KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An East Tennessee man convicted of sexually abusing an underage girl has lost his bid for a new trial, unable to convince a judge that his original lawyer made multiple mistakes and that new evidence raised doubts about his guilt.
David Richards, 45, a former Lenoir City pastor and foster dad, is serving a 12-year sentence in the Tennessee prison system for sexual battery, rape and statutory rape by an authority figure.
A Knox County Criminal Court jury convicted him in 2019. Judge Steve Sword imposed sentence.
Richards was represented at trial by veteran attorney Gregg Harrison, a former Knox County prosecutor now in private practice.
Richards hired veteran defense attorney Stephen Ross Johnson, whose work in the field has included founding a local chapter of a group that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions through strategies such as genetic evidence.
Richards, through Johnson, wanted to throw out his convictions and get a new trial.
This year Johnson presented what he argued was evidence of multiple failures by Harrison to challenge state evidence or investigate his client's case adequately.
Richards also argued new information had been discovered recently about the victim's cellphone, semen -- human or canine -- found in the victim's room and the background of a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation forensic analyst, Amory Cannon, who reviewed genetic evidence in the case and testified against Richards at trial.
The judge heard the evidence this summer in multiple hearings. He issued his ruling Monday.
Sword said he was unconvinced Harrison had let Richards down while representing him.
For example, while the TBI employee's background and reason for abrupt departure from the agency in 2016 could have been probed, Harrison used her testimony to cast doubts on the victim's allegations. It was a strategic decision, Sword wrote.
Richards and Johnson "failed to establish deficiency on this matter by clear and convincing evidence, although it is in fact a close issue."
No proof was offered that Cannon was "dishonest in her work in this case or any other case," Sword wrote.
Johnson also sought to raise questions about whether the victim could have reset her iPhone in 2013 as authorities began investigating allegations against Richards.
Knox County authorities seized Richards' iPhone early Dec. 5, 2013. Later that day they seized the victim's iPhone.
The victim had testified Richards sent her incriminating messages by phone and that he had an app that could track her phone.
The state was able to suggest at trial that Richards might have been the one who reset the phone, but Johnson argued new evidence suggested it might have been the victim herself who altered the technology.
Sword was unconvinced.
"As stated above, the records concerning the victim, information regarding the resetting of the iPhones and information about Agent Cannon's investigation were not constitutionally material in this case. The defendant has not shown that the result of the trial would likely change with the information discovered between the verdict and the motion for new trial hearings," Sword wrote.
The judge also said that while the prosecution didn't completely tear apart Richards' claims while testifying, the victim came across well on the stand.
Her testimony was, the judge wrote, "extremely compelling."
