Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Hears Challenge to Sentences in Franklin Waffle House Shooting Case

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, sitting in Nashville at its September session, heard oral argument Thursday in State of Tennessee v. Jeremy Fowler over whether multiple reckless-endangerment convictions should merge for sentencing and whether the trial court properly stacked consecutive sentences.

Appellant counsel Sean Aiello argued that the trial evidence and the state's theory at trial treated the shooting as a single act directed at the vehicle's occupants, while the state shifted at sentencing to treat each trigger pull as a separate criminal act. "The singular theory that was presented to the trial and to the jury was that the act of the firing of the gun, no matter the rounds expended, Mr. Fowler committed the crime of reckless endangerment as to each of the vehicle's seven occupants," Aiello told the court, arguing the post-trial sentencing theory raised notice and fairness concerns.

The argument matters because it affects how many punishable units resulted from one…