State of Tennessee v. Gwendolyn Hagerman

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee·Decided December 19, 2013·No. E2011-00233-CCA-R3-CD·Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE

Remanded on November 13, 2013

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. GWENDOLYN HAGERMAN

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Sullivan County No. S57,179 Robert H. Montgomery, Jr., Judge

No. E2011-00233-CCA-R3-CD - Filed December 19, 2013

The Defendant was found guilty by a Sullivan County Criminal Court jury of five counts of rape of a child involving the daughter of the Defendant’s then-girlfriend. See T.C.A. § 39- 13-522 (1997). She was sentenced as a Range I offender to twenty years for each conviction to be served at 100% as a child rapist. The trial court ordered partial consecutive sentencing, for an effective sixty-year sentence. In the Defendant’s previous appeal, she contended that: (1) the evidence is insufficient to support the convictions; (2) there was a material variance between the presentment, the bill of particulars, the election of offenses, and the proof; (3) the trial court erred in denying her motion to dismiss the charges due to pre-accusation delay; (4) the court erred in declining to conduct an in camera review of Department of Children’s Services (DCS) records; and (5) the court erred in imposing consecutive sentences. State v. Gwendolyn Hagerman, No. E2011-00233-CCA-R3-CD (Tenn. Crim. App. June 4, 2013), perm. app. granted, case remanded (Tenn. Nov. 13, 2013). After we affirmed the Defendant’s convictions, the Tennessee Supreme Court granted her application for permission to appeal and remanded the case in order for this court to order that the record be supplemented with the victim’s DCS records and for reconsideration of the case in light of the supplemented record. State v. Gwendolyn Hagerman, No. E2011-00233-CCA-R3-SC (Tenn. Nov. 13, 2013) (per curiam) (order). Having ordered that the record be supplemented and having reviewed the DCS records, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed

J OSEPH M. T IPTON, P.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which T HOMAS T. W OODALL and C AMILLE R. M CM ULLEN, JJ., joined.

Stephen M. Wallace, District Public Defender (on appeal); Leslie S. Hale, Assistant District Public Defender (on appeal); Steve McEwen, Mountain City, Tennessee (on appeal); and Frank L. Slaughter, Jr., Bristol, Tennessee (at trial) for the appellant, Gwendolyn Hagerman.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Cameron L. Hyder, Assistant Attorney General; Barry Staubus, District Attorney General; and Amber Massengill, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

At the trial, Tina Reynolds testified that she thought she met the Defendant in December 2007. She recalled a telephone call in which the Defendant called Ms. Reynolds by the victim’s name, who the Defendant claimed was her ex-girlfriend. She said the Defendant stated that the victim was pregnant. She said she and the Defendant went to Gatlinburg for New Year’s Eve 2007. She said that she and the Defendant had a friendship and that they were sexually intimate once. She said their friendship lasted until May 2008. She said that she stayed at the Defendant’s house frequently during this time and that the Defendant lived alone. She said that the Defendant used the names “Gwen” and “Cohen” 1 and that she referred to the Defendant as her “sugar momma” because the Defendant bought her gifts. She said the Defendant told her that Cohen was the name the victim called the Defendant. She said the Defendant dressed like a man in jeans, boots, and button-up shirts and drove a red Mustang. She said the Defendant had a tattoo on her leg and thought the Defendant had a tattoo on her arm. She said one tattoo depicted a broken heart and the other depicted a flower. One of the tattoos had two initials, representing the Defendant’s and the victim’s initials. She said the victim’s initial was the victim’s middle name in order to keep anyone from discovering the relationship. She thought the tattoo on the Defendant’s leg had the initials. She said the Defendant told her the broken heart symbolized that the victim broke the Defendant’s heart. She did not know if the victim had a tattoo. She said that the Defendant referred to the victim as “Baby Girl” and that the victim was younger. She said the Defendant claimed the relationship with the victim lasted two years.

Ms. Reynolds testified that the Defendant claimed to have taken the victim’s virginity using a dildo. She said the Defendant stated that she used the smallest size dildo and that the victim bled. She said the Defendant referred to the victim as the “love of her life.” She said the Defendant told her that the Defendant used a “strap-on” dildo to penetrate the victim’s vagina in their sexual relationship. She said that she saw dildos at the Defendant’s house, that the Defendant wore a strap-on dildo under her clothing sometimes, and that the Defendant penetrated her vagina with the device during their sexual encounter.

Ms. Reynolds testified that she was with the Defendant when the Defendant left gifts for the victim at the victim’s father’s house in Abingdon, Virginia. She said this was shortly after she met the Defendant. She said the Defendant told her that the Defendant bought the

1 Cohen is also spelled Cowan and Cowen in the transcript. We have used Cohen for uniformity.

victim gifts such as cell phones, clothes, and drugs during the relationship and that the Defendant gave the gifts to the victim when the victim’s mother was at work. She said that the victim and the victim’s mother had lived with the Defendant and that the Defendant and the victim’s mother had been romantically involved. She stated that the Defendant had photographs of the victim throughout the Defendant’s house, that the Defendant had letters and mementos from the victim in a box labeled “Baby Girl’s Things,” and that the Defendant referred to her home’s second bedroom as the victim’s room. She said that she never examined the love letters but that she saw the Defendant’s handwriting. She said that the Defendant claimed to have kept the victim’s underwear from a sexual encounter but that she never saw it. She said the Defendant played the guitar and wrote songs for the victim.

Ms. Reynolds testified that the Defendant wanted the victim to live with them. She said she received information from a neighbor about the victim’s age and confronted the Defendant, who initially denied that the victim was a minor. She said that after she confronted the Defendant forcefully and pushed her into a wall, the Defendant admitted the victim was eleven when the relationship started. She said she reported the information to Shanta Stinson, a social worker, but not to the police and thought Ms. Stinson would report it to the police. She said that her relationship with the Defendant ended with the confrontation over the victim’s age and that about twenty minutes later, she received a long voice mail message from the Defendant asking her to convince Ms. Stinson and Stephanie, Ms. Stinson’s girlfriend, not to report her to the police. Ms. Reynolds said the Defendant stated she would give Ms. Stinson and Stephanie any of her belongings or money if they would not report her. She said that she, Ms. Stinson, and Stephanie recorded the voice mail message and that Stephanie kept the recording. She said she never met the victim or the victim’s mother.

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