State of Tennessee v. Doris Nell Jones

On June 1, 2009, the Tennessee Supreme Court remanded this case for reconsideration in light of its opinion in State v. Byington, 284 S.W.3d 220 (Tenn. 2009). This court initially dismissed the defendant’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction after both the defendant’s motion for new trial and the trial court’s order denying the motion were absent from the record. This court also denied the defendant’s subsequent petition to rehear and motion to supplement the record with the missing documents. On remand, the defendant, who was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to eighteen years in the Department of Correction, again argues that the trial court erred by allowing certain out of court statements into evidence and that the State engaged in prosecutorial misconduct based on certain statements made during closing argument. After reviewing the record, we conclude that the trial court erred in admitting testimony by the defendant’s mother regarding a telephone conversation between the defendant and the victim, but that such error was harmless. We also conclude that the defendant’s contentions regarding the other challenged statements and the State’s closing argument are waived for the defendant’s failure to include them in the motion for new trial and that the issues do not merit plain error review. We therefore affirm the judgment of the trial court.