Jereme LittleA 40-year-old man whose 18-year conviction for kidnapping was overturned last year must return to prison, according to a Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals decision released Friday.
Authorities are searching for Jereme Little now that an appellate court overturned the post-conviction relief that set him free after seven years in prison, his attorney Lloyd Levitt said.
"Obviously, I'm disappointed," Levitt said. "Essentially, they'll take him back into custody and he'll start serving the rest of his 18-year sentence."
The Times Free Press previously reported that Little was arrested in 2005 in a case dating back to 1998 in which the victim said he was kidnapped and tortured by Little.
Prosecutors said the incident began when Little and Demetrius Grayson planned to rob Chris Rogers at the man's home. Grayson testified that Little wanted to kill Rogers so Grayson left, but Little tied him up, holding him hostage and forcing him to eat crack cocaine and dog feces.
Grayson said he escaped from Little and finally reported the crime seven years later.
Prior to his conviction in 2008, Little had already built up a lengthy criminal record in Hamilton County, including charges ranging from possession of crack cocaine to aggravated burglary.
He was also acquitted in a separate murder trial in which the mother of his unborn child accused him of beating her and causing the child's death. He was tried twice on a 2001 murder charge in the death of Tony McAfee, but both trials ended in hung juries.
Because of his previous offenses, then-Judge Rebecca Stern sentenced Little to 18 years in prison on a charge of especially aggravated kidnapping in the case involving Grayson.
In 2012, Little appealed his conviction to the Tennessee Supreme Court. A year later, the court upheld the conviction.
Little didn't give up.
With attorney Levitt, Little filed a post-conviction petition for relief.
A successful post-relief conviction must show two things, Levitt said: That a defendant had ineffective counsel during a trial and that said counsel resulted in prejudice.
In May 2015, before she left the bench, Judge Stern said a different attorney, Jeffrey Schaarschmidt, provided counsel that ultimately affected the outcome of Little's trial.
She called it "the messiest trial" she had ever sat through in 18 years.
The move effectively overturned his 2008 conviction, setting Little free. State prosecutors, however, didn't agree with Stern's finding and appealed it to a higher court, Levitt said.
At 4:40 p.m. on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts released a written opinion from that appeal which ultimately overturned Stern's ruling for post-conviction relief.
In that opinion, Judges Kelly Thomas Jr., Thomas Woodall and James Curwood Witt Jr. agreed with the state and wrote that they believed Little's counsel had failed to prove prejudice in his case.
"Based on the foregoing and the record as a whole, the judgment of the post-conviction court is reversed, and the Petitioner's conviction for especially aggravated kidnapping is reinstated," the conclusion read.
"Since they reversed the judge's ruling that he was entitled to post-conviction, now he stands convicted again. His only last hope is the Tennessee Supreme Court," something Levitt said is a long shot.
"They don't grant too many discretionary appeals," he said. "So it doesn't look good."
On Friday, Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz said he signed Little's arrest order to take him back into custody.
"The Court of Criminal Appeals [Friday] reversed our trial court's post-conviction ruling," he said. "I signed the order authorizing his arrest and then his immediate transfer back to the state penitentiary.
"They presented it to me about 3:30 p.m. [Friday] afternoon. And the capias order was issued under my signature about 10 minutes before the clerk's office closed."
A spokeswoman said Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston declined to comment on the outcome, saying the appellate court's order speaks for itself.