State of Tennessee v. Perry Singo

The defendant appeals his convictions for four counts of rape of a child and four counts of aggravated sexual battery, for which he received an effective sentence of 50 years, arguing: (1) his confession was involuntary; (2) the evidence was not sufficient to support his convictions; (3) the trial court erred in admitting sexually explicit photographs of the defendant depicting prior bad acts and improperly instructed the jury regarding consideration of the photographs; (4) the trial court improperly admitted defendant's letters and other writings; (5) the trial court improperly allowed a non-qualified witness to testify regarding certain matters; (6) the trial court failed to require the state to elect offenses; (7) the trial court erred in failing to charge the jury on simple assault as a lesser-included offense of aggravated sexual battery; and (8) the trial court erred in its oral response to a question posed by the deliberating jury. The state concedes the evidence is insufficient to support three of the child rape convictions, and we agree. We find no other reversible error. Therefore, we reverse and dismiss these three convictions and affirm all other convictions. We remand to the trial court for a redetermination of concurrent/consecutive sentencing.