendant, convicted of a Class A misdemeanor because it is “next below the felony facilitated (sexual battery) by the person so charged,” complains that an exception should be created in order to eliminate “grossly inconsistent verdicts.” See Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-11-403; Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-505. He reasons that the terms of Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-11-407 should not apply when the principal and the aider and abettor are tried at the same time. To hold otherwise would be so fundamentally unfair as to deprive the defendant of his constitutional rights to due process and equal protection.

We cannot agree. In Wiggins v. State, 498 S.W.2d 92 (Tenn.1973), our Supreme Court adopted the rationale of Dunn v. United States,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
851 S.W.2d 833, 1992 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 622, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gennoe-texcrimapp-1992.