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State v. Garrett12/1/2005
ith the defendant's statement to him that, after a night of drinking, the couple returned home and smoked cigarettes, with the victim falling asleep on the love seat and the defendant falling asleep on the couch.
Mr. Bayne opined that the fuel load in the front room, including the furniture and the wood paneling covering the sheetrock walls, explained the fire growth. He opined that the defendant did not receive his burns from igniting kerosene and that it was "impossible" for the victim to have received her burns from inside the utility room. He dismissed the burn pattern on the front room floor as resulting from radiant heat or "flash over."
Mr. Bayne testified that the utility room door edge had scuff marks which indicated that the door stuck in the door frame. He testified that the defendant confirmed to him that the door tended to stick. Mr. Bayne opined that the latch bar was "very carbonized."
On cross-examination, Mr. Bayne testified that in reaching his conclusions, he ignored Otis Jenkins' claim that the utility room door had been latched. He declined to say how much time elapsed between the deposit of a lit cigarette in the love seat and the onset of a blaze, although he suggested that the process could take minutes or hours. He opined that the presence of the plastic container of kerosene in the kitchen was irrelevant to the cause of the fire. He conjectured that because the container had three holes in the top, the firefighters or investigators could have sloshed some of the kerosene onto the bedspread.
The defendant did not testify in the case.
I. Sufficiency of the Evidence
The defendant claims that the evidence is insufficient to support a conviction of felony murder because the state failed to prove all of the elements of arson, the felony upon which the felony murder conviction is based.
As an appellate court reviewing the sufficiency of the convicting evidence, we essentially view a different evidentiary mosaic than did the trier of fact. We see the same tesserae as did the trier of fact, but on appeal the full mosaic has been altered: Different hues emanate from the fact trier's inferences and credibility shadings, and from the appellate perspective of the overall image, we see in highlight the features most favorable to the state. See State v. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d 832, 836 (Tenn. 1978) (stating that on appeal, the state is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the evidence and all reasonable or legitimate inferences which may be drawn therefrom). Our review of the evidentiary mosaic, thus highlighted, is aimed at determining whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Tenn. R. Crim. P. 13(e); Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2782 (1979).
A jury's verdict of guilty removes the presumption of innocence and raises a presumption of guilt on appeal. State v. Grace, 493 S.W.2d 474, 476 (Tenn. 1973). The jury's guilty verdict, approved by the trial judge, accredits the testimony of the witnesses for the state and resolves all factual conflicts in favor of the theory of the state. State v. Hatchett, 560 S.W.2d 627, 630 (Tenn. 1978); State v. Townsend, 525 S.W.2d 842, 843 (Tenn. 1975). On appeal, the defendant has the burden of overcoming the presumption of guilt. State v. Brown, 551 S.W.2d 329, 331 (Tenn. 1977).
A crime may be established by direct evidence, circumstantial evidence, or a combination of the two. State v. Tharpe, 726 S.W.2d 896, 899-900 (Tenn. 1987). Before an accused may be convicted of a criminal offense based upon circumstantial evidence, the facts and the circumstances "must
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