The Verdict Versus the Evidence

Three separate questions

1. Was the investigation reliable? The firearms, DNA, interviews, searches and evidence-handling records answer this. See Gun Evidence, Lab Results, Chain of Custody, Warrants.
2. Was the trial reliable? Discovery, what the jury heard, Donyell’s removal and the jury instructions answer this. See Missing Records, Removed During Closing Arguments.
3. What relief follows? This is its own, more demanding question. It is answered at the bottom of this page.

The verdict

PROVEN Indictment 317210 (April 10, 2024) charged five counts. Court minutes, May 14 and 16, 2024, record the verdicts:

Counts 1 and 2 merged. Effective sentence: life plus fifty years. Source: State’s appellate brief p. 13, citing the technical record Vol. V, pp. 652–61.

The State’s theory, in the State’s own words

PROVEN as the State’s position. Source: State’s appellate brief, Statement of the Facts, pp. 14–20, with the trial-transcript volumes it cites.

• On May 27, 2020 Randall Leslie and Brittany Lanham went to Teakwood Drive. Lanham testified she watched Donyell shoot Randall with a red firearm. (Vol. XI, 95–97)
• Randall was taken into the camper trailer, then laid across the back seat of his own car and driven to a house off Bonny Oaks, where he died. (Vol. XI, 101–12)
• Lanham testified she and Donyell drove Randall’s car to a house on Glencoe Street. (Vol. XI, 118–23)
• Derik Brown testified Donyell asked him to dispose of the body, and that he and “Jimmy Green” did. (Vol. XIV, 475–95)
• Officer Gerity answered the shots-fired call and saw nothing out of the ordinary and no group of people. (Vol. XI, 57–60)
• The firearms examiner’s testimony, as the State describes it: the bullet “could only have been shot out of the red SCCY pistol.” (Vol. XIV, 532–35; Ex. 53)

Count by count: what the State had to prove, and the record beside it

Count 1 · Second degree murder

Elements. A knowing killing of another. T.C.A. § 39-13-210(a)(1), as quoted in the State’s brief p. 23.

The State’s evidence (brief pp. 23–24): Lanham’s eyewitness account; “the gun Defendant used to shoot the victim, the bullet extracted from the victim’s spine, the medical examiner, the TBI testing.” (Vol. XIII, 322–33; Exs. 8, 21, 44–45, 48–51, 53)

The record beside it.

• PROVEN On the red SCCY pistol itself, TBI wrote: “No examination was performed.” The swab from it was inconclusive. (TBI report, Feb. 21, 2023)
• VERIFY The State’s brief says the bullet “could only have been shot out of the red SCCY.” TBI Exhibit 53 reports class characteristics, with damage that “precludes a more conclusive determination.” The certified testimony at Vol. XIV, 532–35 settles which statement the jury heard.
• PROVEN The blood on the towel, trunk mat and board in Randall’s car belongs to Unknown Male #1. Donyell and Brown are both excluded. (TBI report, Dec. 15, 2022) The State’s brief confirms TBI had no known DNA sample from Randall. (Vol. XIII, 371–75)
• PROVEN Gerity, the first officer there, saw no group of people (Vol. XI, 60). Lanham testified several other people were at the house (Vol. XI, 96).
• PROVEN Lanham’s first recorded interview is dated December 9, 2021, nine months after the first indictment. (Brittany Lanham)

Effect on the jury. ARGUED Count 1 rests on Lanham’s account. The physical evidence the State lists ties the shooting to the SCCY by class only, and the DNA on the items tested points to Unknown Male #1.

Counts 2 and 3 · Felony murder and especially aggravated kidnapping

Elements. Knowingly removing or confining another unlawfully so as to interfere substantially with liberty, with serious bodily injury; and a killing during that kidnapping. T.C.A. §§ 39-13-302(a), -305, -202(a)(2), as quoted in the State’s brief pp. 24–25.

The State’s evidence (brief p. 25): Lanham’s account of the camper, the car ride and the Bonny Oaks house. (Vol. XI, 96–127; Vol. XII, 194)

The record beside it.

• PROVEN The camper cushion and ottoman tested negative for blood. (TBI report, Oct. 30, 2020) The State’s brief acknowledges this and says Lanham described heavy bleeding in the camper at the motion-for-new-trial hearing (Vol. XVII, 39), and gave no testimony at trial about bleeding in the camper. (Brief, citing Vol. XI, 90–150; Vol. XII, 151–94)
• PROVEN On the Glencoe Street house, the State writes it “is unsure” where the 4062 Glencoe address came from. (State’s brief, Napue argument)
• PROVEN The rear seat of Randall’s car, where crime-scene notes flagged possible blood, item 023-a: “No examination was performed.” (TBI report, Dec. 15, 2022)

Effect on the jury. ARGUED Every element of the kidnapping comes from one witness, and the lab found no blood where her account places a bleeding man.

Count 4 · Employing a firearm during a dangerous felony

Elements. Employing a firearm during an especially aggravated kidnapping. T.C.A. § 39-17-1324(b)(1). It depends on Count 3 and on the SCCY. The same record applies.

Count 5 · Firearm after a prior violent felony

Elements. Knowingly possessing a firearm after a conviction for a felony involving force, violence or a deadly weapon. T.C.A. § 39-17-1307(b)(1)(A). The State relied on a certified 1995 aggravated-robbery judgment. (Ex. 57)

• VERIFY Five official records describe the sentence for the April 11, 1995 conviction differently, and one judgment form leaves it blank. Each record will be shown here side by side with its exact wording, date and page. (Sentencing chapter)

What the jury heard, and what else existed

The defense’s access to evidence

• Produced late. PROVEN Brown’s November 2021 proffer reached defense counsel by the State’s letter of April 8, 2024, five weeks before trial. PROVEN The police homicide unit received the autopsy report December 27, 2021. (Missing Records)
• Never produced. VERIFY Each entry on Missing Records is held at VERIFY until the production log confirms it.
• Produced but not introduced. VERIFY Needs the defense file matched against the trial exhibit list.

What relief the law allows

• Insufficient evidence. When an appeals court holds the evidence legally insufficient, the Double Jeopardy Clause bars a retrial and the result is an acquittal on that count. Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1 (1978); applied to the states in Greene v. Massey, 437 U.S. 19 (1978). The test is whether “any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979).
• Trial error. Errors such as wrongly admitted evidence, a discovery violation or a denied right at trial usually lead to reversal and a new trial.
• Post-conviction relief. Constitutional claims outside the trial record go to a post-conviction petition under the Tennessee Post-Conviction Procedure Act, T.C.A. § 40-30-101 et seq.
• Federal habeas. Review of a state conviction for federal constitutional error, after state remedies are used.

ARGUED The path to an end of this case without a retrial runs through the first item: showing, count by count, that the evidence above fails the Jackson standard. The courts decide that question.