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1 IN THE CRIMINAL COURT OF HAMILTON COUNTY, TENNESSEE

2 THE ELEVENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT

3 STATE OF TENNESSEE *
*
4 vs. * Case No. 311081
*
5 DONYELL DEWAYNE HOLLAND *
*
6

7 Friday, April 28, 2023

8
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRETRIAL CONFERENCE
9 Volume One of One Volume

10
THE HONORABLE AMANDA B. DUNN, JUDGE
11

12 APPEARANCES

13 FOR THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

14 Michael Dowd, Esq.

Assistant District Attorney General
15 Hamilton County District Attorney's Office
Courts Building
16 600 Market Street, Suite 310
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402
17
FOR THE DEFENDANT:
18
Ryan Wheeler, Esq.
19 Speek, Turner & Newkirk PLLC
631 Cherry Street
20 Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402

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1 IN THE CRIMINAL COURT OF HAMILTON COUNTY, TENNESSEE

2 DIVISION II

3 STATE OF TENNESSEE )
)
4 vs. ) Case No. 311081
)
5 DONYELL DEWAYNE HOLLAND )

6 This cause came on to be heard and was

7 heard on the 28th day of April, 2023, before the

8 Honorable Amanda B. Dunn, Judge, holding the Criminal

9 Court for Hamilton County, at Chattanooga, Tennessee,

10 and the following proceedings were had, to wit:

11 THE COURT: For purposes of the record, we

12 are here in the matter of State versus Donyell Holland,

13 311081. This matter is set for trial on the charge of

14 first-degree murder beginning May 23rd at nine o'clock

15 a.m. Mr. Holland is in the courtroom and seated next

16 to his attorney at counsel table.

17 We are here this morning for a pretrial

18 conference. In reviewing the file, it appears the only

19 outstanding motion that I saw was a motion for specific

20 discovery that was filed on your behalf, Mr. Holland.

21 THE DEFENDANT: Yes, ma'am.

22 THE COURT: Counsel -- and, Mr. Wheeler,

23 you can address this first -- do you believe you've

24 received the discovery that you requested in your

25 motion for specific discovery?

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1 MR. WHEELER: Judge, we've not received

2 those items yet. I've spoke with General Dowd, and he

3 said he's in the process of getting those items to us,

4 Your Honor.

5 THE COURT: All right. Mr. Dowd, would you

6 like to be heard on that?

7 MR. DOWD: Yes, I would, Your Honor. This

8 motion was filed on Monday. I received it on Tuesday.

9 Many of these items, according to the notes -- now, I

10 guess I should go back on this.

11 THE COURT: Sure.

12 MR. DOWD: Last Monday, the 17th, is the

13 first time I ever appeared on this case. I did not get

14 this case until October of last year.

15 I had notes in my file that discovery had

16 already been turned over.

17 THE COURT: Uh-huh.

18 MR. DOWD: Including many, if not all, of

19 the items that are listed on the motion for specific

20 discovery, but I have no reason to believe that counsel

21 is telling me something that's not factual. So at that

22 point in time, Your Honor, I decided that in the

23 abundance of caution I -- since I don't know exactly

24 what happened prior to October of last year, I decided

25 that I was going to just recreate the entire discovery

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1 package of everything that I have and then turn it over

2 to counsel. I do not trust Box. I do not like

3 [Link]. I think both of them should be thrown in

4 the trash can for all future eternity, but I know that

5 that is what other people like. I am going to give

6 this in a hard copy form to counsel, including discs

7 that will have all of the phone dumps, all of the

8 videos, all of the audios, all of the interviews and

9 recordings; so that will all be given to counsel on

10 Monday. I believe that should answer the motion for

11 specific discovery since everything that I have and the

12 police have and could possibly have will be turned over

13 to him.

14 In addition, one of the reasons why we

15 turned -- we moved this from last week to this week is

16 because of TBI with ballistics. I spoke to TBI

17 yesterday afternoon. They indicated to me that -- and

18 I'm going to try to quote them as best as possible.

19 "Ballistics have, in fact, started. It is expected to

20 be complete by the middle of May." When I asked them

21 what they meant by the "middle of May," they said, "The

22 middle of May." They would not give me anything more

23 specific than that. I have already represented that to

24 counsel earlier this morning as to what I was told.

25 THE COURT: Right.

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1 MR. DOWD: There were also two other

2 motions that were previously filed I believe on the

3 17th of April.

4 THE COURT: Yes.

5 MR. DOWD: A motion for notice of State's

6 evidence as well as a defendant's request for Brady

7 exculpatory material. I believe that the turning over

8 of all of the documentation on Monday will more than

9 suffice to answer those particular requests as well,

10 Your Honor. And that is all that I can say about this

11 matter.

12 THE COURT: All right. And I'm -- what I

13 will do just for purposes of a full and complete record

14 is I will enter a standard discovery order, which will

15 require them to turn over, the State to turn over

16 everything allowed under Rule 16 as well as all Brady

17 and Giglio material.

18 MR. WHEELER: Yes, Judge.

19 THE COURT: And we're operating on

20 Mr. Dowd's presentation to the Court, which I have no

21 reason to question, that you will have everything

22 shortly. And frankly, in looking at Mr. Holland's

23 file, he appears to have received some things but it

24 may not be everything. So we want to make sure,

25 Mr. Holland, that you have everything.

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1 MR. WHEELER: And, Your Honor, we did file

2 a discovery -- a motion for discovery. There was

3 specific items that I listed out reference -- that are

4 referenced in my second motion, the specific discovery

5 motion, that weren't included in the actual file that I

6 have, so that -- just a point of clarity there, Judge.

7 THE COURT: And I assumed that was the

8 case. You wouldn't request it if you didn't -- if you

9 already had it, Mr. Wheeler. I certainly understand

10 that. So I will enter an order to that effect and I

11 understand that Mr. Dowd will provide it.

12 Unfortunately, with respect to the

13 Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Ballistics Division,

14 I have no authority, and counsel in this room knows

15 that ballistics moves very, very slowly. Mr. Holland,

16 I am very hopeful that those TBI lab results are

17 forthcoming because I do believe you're entitled to

18 have them absolutely before we proceed.

19 As it stands right now, however, we do have

20 a trial date of May the 23rd and so we're going to

21 maintain that trial date until further notice or

22 further discussion from the parties.

23 MR. DOWD: With the Court's permission, in

24 order to find out about the TBI ballistics, may I

25 suggest perhaps on Monday, the 15th, or Tuesday, the

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1 16th of May, we have a further pretrial conference to

2 see about the status of the ballistics and hopefully

3 it's been turned over prior to then.

4 THE COURT: I think that's wise. Would you

5 be available on Monday, the 15th, to make sure that

6 everything has been received, Mr. Wheeler?

7 MR. WHEELER: Yes, Judge, we would.

8 THE COURT: Okay.

9 MR. WHEELER: And just a general note for

10 the Court, as far as ballistics coming back in the

11 middle of May, I mean that puts us in a bind timewise

12 in a circumstance where we would need to have -- you

13 know, find an expert just to move forward just based on

14 those results. I mean that's not an issue now because

15 I don't know what I don't have, but I just think that

16 that could possibly be an issue, and I wanted to just

17 address that now.

18 The last thing we would want to do is

19 continue the case again because Mr. Holland has been in

20 custody for over two years, but if there's a

21 last-minute, you know, drop of the information results

22 from the ballistics, then that would leave our side

23 scrambling, you know, for -- could potentially leave

24 our side scrambling for an expert.

25 MR. DOWD: And the State understands that.

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1 And I can tell the Court that I am as exasperated as

2 anyone regarding the delays that TBI seems to have with

3 ballistics.

4 I can tell you that yesterday -- and I'll

5 try to quote as best as possible -- I shut my door when

6 I had the discussion with TBI because my voice was

7 getting raised. And I believe at one point in the

8 discussion I actually told the TBI person, "I've done

9 ballistics myself. If you want me to come down and get

10 the damn gun and do the ballistics myself, I'm going to

11 do that." At that point in time the person on the

12 other end said I didn't need to raise my voice to them.

13 And I said, "If you were doing your damn job, I

14 wouldn't have to."

15 I come from a state where this would be

16 inexcusable for a lab to take this long. And quite

17 frankly, the state of California, where I came from,

18 has far more crime than the state of Tennessee, yet to

19 take nine or twelve months to do ballistics to me is

20 unconscionable. So I can tell the Court and to counsel

21 on record that I am as exasperated as anybody else that

22 this is going on and I'm not happy about it. I

23 recognize that depending upon what the ballistics show

24 we may on the 15th, when we come back, have to address

25 certain issues regarding this that TBI has created.

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1 I don't know how things work all the time

2 in the state of Tennessee. As the Court knows, I'm

3 relatively new to this job, being here only seven

4 months on the job. I can tell the Court that where I

5 came from, the head of the lab would have been in that

6 chair right over there answering questions from the

7 Court as to why it takes that long to do things and

8 being told why you're not going to be held in contempt

9 for not doing your job. I'm not asking the Court to do

10 that. I'm not telling the Court what to do. But the

11 fact is this is inexcusable.

12 This is a case that is several years old.

13 These items have been with TBI for well over -- well,

14 going on two years now, and this should have been done

15 long ago. And this is getting to be borderline a joke.

16 But with that being said, I think we can't really do

17 anything until we're here on the 15th to see where

18 we're at.

19 THE COURT: I agree. It appears that there

20 are family members here, perhaps of the victim in this

21 case, or maybe family members of the defendant. In any

22 instance, whoever is present on this matter, you've

23 heard what the attorneys have to say. Unfortunately,

24 in some respects we are all held hostage by how quickly

25 the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will get the

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1 ballistics report to us. So, Mr. Holland, you're in

2 the same position. You have been incarcerated waiting,

3 you know, on your trial date and I understand that.

4 I think Mr. Dowd's suggestion that we come

5 back on May the 15th is appropriate so we can see the

6 status of lab results, if they've even been received by

7 this point, and also whether -- just to ensure the

8 discovery has been turned over.

9 Is everybody in agreement with that?

10 MR. WHEELER: Yes, Judge. And on the 15th

11 my client would request that we -- just given the

12 extreme delay, that we be able to address the bond

13 issue on the matter.

14 THE COURT: Well, as I told someone on the

15 State's behalf earlier, all requests for modification

16 of bond have to be made via written petition.

17 MR. WHEELER: And we will get that

18 together. My client just wanted to make that known to

19 the Court.

20 THE COURT: All right.

21 MR. DOWD: Counsel can expect that the

22 State will vehemently oppose that.

23 THE COURT: Of course.

24 MR. DOWD: The release of any murderer.

25 THE COURT: So I will set it May 15th for

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1 the status of TBI lab results and possible bond

2 hearing --

3 MR. WHEELER: Yes, Judge.

4 THE COURT: -- at nine a.m.

5 All right. So have I addressed everything

6 we needed to address today with respect to outstanding

7 discovery and potential trial date? Right now I'm

8 hanging on to May 23rd in hopes that that can go

9 forward.

10 MR. DOWD: That's all for today, Your

11 Honor.

12 THE COURT: All right. Mr. Wheeler,

13 anything further on Mr. Holland's behalf?

14 MR. WHEELER: Judge, Mr. Holland would like

15 to address the bond issue today. Would that be

16 possible?

17 THE COURT: No. No. And here's why -- and

18 I hold the State's feet to the fire on the same issue:

19 The bond statute states that bond -- requests to modify

20 your bond in any fashion must be done in a written form

21 and that written petition served on your opposing party

22 so they have an opportunity to prepare. Additionally,

23 I anticipate on -- with respect to any requests for a

24 bond reduction that the State will want to have

25 witnesses present to testify on that issue. So while I

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1 understand your position, which is you have been in

2 custody for a number of years on this case and you're

3 ready to move on it, I completely understand that

4 position. I like to do things procedurally that are in

5 compliance with the statute and they're in fairness to

6 all of the parties. So that being said, we do have

7 another date set May 15th, and if a bond motion is

8 filed on your behalf, we will take it up on that date.

9 Anything further, Counsel?

10 All right. For anyone who is here on this

11 matter, I thank you for being here today very much, and

12 we will be back May 15 at nine a.m.

13 MR. WHEELER: Thank you, Judge.

14 THE COURT: This matter is concluded.

15 (End of proceedings.)

16 END OF PROCEEDINGS.

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1 IN THE CRIMINAL COURT OF HAMILTON COUNTY, TENNESSEE

2
STATE OF TENNESSEE
3
VS. CASE NO. 311081
4
DONYELL DEWAYNE HOLLAND
5
ORDER APPROVING TRANSCRIPT
6
This is to certify that the Transcript of
7 the Pretrial Conference adduced at the trial of this
case has been filed with the Clerk on _____________,
8 in accordance with Rule 24 of the Tennessee Rules of
Appellate Procedure. The transcript has been
9 examined by counsel for the Defendant and the State
and has been found by both to be a true and accurate
10 record of the proceeding.
This is to further certify that the Court
11 has examined the Transcript of the Pretrial
Conference and has found it to be a true and accurate
12 record of the proceedings.
THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND
13 DECREED that the Transcript of the Pretrial
Conference is hereby approved by the Court and
14 counsel for the Defendant and the State, and the
Clerk is hereby ordered to make the Transcript of the
15 Pretrial Conference part of the Record on Appeal in
this case.
16 Entered this the ______ day of
______________, _____.
17

18 ___________________________
JUDGE
19

20 APPROVED:

21
____________________________________
22 ATTORNEY FOR THE STATE OF TENNESSEE

23
____________________________________
24 ATTORNEY FOR THE DEFENDANT/APPELLANT

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1 CERTIFICATE

2 I, the undersigned Kay R. Davis, RMR, LCR

3 #221, Auxiliary Official Court Reporter for the

4 Eleventh Judicial District of the State of Tennessee,

5 do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true,

6 accurate and complete transcript, to the best of my

7 knowledge and ability, of all proceedings had and

8 evidence introduced in the trial of the captioned

9 cause, relative to appeal, in the Criminal Court for

10 Hamilton County, Tennessee, on the 28th day of April,

11 2023.

12 I do further certify that I am neither of

13 kin, counsel nor interest to any party hereto.

14

15

16

17 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _April
_ _ _29
_________, 2023

18

19 _________________________________
Kay R. Davis, R M R , L C R # 2 2 1
20 Expiration Date: 6/30/2024
Auxiliary Official Court Reporter
21 State of Tennessee

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