State of Tennessee v. Jose Murillo-Salgado

A Shelby County jury convicted Defendant, Jose Murillo-Salgado, of two counts of first degree premeditated murder(counts one and three), two counts of first degree felony murder (counts two and four), and one count of especially aggravated burglary(count five). The trial court sentenced Defendant to life sentences for the murder convictions and merged counts one and three with counts two and four, and sentenced Defendant to an additional twelve years at 100%for the especially aggravated burglary conviction. All counts were ordered to be served consecutively. On appeal, Defendant argues the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions. After a thorough review of the record, the parties’ briefs, and the applicable law, we conclude that the evidence was legally sufficient to support his convictions. However, under the facts of this case, Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-1004(d) prohibits Defendant from being convicted of both especially aggravated burglary and felony murder, we reduce Defendant’s conviction for especially aggravated burglary to aggravated burglary and modify his sentence for that conviction to a six-year term as a Range I Standard offender to be served consecutively. Accordingly, we affirm the judgments as to the murder convictions and modify the judgment for especially aggravated robbery.