State of Tennessee v. Kortney Dalon Ball

In 2021, the Davidson County Grand Jury indicted the Defendant for one count of aggravated assault by strangulation or attempted strangulation. At his 2024 trial, the trial court instructed the jury on the charged aggravated assault offense as well as the lesser included offenses of attempted aggravated assault, reckless aggravated assault, domestic assault, attempted domestic assault, and domestic assault by offensive contact. After deliberating, the jury acquitted the Defendant of aggravated assault by strangulation as well as the lesser-included offenses of attempted aggravated assault and reckless aggravated assault. However, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the domestic assault charge, and the trial court declared a mistrial. At the Defendant’s 2025 retrial, the jury convicted the Defendant of domestic assault. On appeal, the Defendant argues: (1) his conviction for domestic assault should be vacated and his indictment dismissed with prejudice because the trial court erroneously instructed the jury that domestic assault was a lesser-included offense of the indicted aggravated assault offense; (2) the trial court violated his due process and confrontation rights when it denied him access to the transcript from his first trial, when it restricted his cross-examination of the victim, and when it failed to declare a mistrial in response to the victim’s testimony that the Defendant had “a history of selling [drugs]”; (3) the trial court abused its discretion in admitting unauthenticated photographs of the victim’s alleged injuries; (4) the trial court abused its discretion in imposing an excessive sentence and in setting a restrictive appeal bond and bond conditions following the appellate court’s intervention; and (5) the cumulative effect of these errors requires relief. After review, we reverse the Defendant’s conviction for domestic assault, vacate the judgment, and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this decision.