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Most court proceedings suspended after emergency declared

Posted at 1:16 pm March 20, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Most state and local court proceedings have been suspended in Tennessee through the end of the month after a state of emergency was declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The suspension of in-person proceedings in state and local courts applies to municipal, juvenile, general sessions, trial, and appellate courts. It started at the close of business on Friday, March 13, and continues through Tuesday, March 31, according to an order by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

There are exceptions, including proceedings that protect the constitutional rights of criminal defendants such as bond-related hearings and plea agreements for people in jail; proceedings for relief from abuse, including orders of protection; proceedings for emergency child custody orders; Department of Children’s Services emergency matters related to protecting children; and proceedings related to petitions for emergency mental health orders, the emergency protection of elderly or vulnerable people, and the COVID-19 public health emergency.

[Read more…]

For members: Appeals Court upholds first-degree murder conviction in uncle’s death

Posted at 12:15 pm October 29, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Norman-Follis-Norman-Follis-Trial-May-10-2016

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Norman Lee Follis Jr., 56, of Anderson County, who killed his uncle, Samuel “Sammie” J. Adams, 79, and shoved his body in an apartment closet more than seven years ago. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of an Anderson County man convicted of killing his uncle and shoving his body into an apartment closet more than seven years ago.

The court upheld the conviction, which led to a lifetime sentence without parole, in a 14-page opinion filed Friday, October 18.

The defendant, Norman Lee Follis Jr., 56, had told a detective that he killed his uncle, Samuel “Sammie” J. Adams, 79, after he saw Adams on top of his girlfriend, groping her and refusing to stop. When he tried to pull his uncle off of his girlfriend, Follis said, his uncle turned and attacked him. Follis said Adams had him down on the floor, and he couldn’t get out from under Adams, so he grabbed the first thing he could, a heater cord, and wrapped it around his uncle’s neck until Adams let go.

Prosecutors characterized Follis’ explanation for the killing—the defense of a third party followed by self-defense—as a story that he latched onto and then elaborated upon during an interview with Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Detective Don Scuglia in January 2012. Two hours of taped interviews with Scuglia were “full of lies,” Tony Craighead, deputy district attorney general in the Seventh Judicial District, said during the trial in May 2016. Prosecutors called it murder, a premeditated killing that profited Follis and his girlfriend, Tammy Sue Chapman, now 51. They said Follis misled family, neighbors, and law enforcement officers about where Adams was that last month—before his body was found in a Patt Lane apartment closet on January 24, 2012—and they cited testimony that Follis sold Adams’ car for $1,000 cash on January 16, 2012.

In his appeal, which was filed last year, Follis argued that the state had failed to prove premeditation and didn’t show that a deadly weapon was used. He said prosecutors didn’t have a declaration of his intent to kill Adams.

But the state and appeals court disagreed, saying premeditation was established by Follis’ actions during and after his uncle’s death. Among other factors, those actions included placing the electrical heater cord around Adams’ neck and using it as a deadly weapon, hiding the body in a closet and pushing a couch in front of the closet door to conceal it, and using his uncle’s car after his death.

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Tennessee Supreme Court denies petition to rehear Cromwell’s appeal application

Posted at 12:49 am May 31, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Tennessee Supreme Court has again denied an attempt to appeal the homicide conviction of Lee Harold Cromwell, who was found guilty of killing a Knoxville man in a fatal crash in a crowded parking lot after fireworks in Oak Ridge in 2015.

The most recent denial of the appeal petition was filed by the Tennessee Supreme Court in Knoxville on May 13.

Cromwell had first petitioned to appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court in August. In a one-sentence order in November, the court denied the application.

In a one-page motion filed May 6, Cromwell, who represented himself and called himself a “natural man,” asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to revisit the appeal application that was previously denied.

[Read more…]

Tennessee Supreme Court will not hear Cromwell’s appeal

Posted at 1:13 pm January 29, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge resident Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens during a hearing in Nashville criminal court on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Tennessee Supreme Court will not hear an appeal of a criminal case filed against Lee Harold Cromwell, who is now 69 and was convicted of reckless vehicular homicide in Anderson County Criminal Court two years ago after a fatal crash after fireworks in Oak Ridge in 2015. Cromwell is pictured above during a hearing in a Nashville criminal court on Wednesday, June 27, 2018, when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a separate case involving 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Tennessee Supreme Court will not hear an appeal of the criminal case filed against Lee Harold Cromwell, who was convicted of homicide after a fatal crash after fireworks in Oak Ridge in 2015.

Cromwell, who is now 69, had been convicted of reckless vehicular homicide and aggravated assault in Anderson County Criminal Court at the end of a three-day trial in February 2017.

But in July 2018, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in Knoxville said Cromwell is eligible for a new trial on the aggravated assault charges. The court cited misleading and confusing jury instructions. The aggravated assault convictions, which were reversed by the appeals court, had helped to add seven years to Cromwell’s sentence.

The court upheld Cromwell’s one conviction of reckless vehicular homicide and his five-year sentence on that charge.

In August, Cromwell appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. [Read more…]

Appeals court upholds Applewood warrants, board’s order to vacate

Posted at 4:14 am August 1, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The site of former Applewood Apartments buildings, which have been demolished, is pictured above at Hillside Road and East Hunter Circle on Wednesday, July 18, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

It’s not clear if it will make much difference now, but a state appeals court has upheld administrative warrants used by the City of Oak Ridge for inspections at Applewood Apartments and a city board order that had once called for vacating and demolishing six of the buildings.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals in Knoxville issued its opinion on Tuesday, July 24.

Joe Levitt, the owner of the former 13-building apartment complex on Hillside Road and Hunter Circle, had appealed a September 2016 order of the Anderson County Chancery Court in Clinton. That court, where M. Nichole Cantrell is chancellor, had granted summary judgement to the City of Oak Ridge, the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals, and former codes enforcement supervisor Denny Boss. Levitt, who has battled the city for years, had sought to overturn an Oak Ridge order that the six Applewood Apartment buildings be vacated and demolished.

Inspections conducted with the help of Corum Engineering in 2009 had found multiple code violations and structural deficiencies at the six buildings, including cracks in foundations, damaged and rotten floor joists, and evidence of wood-destroying insect activity, as well as dead animals and animal feces in the basement and crawl space, and excessive debris, lack of smoke detectors, plumbing leaks, and damaged roofing materials, among other issues, according to last week’s opinion. Unless the defects were corrected, the 2009 engineering report said, the top floors of the buildings could collapse because of a lack of structural support, according to the opinion. [Read more…]

Former Supreme Court chief justice who once worked in Oak Ridge dies at 85

Posted at 3:14 pm July 6, 2018
By John Huotari 2 Comments

Tom Beehan, Cornelia Clark, Gary Wade, Riley Anderson, and Sharon Lee

Pictured above at Razzleberry’s Ice Cream Lab and Kitchen in Oak Ridge on Thursday, July 31, 2014, are, from left to right, former Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Cornelia Clark, former Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Gary Wade, former Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Riley Anderson, and Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Sharon Lee. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Edward Riley Anderson, a former Tennessee Supreme Court chief justice who once worked and volunteered in Oak Ridge, died Wednesday, July 4, after a long fight with cancer. He was 85.

Anderson was born in Chattanooga but moved to Knoxville as a child, according to his obituary. He graduated from Central High School and received his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Tennessee.

After law school, in 1958, Anderson became the first associate at the Oak Ridge law firm of Wilson & Joyce, according to the Tennessee State Courts website. Frank Wilson and Gene Joyce would have a major impact on his life, the state said in a news story posted online.

“I couldn’t have had two better mentors to go to,” Anderson said in that article. “I think it’s important to have that when you’re a young lawyer and you’re malleable. You’re going to be influenced by whoever you associate with. I couldn’t have been more fortunate in my choice of mentors.”

When Wilson left the firm after his appointment to the federal bench, Anderson became a managing partner, and the firm was renamed Joyce, Anderson, and Meredith, the state courts news story said. [Read more…]

In depth: Cromwell gets new trial in fatal July 4 fireworks crash

Posted at 8:28 pm July 5, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Lee Harold Cromwell (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Lee Harold Cromwell, who was convicted of homicide and aggravated assault after a fatal crash after fireworks three years ago, is eligible for a new trial on the aggravated assault charges, a state appeals court said Tuesday.

After reviewing several issues raised on appeal, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in Knoxville upheld Cromwell’s one conviction of reckless vehicular homicide and his five-year sentence on that charge.

But citing misleading and confusing jury instructions, the court ordered a new trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on the eight convictions of reckless aggravated assault. Those convictions, which were reversed by the appeals court on Tuesday, had helped to add seven years to Cromwell’s sentence.

“After our review, we affirm the evidence was sufficient to support the defendant’s convictions and the trial court properly sentenced the defendant, but (we) conclude the trial court committed reversible error in instructing the jury as to reckless aggravated assault,” the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals said. “Therefore, we vacate the defendant’s eight convictions for reckless aggravated assault and remand this case to the trial court for a new trial.”

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Note: Most news stories on Oak Ridge Today are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our advertisers, sponsors, and subscribers. Some are considered premium content. This story is premium content. Premium content can include in-depth, investigative, and exclusive stories.