State of Tennessee v. Michael C. Bolden, E2016-01266-CCA-R3-CD

In Sept. 2012, Michael C. Bolden was charged with one count of aggravated rape of a child for allegedly inserting his penis into a toddler victim’s mouth; the victim was born Dec. 17, 2009 (≈2 years, 9 months at incident).
Victim’s mother (A.H.) testified she saw Bolden with his penis in the child’s mouth, intervened, and immediately reported the assault; officers arrived and Bolden made inculpatory oral and handwritten statements to Chief Deputy Cochran admitting the conduct and that the child in a diaper aroused him.
Defense presented testimony that Bolden has learning disabilities and denied the assault, claiming his written confession was given out of fear and coercion; witnesses offered mixed recollections of details about the scene and the child’s behavior.
The jury convicted Bolden of aggravated rape of a child; the trial court sentenced him to 40 years at 100% as a Range III offender by statute.
On appeal Bolden challenged (1) sufficiency of the evidence (particularly child’s age) and (2) the trial court’s failure to instruct on rape of a child as a lesser included offense.
Appellate court affirmed conviction and sentence, rejected the lesser-included argument (procedural waiver and legal inapplicability), and remanded to correct a clerical error on the judgment form mislabeling offender status as “Multiple.”

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence to support aggravated rape of a child	State: eyewitness mother and Bolden’s admissions prove unlawful sexual penetration of a victim ≤3 years	Bolden: evidence of child’s age was minimal/conflicting and confession was coerced/intimidated	Affirmed — viewing evidence in State’s favor, eyewitness testimony and admissions support conviction and the child was under 3
Failure to instruct on rape of a child as a lesser included offense	State: no error — parties agreed instructions; rape of a child is not a lesser included offense of aggravated rape of a child	Bolden: trial court should have instructed jury on rape of a child as lesser included	Affirmed — waived for lack of contemporaneous objection and legally improper because statutes define different victim-age elements
Sentencing / Offender-status clerical error	State: judgment should reflect statutory Range III status	Bolden: judgment incorrectly checked "Multiple" offender box	Court remanded to correct judgment: remove "Multiple" designation and note Range III status per statute

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for reviewing sufficiency of the evidence)
State v. Dorantes, 331 S.W.3d 370 (Tenn. 2011) (appellate standard: do not reweigh credibility; view evidence in light most favorable to prosecution)
State v. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d 832 (Tenn. 1978) (trier of fact resolves witness credibility and weight of evidence)
State v. Howard, 504 S.W.3d 260 (Tenn. 2016) (tests for lesser‑included offenses and elements comparison)
State v. Burns, 6 S.W.3d 453 (framework for lesser‑included offense analysis)
State v. Ballard, 855 S.W.2d 557 (Tenn. 1993) (appellant’s duty to provide adequate record on appeal)