State of Tennessee v. Joshua Travis Griffith

Syllabus

A Warren County jury convicted the Defendant, Joshua Travis Griffith, of three counts of aggravated statutory rape, and the trial court sentenced him to a total effective sentence of three years. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the trial court: (1) erroneously allowed the State to present evidence outside the scope of the indictment, as well as evidence of his transmission of hepatitis B to the victim, which should have been excluded pursuant to Tenn. R. Evid. 404(b) (2) erroneously failed to declare a mistrial after the State's motion to amend the indictment in the presence of the jury and (3) erroneously failed to grant his motion for judgments of acquittal. He lastly contends that the cumulative effect of the errors violated his right to a fair trial. After review, we conclude that errors occurred during trial however, consistent with our conclusion that those errors were harmless, the trial court's judgments are affirmed.