State of Tennessee v. Jody Alan Hughes

Syllabus

The Appellant, Jody Alan Hughes, was convicted in the Bradley County Criminal Court of first degree premeditated murder kidnapping, a Class C felony tampering with evidence, a Class C felony and conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence, a Class D felony. After a sentencing hearing, he received an effective sentence of life plus fourteen years. On appeal, the Appellant contends that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support the convictions (2) the trial court erred by denying his \numerous\ requests to represent himself (3) the trial court erred by not allowing defense counsel to comment about the codefendants' exposure to prison sentences during counsel's opening statement (4) the trial court erred in its wording of a curative instruction to the jury (5) the trial court erred by limiting a codefendant's cross-examination about a false statement the codefendant made in a previous criminal case (6) the trial court erred by limiting a detective's testimony regarding the codefendants' inconsistent statements and (7) the trial court erred by not allowing testimony about a codefendant's pretrial statement to impeach the codefendant. Based upon the oral arguments, the record, and the parties' briefs, we find no reversible error and affirm the judgments of the trial court.