State of Tennessee v. Doyan Anderson, W2015-02405-CCA-R3-CD

Victim Melanie Tenort testified Defendant Doyan Anderson assaulted her multiple times in late 2013–March 2014, including being struck and choked at a hotel (Dec. 2013) and later punched, choked, and struck in the head with a revolver at her apartment (Mar. 21, 2014).
Tenort obtained an order of protection (Dec. 19, 2013) forbidding Defendant from abusing or contacting her and the children; Defendant later returned to contact and live with her before the March 2014 incident.
Medical evidence showed a 4 cm scalp laceration requiring staples, swelling and a fractured nasal bridge; police and hospital staff observed heavy bleeding and distress.
Jury convicted Anderson of aggravated assault (use/display of deadly weapon), aggravated assault (violation of a court order), and domestic assault; acquitted on unlawful possession of a firearm.
Trial court merged domestic assault into the aggravated-assault (court-order) conviction and sentenced Anderson as a career offender to two consecutive 15-year terms (30 years total).
On appeal the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed convictions but held the two aggravated-assault convictions must be merged into a single aggravated-assault conviction and remanded for corrected judgments reducing the effective sentence to 15 years.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence for aggravated assault by use/display of deadly weapon	State: Tenort’s eyewitness testimony and medical evidence establish use of a revolver to strike victim	Anderson: Jury acquittal on unlawful-possession count shows State failed to prove he used/possessed a deadly weapon	Affirms conviction; Tenort’s testimony alone was sufficient to prove assault with a deadly weapon
Failure to require State to elect particular instance for aggravated assault (violation of protection order)	State: Closing argument clarified the theory; acts occurred in close temporal/geographic proximity so election not required	Anderson: Multiple discrete acts alleged; lack of election denied right to unanimous verdict	No plain error; acts coalesced into a single aggravated assault (close in time/place) so election not required
Multiplicity / merger of aggravated-assault convictions (raised by court)	N/A: State prosecuted under two aggravating theories for same victim/event	N/A: Trial court did not merge—treated as separate convictions and imposed consecutive sentences	Court orders merger of aggravated-assault (court-order) into aggravated-assault (use/display of deadly weapon); remands for corrected judgment and single 15-year sentence

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency of the evidence)
Bland v. State, 958 S.W.2d 651 (jury resolves credibility/conflicts)
Pelayo v. State, 881 S.W.2d 7 (separate blows close in time/place may constitute single aggravated assault)
State v. Smith, 492 S.W.3d 224 (election-of-offenses doctrine and plain error discussion)
State v. Davis, 466 S.W.3d 49 (inconsistent verdicts not necessarily reversible)
State v. Watkins, 362 S.W.3d 530 (same-elements test not helpful for multiple convictions under same statute)