State v. Pierce

OPINION

in which ANDERSON,. C. J., BIRCH, HOLDER and BARKER, JJ. joined.

The appellant, Lon Mitchell Pierce, Jr., was fleeing from law enforcement officials in a van that another person had stolen in Florida twenty days earlier when the stolen van he was driving collided with a Sullivan County deputy’s patrol car. The deputy died almost immediately from injuries he sustained in the collision. As a result of the deputy’s death, the appellant was charged with and convicted of first degree murder in the perpetration of a theft. In the Court of Criminal Appeals, the appellant challenged the…