State of Tennessee v. Louis Wayne Frazier

CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedSeptember 8, 2025
DocketM2024-01266-CCA-R3-CD
StatusPublished

This text of State of Tennessee v. Louis Wayne Frazier (State of Tennessee v. Louis Wayne Frazier) 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. Louis Wayne Frazier, (Tenn. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

09/08/2025 IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE August 12, 2025 Session

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. LOUIS WAYNE FRAZIER

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Giles County No. 16098 Christopher V. Sockwell, Judge ___________________________________

No. M2024-01266-CCA-R3-CD ___________________________________

The Defendant, Louis Wayne Frazier, pled guilty to the attempted sexual battery of his granddaughter. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court imposed a sentence of six years and ordered that the sentence be served in custody. On appeal, the Defendant argues that the trial court abused its discretion in imposing the maximum sentence and denying his request for an alternative sentence. Upon our review, we affirm the trial court’s decision to impose a six-year sentence. However, we respectfully remand the case to the trial court for a new hearing regarding the denial of an alternative sentence.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed in Part; Case Remanded

TOM GREENHOLTZ, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which J. ROSS DYER and JILL BARTEE AYERS, JJ., joined.

Brennan M. Wingerter, Assistant Public Defender - Appellate Director, Tennessee District Public Defenders Conference (on appeal); Travis B. Jones, District Public Defender; and Teresa Brewer Campbell, Assistant District Public Defender (at sentencing hearing), for the appellant, Louis Wayne Frazier.

Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Garrett D. Ward, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Caroline Weldon, Assistant Attorney General; Brent A. Cooper, District Attorney General; and Hunter C. Knight, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

On November 27, 2023, the Defendant entered a plea of nolo contendere to the offense of attempted aggravated sexual battery of his granddaughter, a Class C felony. According to the factual basis submitted by the State at the plea hearing, the Defendant “made multiple attempts and, in fact, did touch [his granddaughter’s] genitals for sexual gratification.” The State also noted that the Defendant “acknowledged he may need some assistance or help.” The plea agreement left the sentence length and manner of service to the discretion of the trial court.

The trial court held a sentencing hearing over two days in July 2024. At the hearing, the State introduced the presentence report and psychosexual evaluation without objection. The victim, who was fifteen years old at the time of the hearing, testified that the Defendant had touched her inappropriately from “before [she] can remember, all the way up to age 11.” She stated that the abuse occurred in the Defendant’s car and home. In her forensic interview, which was played for the court, the victim described the Defendant placing his hands in her pants and rubbing her genitals. She further stated that the Defendant placed her hand on his penis and had her move it up and down. At the sentencing hearing, the victim testified that the abuse finally stopped when “it started to make me even more uncomfortable, and I just told him to stop.”

The victim’s mother testified that the Defendant had also abused her when she was a child. She described an incident in which the Defendant lifted her nightgown and placed her on top of him. When she later confronted the Defendant about the incident, he responded that she had dreamed it. The mother testified that the Defendant gave a similar response when she confronted him about the victim’s disclosure.

The State introduced into evidence a video-recorded interview between the Defendant and law enforcement. In the interview, the Defendant suggested that the victim might have confused him with another person and stated, “I never knew that I touched her.” He later said, “If I did, I didn’t know I was touching her.” The Defendant did not present any proof at the hearing.

At the conclusion of the sentencing hearings, the trial court found that the Defendant was a Range I, standard offender subject to a sentencing range of three to six years. The court applied enhancement factor (1), finding that the defendant had prior criminal

-2- behavior in this case. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-35-114(1). The court also applied enhancement factor (4), finding that the victim was particularly vulnerable because she was only four years old when the abuse began. See id. § 40-35-114(4). Finally, the court applied enhancement factor (14), finding that the Defendant abused a position of private trust as the victim’s grandfather. See id. § 40-35-114(14). The court found no applicable mitigating factors and imposed a six-year sentence to be served in the Tennessee Department of Correction.

The trial court filed the judgment of conviction on July 26, 2024. Three weeks later, the court filed a formal sentencing order. In this order, the court reaffirmed its findings as to enhancement factors and the length of the sentence. Regarding the Defendant’s request for an alternative sentence, the court’s order found “that, pursuant to the guidance of Tennessee Code Annotated [section] 40-35-103, incarceration is necessary to avoid depreciating the seriousness of the offense and therefore probation is not appropriate.”

The Defendant filed a timely notice of appeal on August 21, 2024. See Tenn. R. App. P. 4(a).

STANDARD OF APPELLATE REVIEW

Our supreme court has recognized that “the first question for a reviewing court on any issue is ‘what is the appropriate standard of review?’” State v. Enix, 653 S.W.3d 692, 698 (Tenn. 2022). The Defendant raises two issues for review in this case: whether the trial court abused its discretion by imposing the maximum sentence and by denying an alternative sentence to incarceration.

Our supreme court has recognized that we review a trial court’s sentencing determinations for an abuse of discretion, “granting a presumption of reasonableness to within-range sentencing decisions that reflect a proper application of the purposes and principles of our Sentencing Act.” State v. Bise, 380 S.W.3d 682, 707 (Tenn. 2012). As such, this court is “bound by a trial court’s decision as to the length of the sentence imposed so long as it is imposed in a manner consistent with the purposes and principles set out” in the Sentencing Act. State v. Carter, 254 S.W.3d 335, 346 (Tenn. 2008). This standard of appellate review also applies to a trial court’s decision to grant or deny alternative sentencing. State v. Caudle, 388 S.W.3d 273, 279 (Tenn. 2012).

In each of these contexts, however, this deferential standard of review is subject to an important caveat: the trial court must “place on the record any reason for a particular

-3- sentence.” Bise, 380 S.W.3d at 705; Caudle, 388 S.W.3d at 279 (“[A]s noted in Bise, the key to meaningful appellate review under the abuse of discretion standard is whether the trial court recites a proper basis for the sentence.”). Indeed, our supreme court has recognized that “appellate courts cannot properly review a sentence if the trial court fails to articulate in the record its reasons for imposing the sentence.” Bise, 380 S.W.3d at 706 n.41.

When the record does not reflect the trial court’s findings or reasoning, an appellate court has two options.

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Related

State of Tennessee v. Christine Caudle
388 S.W.3d 273 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 2012)
State of Tennessee v. Susan Renee Bise
380 S.W.3d 682 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 2012)
State v. David E. Walton, Jr.
958 S.W.2d 724 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Poole
945 S.W.2d 93 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Carter
254 S.W.3d 335 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 2008)
State v. Dowdy
894 S.W.2d 301 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1994)
State v. Lewis
44 S.W.3d 501 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 2001)
State v. Kissinger
922 S.W.2d 482 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1996)
State of Tennessee v. Kevin E. Trent
533 S.W.3d 282 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 2017)
State v. King
432 S.W.3d 316 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
State of Tennessee v. Louis Wayne Frazier, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-v-louis-wayne-frazier-tenncrimapp-2025.