State v. Johnson

781 S.W.2d 873, 1989 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 625
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedAugust 25, 1989
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 781 S.W.2d 873 (State v. Johnson) 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 v. Johnson, 781 S.W.2d 873, 1989 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 625 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

DUNCAN, Presiding Judge.

The defendant, Ricky Alan Johnson, appeals his convictions of murder in the first degree (felony murder), armed robbery and aggravated kidnapping. He received a sentence of life, and two Range II sentences of seventy (70) years. All of his sentences are to be served concurrently with each other and with certain federal sentences for convictions that arose out of the incident.

In this appeal, the defendant claims that the prosecuting district attorney general violated an “immunity agreement,” wherein he had been promised immunity from all state prosecution in exchange for information regarding a homicide'which was suspected to have occurred in Sequatchie County. Also, the defendant claims that [875]*875even if he was not entitled to specific performance on the immunity agreement, his prosecution was barred because he was not given a speedy trial as required by both the federal constitution, the Constitution of the State of Tennessee, and by certain state statutes. Further, the defendant says that even if he was not entitled to specific performance on the immunity agreement, and even if his right to a speedy trial was not violated, all of the evidence which the State obtained as a direct result of his statements (given in reliance on the immunity agreement) should have been suppressed by the trial court.

Other issues raised by the defendant include: (1) whether he was entitled to a judgment of acquittal on the armed robbery or aggravated kidnapping charges; (2) whether he was placed in double jeopardy; (3) whether the trial court improperly failed to charge certain lesser included offenses; (4) whether the trial court erred by refusing to charge the jury with his special requests for jury instructions; (5) whether the testimony of an “expert witness” was erroneously excluded; (6) whether evidence of crimes for which the defendant was not indicted was improperly admitted at trial; and, (7) whether prosecutorial misconduct occurred during the closing argument.

We find no reversible error and affirm the judgments.

Although the defendant does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence, a summary of some of the evidence adduced at trial will be helpful in explaining some of our rulings on the issues that he does raise.

The State’s evidence showed that on April 30, 1985, Mrs. Sharon Johnson (the defendant’s wife), rented a motel room on Murfreesboro Road in Nashville, Tennessee, and four people gathered therein. This group consisted of Mrs. Johnson; and her husband, Ricky Alan Johnson (the defendant in this case); Darrell Smith; and his wife, Carol Ann Smith. On May 1, 1985, the four went to the Poole Truck Lines’ Nashville terminal. When these four individuals saw a truck loaded with John Deere lawn tractors leave and head south on 1-24 they followed it in Darrell Smith’s car until they lost it on or near Monteagle Mountain.

Subsequently, while on their way back towards the truck terminal, they saw another truck loaded with a similar cargo. Using a citizens band radio, Sharon Johnson convinced the truck driver, Mark A. Williams, to give her a ride. Shortly after crossing the Georgia line, Williams pulled his truck over to pick up Sharon Johnson. Sharon Johnson had a pistol in her purse when she left the automobile. As Williams and Mrs. Johnson proceeded along the road, the defendant, Darrell Smith, and Carol Smith followed in the car.

Soon after getting in the truck, Sharon Johnson pulled the pistol out and required Williams to pull his truck over to the side of the road. The defendant and the Smiths pulled their car up to the rear of the truck, and the defendant and Darrell Smith got out and approached the truck.

According to the testimony of Darrell Smith, who testified for the State, the defendant took the pistol from his wife, and the two men got into the truck with Williams. Darrell Smith then drove the truck north towards Chattanooga, got on 1-24, and headed back towards Nashville. The two wives got into the car and followed. After crossing the Marion County line the two vehicles exited the interstate. There the two vehicles stopped while Darrell Smith walked back to the car and got some rope with which to tie Williams. He also got a pillowcase or similar item which was placed over Williams’ head. They got onto U.S. Highway 127 in Sequatchie County and later turned onto U.S. Highway 8, which goes towards the Cookeville area. Using the truck’s citizens band radio the men told their wives, who were still following them in their car, to pass them when they came to the mountain and to wait for them at the top of the mountain. After their wives had passed them, the men pulled the truck off the pavement of the [876]*876road and came to a stop. Williams was removed from the cab and assisted over a guard rail and escorted over to the edge of a steep gorge. There, it is uncontroverted, the defendant struck Williams across the back with a pin hook with sufficient force to knock him down, and Williams fell over an embankment. The defendant and Darrell Smith concluded that since Williams could identify them he would have to die. They decided that each would shoot Williams and thereby share responsibility for his death. Further, according to Darrell Smith, he then proceeded to the location where Williams had fallen, but changed his mind and shot into the air. Defendant then left the truck with the pistol. Darrell Smith did not hear the gun fire, but the truck engine was running and he was nervous. At any rate, when the defendant returned to the truck, he indicated to Smith that he had shot Williams.

Shortly thereafter, they drove the truck to the top of the mountain and met Carol Smith and Sharon Johnson. Afterwards, they drove to Sparta, parked the truck, and returned in the automobile to the Smiths’ home in Cookeville.

The next day, the truck was unloaded into a wooded area. Darrell Smith’s brother-in-law assisted in unloading the lawn tractors off the truck. Over the next several days, Darrell Smith and the defendant sold these lawn tractors to various people, some of whom testified at the trial.

As a result of a statement given by the defendant to Federal and State authorities on August 26, 1986, the police found Williams’ body in Sequatchie County in the general area where the defendant had indicated it would be found.

We note that the defendant’s statement which implicated himself in these crimes was not introduced into evidence. We will comment further on this statement later in this opinion.

Suffice it to say, voluminous evidence was introduced at the trial to corroborate Darrell Smith’s testimony.

Carol Smith also testified as a witness for the State and her testimony about the events that took place in her presence was consistent with Darrell Smith’s testimony. The testimony of several witnesses established that the defendant was in possession of the stolen lawn tractors right after the theft and killing, and that the defendant participated with Darrell Smith in selling the stolen property over the days following the incidents.

From our review of the trial evidence, we find that it is overwhelming to show beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was a participant in the aggravated kidnapping of Williams, the robbery of him by taking his truck (and billfold which contained $5.00), and the cold blooded murder of him during the course of the commission of these other felonies.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
781 S.W.2d 873, 1989 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 625, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-johnson-tenncrimapp-1989.