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State v. Bryant6/12/1998
DAVIDSON COUNTY HON. CHERYL BLACKBURN
(Aggravated Rape)
ON APPEAL FROM THE JUDGMENT OF THE CRIMINAL COURT OF DAVIDSON COUNTY
OPINION FILED
AFFIRMED
The Defendant, Joseph Lee Bernell Bryant, appeals as of right pursuant to Rule 3 of the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure. He was convicted by a Davidson County jury of one count of aggravated rape, two counts of aggravated sexual battery, and one count of attempted aggravated rape . He was sentenced as a standard, Range I offender to twenty-three years for the aggravated rape, ten years for each count of aggravated sexual battery and ten years for the attempted aggravated rape. The trial Judge ordered the aggravated rape and sexual battery convictions to be served concurrently with each other and consecutively to the conviction for attempted aggravated rape for an effective sentence of thirty-three years. He appeals his convictions and sentences and raises the following issues for our review: (1)(A) That the evidence was insufficient to support the verdicts of guilt; and (B) that the evidence failed to establish the element of "bodily injury;" (2) that the trial court erred by granting the State's request for a special jury instruction regarding the attempt to destroy or conceal evidence; and (3)(A) that the trial court imposed an excessive sentence because it misapplied sentence enhancement factors, and (B) that the trial court erred by imposing a partial consecutive sentence. After a careful review of the record and arguments in the case at bar, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
We begin with a review of the facts. Both the Defendant and the victim in this case, Regina Ervin, were security guards working the night shift on April 11-12, 1995. They worked for the Integrity Security company which contracted with the State of Tennessee for security services in state office buildings. The victim was stationed at the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) building on James Robertson Parkway in Nashville, and the Defendant was stationed at the building next door, the Volunteer Plaza. The victim was a twenty-four year old mother of three who had delivered her last child in December of 1994. Her husband worked in heating and air conditioning and she obtained a night job to help support the family and because the job schedule worked with her child care schedule. On the night of the offenses in question, the victim had been working with Integrity Security for approximately four months and had been assigned to the TEA building on the same shift during this time. The Defendant had come over from the Volunteer Plaza building on three or four prior occasions to get coffee, which was not available at his building. The victim would let him in, he would go downstairs for coffee, then would leave. The victim never had concerns about the Defendant. The victim never went to the Volunteer Plaza.
On the night of the incident, the victim arrived at the beginning of her shift and had made hourly "rounds" of the building. The victim worked alone in the TEA building. The victim wore a bright pink sweater over her uniform because the building was cold. She read a book she had brought with her. She recorded her rounds, with the last entry indicating that she checked the building at 3:00 a.m. The victim had difficulty recalling the time when the Defendant arrived, but stated that he showed up around 2:30 a.m. The Defendant appeared at the door and the victim unlocked it and let him in to get coffee. The Defendant went downstairs and the victim stayed at her desk and read her book.
The Defendant came back upstairs. The victim did not see him at first, but then he attacked her b
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