State of Tennessee v. Clarence Carnell Gaston, Migwon Deon Leach, and Marion Deangalo Thomas

The defendants, Clarence Carnell Gaston, Miqwon Deon Leach, and Mario Deangalo Thomas, were convicted by an Obion County Circuit Court jury of conspiracy to commit second degree murder, second degree murder, and first degree felony murder. Finding aggravating circumstances (3) and (7) applicable to both Leach and Thomas, and aggravating circumstances (2), (3), and (7) applicable to Gaston, the jury sentenced each defendant to life without the possibility of parole for the first degree murder convictions. The trial court merged the second degree murder convictions into the convictions for felony murder and sentenced the defendants to eight years for the conspiracy convictions, to be served concurrently to their life sentences without possibility of parole. All three defendants challenge the sufficiency of the convicting evidence. Leach and Thomas each raise issues regarding the appropriateness of their life sentences without parole, and Thomas raises two additional issues of whether his trial should have been severed, and whether the verdicts of first degree felony murder and conspiracy to commit second degree murder are impermissibly inconsistent. After a thorough review of the record and of applicable law, we affirm the judgments of conviction and the sentences imposed. However, we remand to the trial court for entry of a corrected judgment form for Gaston's conspiracy conviction to reflect that he was found guilty by a jury.