State of Tennessee v. John George

This case arises out of a series of armed robberies of gas stations in several counties along Interstate 40. The Defendant, John George, and two codefendants were arrested in Humphreys County, Tennessee. The Defendant gave a statement to police after his arrest confessing his role in robberies in both Humphreys and Dickson counties. Subsequently, the Defendant pled guilty to a charge of aggravated robbery in Humphreys County and was sentenced to nine years in the Department of Correction. In the case before us, the Defendant also entered a guilty plea to aggravated robbery and felony theft arising out of a robbery in Dickson County. After a sentencing hearing, the Defendant was sentenced to nine years for the aggravated robbery and four years for the felony theft to be served concurrently. However, the trial court ordered the sentence to be served consecutively to the Defendant's sentence for aggravated robbery in Humphreys County. The Defendant now appeals the sentence imposed by the trial court. The Defendant contends that the trial court (1) improperly imposed a sentence above the minimum and (2) improperly ordered that the sentence for aggravated robbery to be served consecutively to the Humphreys County sentence. We affirm the judgment of the trial court setting the length of the sentences for aggravated robbery and theft. We remand for further proceedings on the consecutive sentence issue.