Appellant, Roger Stephen Riner, was convicted by a Davidson County Jury of first degree murder, felony murder, and aggravated robbery. The trial court merged the felony murder conviction with the first degree murder conviction. Appellant was sentenced to life for the first degree murder conviction and ten years for the aggravated robbery conviction, to be served consecutively to the life sentence...
Around 10:00 p.m. on the night of August 25, 2005, Jeff Richardson was on patrol as a security guard in the Murfreesboro Road area. Mr. Richardson was pulling his car into a parking lot when he saw the victim and Appellant approaching each other on foot from opposite directions. Mr. Richardson watched in horror as Appellant passed by Michael J. Kowalski, the victim. Appellant passed the victim, turned, and pushed him from behind, knocking the victim down a steep embankment next to a bridge. Appellant then followed the victim into the ravine. Several minutes later, Mr. Richardson saw Appellant emerge from the ravine area, dust himself off, and cross Murfreesboro Road toward the Taco Bell...
An autopsy revealed that the victim suffered several lacerations to both sides of his face and head, as well as scrapes and abrasions on his nose, hemorrhages around his eyes, multiple contusions on his neck, multiple contusions and abrasions across his upper back and base of his neck, multiple abrasions and contusions of his left collarbone and forearms, and several abrasions on his legs and ankles. The victim had a severe skull fracture and broken bones in the left side of the face. The victim also suffered from a broken mandible and broken nose. In fact, the entire front of the victims face was fractured and separated from the back of his skull. According to the medical examiner, the victim died of multiple blunt force trauma injuries to the head and neck. The injuries were consistent with being inflicted with a large, jagged rock.
