DICKSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A man previously convicted of killing a Dickson County sergeant was denied a new trial, according to court documents obtained by News 2.
Steven Wiggins was accused of killing Dickson County Sgt. Daniel Baker on May 30, 2018. In August 2021, Wiggins received the death penalty for the crime. Additionally, Wiggins faced charges of carjacking and firearms violations that resulted in the death penalty on the federal level. He pleaded guilty to those charges on March 25, 2022, and that sentence was carried out in April 2022.
Wiggins’ attorneys fought for a new trial in court on Feb. 4. In a Wednesday court filing, Dickson County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer McKinney denied the motion for a retrial and issued several rulings on the matter. Wiggins’ legal team had objected to several points about evidence in the case, including a lack of evidence for several charges and the inclusion of other pieces of evidence.
However, McKinney called the claim of insufficient evidence “completely without merit” and justified the inclusion of other pieces of evidence — like photographs of Baker’s body — with prior rulings. In addition to evidence objections, Wiggins also objected to the inclusion of a victim impact statement from Baker’s widow, arguing its “prejudicial impact” outweighed its value in court.
The Court did not find the admission of this evidence unfair, however, and argued McKinney was not entitled to relief on the matter. McKinney also called claims about the state’s impropriety and a conflict of interest with the office of the district attorney general to be “without basis” and “without merit,” respectively.
“This Court has not found that any new issue raised warranted a new trial and further does not find any cumulative effect of alleged errors would warrant a new trial,” McKinney said in the filing.
As of publication, Wiggins remains on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
