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IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT JACKSON
Assigned on Briefs December 4, 2001 STATE OF TENNESSEE v. BEN MILLS
Appeal from the Criminal Court for Shelby County Nos. 95-06195, 95-06196, 95-06198, 95-061200 John P. Colton, Judge

No. W1999-01175-CCA-R3-CD - Filed May 3, 2002

The defendant, Ben Mills, was convicted of one count of first degree premeditated murder, one count of felony murder, one count of aggravated robbery and two counts of attempted first degree murder. The trial court merged the murder convictions and imposed a sentence of life imprisonment.1 For the remaining convictions, the trial court imposed sentences as follows: eight years as a standard, Range I offender for aggravated robbery to be served concurrently with the life sentence, and 15 years as a standard, Range I offender for each attempted first degree murder conviction to be served concurrently to each other but consecutively to the sentences for first degree murder and aggravated robbery. The effective sentence, therefore, is life plus 15 years. In this appeal as of right, the defendant contends (1) that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions; (2) that the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury regarding all of the lesser included offenses of felony murder; and (3) that the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury on intoxication. The judgments of the trial court are affirmed. The judgment for first degree murder is modified to reflect that the conviction for felony murder is merged into the conviction for premeditated first degree murder. Tenn. R. App. P. 3; Judgments of the Trial Court Affirmed as Modified GARY R. WADE, P.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which DAVID H. WELLES and DAVID G. HAYES, JJ., joined. Mike Roberts, Memphis, Tennessee (at trial), and Marty B. McAfee, Memphis, Tennessee (on appeal), for the appellant, Ben Mills. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; P. Robin Dixon, Jr., Assistant Attorney General; Dan Woody and Thomas Hoover, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, the State of Tennessee.

Because the state did not seek the death penalty or life without parole, a life sentence was automatic after a convictio n for first deg ree mu rder. See Tenn. Code An n.

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