STATE OF TENNESSEE v. IDA VERONICA THOMAS

CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 28, 2021
DocketM2019-02137-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished

This text of STATE OF TENNESSEE v. IDA VERONICA THOMAS (STATE OF TENNESSEE v. IDA VERONICA THOMAS) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
STATE OF TENNESSEE v. IDA VERONICA THOMAS, (Tenn. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

01/28/2021 IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE September 15, 2020 Session

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. IDA VERONICA THOMAS

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Davidson County No. 2019-B-1278 Angelita Blackshear Dalton, Judge ___________________________________

No. M2019-02137-CCA-R3-CD ___________________________________

The Defendant, Ida Veronica Thomas, pleaded guilty to theft of property valued at $60,000 or more, but less than $250,000. Pursuant to a plea agreement, the trial court ordered the Defendant to serve twelve years on community corrections and scheduled a subsequent restitution hearing. At the restitution hearing, the trial court ordered restitution in the amount of $151,385 to be paid at a rate of $75 per month. On appeal, among other issues, the Petitioner challenges the trial court’s payment schedule for the restitution, $151,285 at $75 per month for twelve years, which cannot be completed during the length of the Defendant’s sentence. The State concedes this is error and agrees that a remand is the appropriate remedy as to this issue. After reviewing the record, we conclude that restitution is appropriate in this case, but we remand for the trial court: (1) to order a presentence report as required by statute in restitution cases; and (2) to consider the Defendant’s financial resources, future ability to pay, and length of her community corrections sentence as it relates to a payment schedule for restitution.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Criminal Court Reversed and Remanded

ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which TIMOTHY L. EASTER, J., joined. THOMAS T. WOODALL, J., not participating.

Martesha L. Johnson, Public Defender, Jeffrey A. DeVasher (on appeal), Assistant Public Defender, and Annie Berry (at hearings), Assistant Public Defender, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Ida Veronica Thomas.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Sophia S. Lee, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Glenn R. Funk, District Attorney General; and Brittani Flatt, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION I. Facts

A Davidson County grand jury indicted the Defendant for financial exploitation of an elderly adult (Count 1) and theft of property valued at $60,000 or more but less than $250,000 (Count 2). The indictment was based upon evidence that the Defendant, one of the victim’s caretakers, stole jewelry stored in the victim’s room. At a subsequent guilty plea submission hearing, by agreement of the parties, the Defendant pleaded guilty to theft of property valued at $60,000 or more, a Class B felony, to serve a twelve year Tennessee Department of Correction sentence, suspended to community corrections. The Defendant agreed to be placed on the Adult Abuse Registry and the Defendant agreed not to contact the victim or his family. The agreement also provided that Count 1 of the indictment would be dismissed, and the trial court would determine the amount of restitution.

As a basis for the trial court’s acceptance of the Defendant’s guilty plea, the State provided the following recitation of the facts:

[H]ad the State proceeded to trial the testimony would show that on August 9, 2018 officers were dispatched to [a residence in Nashville] for a stolen jewelry report. When officers arrived they met with the victim[ ]’s daughter-in-law Jean Ownbey. Jean stated that she had been contacted by one of [the victim]’s caretakers who worked with Senior Helpers stating that there had been some suspicious circumstances regarding large amounts of jewelry missing from his room. Mrs. Ownbey stated that the caretaker noted that the jewelry was in [the victim]’s drawer from 7-9-2018 and on 7- 10-2018 when she was relieved by another caretaker. On 7-12-2018 the original caretaker returned and noticed the jewelry was missing. Mrs. Ownbey stated that the police were not called right away due to [the victim] suffering from dementia and the caretakers reached out to the family first.

Mrs. Ownbey stated that 38 pieces of jewelry were missing and are valued at over $243,000. Mrs. Ownbey also stated that there were only two caretakers that had access to the home and there were no signs of force or unauthorized entry. It was discovered the [D]efendant, Ida Thomas, who was [the victim]’s second caregiver and employee of Senior Helpers was in [the victim]’s room during the dates and times that the jewelry had come up missing. On September 22, 2018 [the Defendant] pawned a bracelet and a ring at Barry’s Pawn Shop located at 513 South Gallatin Pike. On October -2- 11, 2018 the [D]efendant pawned another bracelet at the same pawn shop. All three pieces of jewelry were shown to the family and were confirmed to be pieces that were stolen. The recovered jewelry was turned into the Metro Nashville Police Department property room. Based on the above facts the State recommends the following announced agreement.

Following the State’s recitation of the facts, the Defendant agreed that these facts were true. She then waived her rights and entered a plea of guilty to theft of property valued at $60,000 or more.

Restitution Hearing

The parties stipulated that the Defendant, through her attorney, turned over to the State two of the stolen items, rings, valued “to be somewhere around $35,000.” The trial court stated that, because the items were returned to the victim’s family, it would not consider the value of those two rings for purposes of restitution.

Jean Ownbey, the victim’s daughter-in-law, testified that Seniors First was the company employed to provide caregivers for the victim. A Senior Helpers employee notified Mrs. Ownbey’s husband that one of the caregivers had reported a necklace was missing. Consequently, Mrs. Ownbey1 traveled to Tennessee to further investigate. Mrs. Ownbey spent two days taking inventory of all of the items in the victim’s apartment to determine what had been missing. When she found all of the jewelry missing, she contacted the insurance company to obtain the insurance policy that contained information on the pieces that were insured. Mrs. Ownbey notified the police and then began “working [her] way” through the list of insured pieces and contacting family members who had knowledge of the jewelry. Mrs. Ownbey identified a list of stolen items that she had provided to the State.

The list Mrs. Ownbey created is included in the record and the list contains a total of forty-three items: (1) thirty-eight items, each valued by the insurance company; (2) three pieces of uninsured jewelry with estimated values; and (3) two uninsured jewelry items that were recovered and identified by the family. Mrs. Ownbey confirmed that, during the course of the police investigation, a detective notified her of items recovered from a pawn shop. She identified the three pieces of jewelry recovered from the pawn shop based upon the list she provided to the State: (1) a 14K yellow gold bracelet valued by the insurance company at $5,999, (2) a white gold 3-diamond ring totaling

1 When the Ownbeys learned of the theft they lived in New Jersey; however by the time of the restitution hearing, they lived in Indiana. -3- approximately five to seven carats with an estimated value of $20,000, and (3) an 18K yellow gold bracelet with an estimated value of $2,000.

Mrs. Ownbey testified that she was present when the Defendant, through her attorney, provided the State with two stolen rings. One of the rings had three, equal- sized, one to two carat diamonds with an estimated value of $20,000. Mrs. Ownbey explained that this ring was not insured, so she based her estimate on a similar ring that she owned and had appraised fourteen years prior.

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Bluebook (online)
STATE OF TENNESSEE v. IDA VERONICA THOMAS, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-v-ida-veronica-thomas-tenncrimapp-2021.