State of Tennessee v. Ledarren S. Hawkins, 2013 Tenn. LEXIS 497

Hawkins, a Bloods gang member, brought a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun to a Jackson, TN entertainment complex during a visit to friends from college.
A gang-related altercation between Bloods and Crips occurred in the parking lot; Hawkins retrieved the shotgun from a truck and fired one shot, killing Jerome Ellington (an unarmed stranger).
Hawkins testified he retrieved the gun to protect a friend and that he fired because he believed Ellington was reaching for a weapon; he claimed self-defense, and sought a jury instruction on defense of a third person.
After the shooting Hawkins ran to a miniature-golf area and tossed the shotgun over a short, widely spaced metal fence onto snow; police located and photographed the gun soon thereafter.
Hawkins was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and tampering with physical evidence under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-16-503; he received life for murder and a concurrent three-year sentence for tampering.
The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the murder conviction (no instruction on defense of another warranted) and reversed the tampering conviction, holding tossing the gun into plain view adjacent to the scene was mere abandonment, not statutory concealment.

Issue	State's Argument	Hawkins's Argument	Held
Whether trial court erred by refusing jury instruction on defense of a third person	Not warranted because evidence showed Hawkins acted to protect himself at the moment he fired	Hawkins argued he retrieved gun to protect friends and thus defense-of-another instruction was fairly raised	Denied — conviction for murder affirmed; testimony showed self-defense at the moment of shooting, not a belief that intervention was immediately necessary to protect a third person
Whether tossing the shotgun over a short, open fence constituted tampering with physical evidence under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-16-503(a)(1)	Tampering: discarding the gun enabled Hawkins to deny possession and remain at scene; argued this impaired availability of evidence	Hawkins argued he merely abandoned the gun in plain view and did not conceal, destroy, or alter it with intent to impair evidence	Reversed — tossing the gun where it lay in plain view and was readily recoverable was mere abandonment, not concealment; tampering conviction vacated

State v. Majors, 318 S.W.3d 850 (Tenn. 2010) (definitions of alter, destroy, and conceal under Tenn. tampering statute)
State v. Dorantes, 331 S.W.3d 370 (Tenn. 2011) (trial court duty to give proper jury instructions on defenses raised by evidence)
State v. Bledsoe, 226 S.W.3d 349 (Tenn. 2007) (discussion of general defenses and when they must be submitted to jury)
Boice v. State, 560 So.2d 1383 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1990) (abandonment of contraband in plain view is not tampering)
Mullins v. Commonwealth, 350 S.W.3d 434 (Ky. 2011) (walking away with a gun without additional concealment acts does not support tampering charge)