State of Tennessee v. Mario Bowles, W2016-00496-CCA-R3-CD

Background

Victim, a case manager, met defendant (her client) at his home on October 2, 2013; defendant closed and locked the door and immediately held a knife to her neck.
Defendant forced the victim into a bedroom, ordered her to remove clothing, placed a knife to her neck, rubbed his penis on her vagina, spit on his hand and rubbed it on her vagina, and then penetrated her.
The victim fought, obtained and cut herself on a knife during a struggle; she cleaned herself with towels at defendant’s direction, kept a Bible taken from defendant’s home, called police after leaving, and identified defendant in a photographic lineup.
Medical exam documented cuts to neck, thigh, and multiple palm lacerations; police recovered a knife and white towels from defendant’s bedroom.
Defendant was convicted by a Shelby County jury of two counts of aggravated rape and one count of aggravated kidnapping and received concurrent 23-year 100% sentences for the rape counts (merged) and one for kidnapping; convictions were appealed.
On appeal defendant challenged (1) sufficiency of the evidence for aggravated rape and (2) trial court’s refusal to instruct attempted aggravated rape as a lesser-included offense; the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed.

Issues

Issue	State's Argument	Bowles' Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence for aggravated rape (armed with a knife; bodily injury)	Evidence (victim testimony, injuries, identification, recovered knife/towels) supports completed aggravated rape beyond a reasonable doubt	Victim’s testimony insufficient/corroboration and forensic proof of penetration lacking	Affirmed: a rational jury could find all elements proved; corroboration and forensic proof of penetration not required
Trial court’s refusal to instruct attempted aggravated rape as a lesser-included offense	Only evidence showed completed offense; attempt instruction not warranted where completed act is established	Requested attempt instruction because some proof allegedly suggested penetration may not have been completed	Affirmed: attempt is a lesser included offense but not fairly raised by the proof; only proof was of completion, so no attempt instruction required
Request to instruct attempt of other lesser-included offenses (rape, sexual battery, etc.)	Trial court properly charged rape, aggravated sexual battery, sexual battery as lesser-includeds	Argued attempt instructions for those lesser-includeds were required	Affirmed: penetration was only element arguably incomplete; other offenses do not require penetration, so attempt instructions unnecessary
Harmlessness / constitutional error analysis for omitted instruction	State must show beyond a reasonable doubt any omission harmless; here omission not reversible error because instruction not supported by evidence	Omission denied complete and correct jury charge, prejudicing Bowles	Affirmed: omission not error because evidence did not raise attempt; Chapman/Momon standard applied and State met its burden implicitly by showing instruction unwarranted

Key Cases Cited

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979) (standard for reviewing sufficiency of the evidence)
Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18 (1967) (State must show constitutional error is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt)
State v. Reid, 91 S.W.3d 247 (Tenn. 2002) (presumption of innocence replaced by jury verdict; appellate sufficiency review)
State v. Burns, 6 S.W.3d 453 (Tenn. 1999) (definition and treatment of lesser-included offenses)
State v. Banks, 271 S.W.3d 90 (Tenn. 2008) (standards for when attempt/solicitation/facilitation lesser-included instructions are required)
State v. Biggs, 218 S.W.3d 643 (Tenn. Crim. App. 2006) (attempt instruction not required when only evidence shows completed crime)