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6/15/1998
RHEA COUNTY HON. J. CURTIS SMITH, JUDGE (First Degree Murder)
OPINION FILED: ___________________
AFFIRMED
The appellant, Calvin Lee Sneed, appeals as of right from his conviction of first degree murder in the Rhea County Criminal Court. After a jury trial, appellant was convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. On appeal, he presents six issues for our review:
(1) the evidence was insufficient to prove premeditation and deliberation;
(2) the trial court erred in overruling appellant's objection to the introduction of live rounds of ammunition and spent shell casings recovered from his residence;
(3) the trial court erred in excluding testimony pertaining to the victim's conduct and character;
(4) the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on diminished capacity in the manner requested by appellant;
(5) the trial court erred in overruling appellant's motion to suppress his statement given to law enforcement officials; and
(6) appellant was denied a fair trial when the State failed to disclose Brady material prior to trial.
After a thorough review of the record, we find no reversible error and affirm both appellant's conviction and sentence.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
At approximately 10:45 p.m. on the night of March 8, 1994, Marvin Shaver was feeding calves at his farm on Shaver Loop Road near Dayton, Tennessee. He noticed a car turn into the appellant's neighboring driveway, located close to his barn. After he finished his work, Mr. Shaver drove the short distance from the barn to his home. As he exited the vehicle and approached his porch, he heard a gunshot, followed by a pause, and then five or six more shots, fired in rapid succession. The sound of the gunshots came from the direction of his barn and the appellant's residence. Moments later, he heard a "racket" and walked to the road. From there, he could hear the roaring sound of a vehicle engine and he assumed that a vehicle had been driven into a ditch. He also noticed an orange glow around the area and believed the vehicle was on fire. He phoned 911 and informed the dispatcher about the shots and the car.
Mr. Shaver thereafter drove to the scene to meet Leon Sneed, the Sheriff of Rhea County. The men found that a car had gone over a steep embankment and was nose-down in a ditch. The car appeared to have rolled straight down the appellant's sloped driveway and crashed into the ditch. Portions of the car were burning and it was surrounded by a lot of smoke. Mr. Shaver and Sheriff Sneed walked down into the ditch and could see that someone was still inside the car. The driver's side door was jammed against a tree and the men struggled to get inside the car. Finally they were able to open the passenger's side door and pull a woman from the car. Fearing the car would explode, they carried the woman out of the ditch to the pavement above. In the illumination of car headlights, they recognized the woman as Carol Dawson Sneed, the appellant's wife. Emergency personnel arrived, but Mrs. Sneed was already dead. She had died from a gunshot wound to the back of her head.
After discovering the victim, Mr. Shaver and Sheriff Sneed noticed the appellant standing on his front porch about 150 feet away. They could hear him shouting, but were unable to understand what he was saying. Sheriff Sneed approached appellant's residence and saw him holding a pistol. Appellant refused the sheriff's requests to put down the gun, saying instead, "She come up here and started threatening and cussing me and I just come out and opened up on her." He was resis
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