STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JOHN CHAMPION - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JOHN CHAMPION

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Jun 9, 2026

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Mark Mesler, Memphis, Tennessee, (on appeal) and André Wharton, Memphis, Tennessee (at trial) for the appellant, John Champion.

Attorneys 2: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Ronald L. Coleman, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Steve Mulroy, District Attorney General; and Venecia Patterson, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): DYER

A Shelby County jury convicted the defendant, John Champion, of one count of sexual battery by an authority figure. On appeal, the defendant argues that: (1) the trial court erred in denying the defendant the use of two peremptory challenges; (2) the trial court’s failure to dismiss the indictment due to the State’s failure to preserve evidence resulted in a fundamentally unfair trial; (3) the trial court erred in failing to declare a mistrial following a prejudicial misstatement by a witness; (4) the trial court failed to require the State to elect which incident it was relying on to establish the offense; and (5) the trial court improperly sentenced the defendant to confinement. Following a thorough review of the record, the briefs, and applicable law, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

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