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IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT JACKSON
Assigned on Briefs April 10, 2012 STATE OF TENNESSEE v. ISAAC MCDONALD, JR.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Madison County No. 10-532 Roger A. Page, Judge

No. W2011-01233-CCA-R3-CD - Filed June 28, 2012

The defendant, Isaac McDonald, Jr., was convicted by a jury of attempted aggravated rape, a Class B felony, and sentenced to serve twelve years in prison. On appeal, the defendant contends that the evidence at trial was insufficient to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. After a thorough review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed J OHN E VERETT W ILLIAMS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which C AMILLE R. M CM ULLEN and J EFFREY S. B IVINS, J.J., joined. George Morton Googe, District Public Defender; and Paul E. Meyers II, Assistant Public Defender, for the appellant, Isaac McDonald, Jr. Robert E. Cooper, Attorney General and Reporter; Jeffrey D. Zentner, Assistant Attorney General; James G. Woodall, District Attorney General; and Benjamin C. Mayo, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION The charges at issue arose when the victim 1 left a small party and was attacked while sitting in her car in the parking lot of an apartment complex during the early morning hours of May 15, 2010. After the police responded to two separate 911 calls, the defendant was arrested, charged with aggravated rape, and tried by a jury. The State's proof at trial began with the testimony of Tommy Ferguson, an officer
1

In accordance with the policy of this Court to protect the identity of victims of sexual assault, we will refer to the victim simply as "the victim."

with the Jackson Police Department. Officer Ferguson testified that he was dispatched to an apartment complex to respond to a 911 call regarding a woman screaming and regarding the occurrence of a crime and presence of the victim and perpetrator. When Officer Ferguson arrived, two patrol cars were already on the scene. Officer Ferguson testified that at the scene, he collected women's underwear, which were dirty and muddy and torn apart on one side and which he recovered from a dusty, grassy area near the air conditioning units at the southeastern corner of the building. Officer Ferguson testified that he spoke with the victim and photographed her. Several photographs of "marks and injuries" that Officer Ferguson observed on the victim were entered into evidence.2 Officer Ferguson testified that the victim had dirt on her back, face, knees, neck, elbows and upper arms around her shoulders. The victim had red marks and abrasions on her body under the areas with dirt on them; Officer Ferguson likened them to injuries a football player would receive after being tackled and held down struggling in the dirt. Her clothing was disarrayed. The victim had been crying and was distraught and emotional. On cross-examination, Officer Ferguson testified that he had fingerprinted the victim's car and did not find any fingerprints on it. Robert Groves, another officer with the Jackson Police Department, was the State's next witness. Officer Groves testified that he was dispatched to the apartment complex following a 911 call regarding a female voice crying and that en route he was informed of another call reporting a sexual assault and informing police that the suspect had been chased into an apartment. Officer Groves, who was one of the first two cars on the scene, saw two men standing outside a downstairs apartment. One of the men, Caleb Thomas, informed him that he had seen the man who lived in the apartment attack his friend and they had chased the man back into the unit. Officer Groves testified that he saw the defendant removed from the apartment Mr. Thomas had indicated. Officer Groves testified that he observed the victim that night, and that she was hysterical and barely able to talk. The victim was crying and had dirt on her face, arms, and clothing and had red marks on her arms. Officer Groves testified that the defendant's family members let the police in and told them the defendant was in his room. They found the defendant lying on the bed, wearing a pair of shorts with no shirt or shoes on. The defendant was cooperative from the time he was handcuffed in the bedroom to the time he was walked outside. Outside there was a confrontation between the victim's friends and the defendant's family, and another officer had to "conduct a takedown" of the defendant, who was trying to "get to another party." The defendant did not ever ask why he was being arrested. On cross-examination, Officer Groves testified that he did not find forty dollars or a Kodak camera in the defendant's residence and did not know if those items were ever found. Officer Groves also testified that he went upstairs to the apartment of the victim's friend, Kristen Elder, and that while he could tell that the persons present

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