10/18/2018 IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT JACKSON June 5, 2018 Session STATE OF TENNESSEE v. FELIPE GONZALES Appeal from the Criminal Court for Shelby County No. 13-04518 Lee V. Coffee, Judge ___________________________________ No. W2017-00941-CCA-R3-CD ___________________________________ The Appellant, Felipe Gonzales, was convicted in the Shelby County Criminal Court of rape of a child, a Class A felony, and aggravated sexual battery, a Class B felony, and received an effective fifty-year sentence to be served at 100%. On appeal, the Appellant contends that the trial court erred by failing to suppress his statement to police, that the trial court erred by not allowing him to cross-examine witnesses about possible bias, that the trial court erred by not instructing the jury on attempt as a lesser-included offense of rape of a child, that his convictions violate double jeopardy, and that the evidence is insufficient to support the convictions. Based upon the oral arguments, the record, and the parties’ briefs, we find no reversible error and affirm the judgments of the trial court. Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed NORMA MCGEE OGLE, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which THOMAS T. WOODALL and ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JJ., joined. Harry E. Sayle, III (on appeal), and Jennifer H. Case (at trial), Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Felipe Gonzales. Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Caitlin Smith, Assistant Attorney General; Amy P. Weirich, District Attorney General; and Lessie Lee Calhoun Rainey and Jeffrey D. Jones, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION I. Factual Background This case relates to the Appellant’s sexually abusing his great niece. In September 2013, the Shelby County Grand Jury indicted the Appellant for rape of a child and aggravated sexual battery. The indictment alleged that the crimes occurred between January 4 and January 8, 2013. At the Appellant’s February 2017 trial, the victim’s mother testified through an interpreter that she was from Honduras and did not speak English. In January 2013, she lived in a house on Toehill Cove with her husband; her two sons, who were twelve years old and ten months old; and the victim, who was seven years old. At some point, the Appellant, who was the victim’s mother’s uncle, came to live with the family. The children slept in one bedroom with the victim sleeping on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed and the victim’s older brother sleeping on the top bunk. The victim’s mother testified that she worked at the El Rodeo bar and that her shift was from 9:00 p.m. until 3:00 a.m. On the night in question, a Saturday, she went to work and left the children at home with her husband and the Appellant. At 3:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, her husband picked her up from work. When the victim’s mother and her husband arrived home and went inside, the victim’s mother saw the Appellant coming out of the victim’s bedroom, ...
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