State of Tennessee v. Joshua Steven Sullivan

Syllabus

A Knox County jury convicted the Defendant, Joshua Steven Sullivan, of two counts of rape of a child, one count of attempted rape of a child, and one count of aggravated sexual battery. The trial court imposed a total effective sentence of forty-two years. The Defendant argues that the trial court committed several evidentiary errors, including by admitting evidence that (1) the victim made statements to her sister and best friend as excited utterances (2) he told officers they needed a warrant to enter the house and that he was on his way to his attorney's office (3) he had prior convictions for purposes of impeachment and (4) he removed his GPS monitoring bracelet and left the jurisdiction while on pretrial release. The Defendant also asserts that the trial court erred in instructing the jury regarding flight and that the cumulative effect of these errors entitles him to a new trial. Finally, he asserts that the trial court erred in imposing consecutive sentences. Upon review, we conclude that harmless errors exist in the admission of the Defendant's statements related to his purported exercise of constitutional rights. Otherwise, we respectfully affirm the judgments of the trial court.