State v. Chrisman

885 S.W.2d 834, 1994 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 359
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJune 9, 1994
StatusPublished
Cited by74 cases

This text of 885 S.W.2d 834 (State v. Chrisman) 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 v. Chrisman, 885 S.W.2d 834, 1994 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 359 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

PEAY, Judge.

The defendant was convicted by a jury of one count of aggravated burglary, two counts of assault, one count of vandalism, and one count of arson by setting fire to personal property. The defendant was sentenced to five (5) years for aggravated burglary, eleven [836]*836(11) months and twenty-nine (29) days for each of the assaults, three (3) years for vandalism, and two (2) years for arson by setting fire to personal property. The arson sentence of two (2) years was ordered to be served consecutively to the others resulting in an effective sentence of seven (7) years.

In this appeal as of right the defendant presents two issues for review. He first contends that the evidence is insufficient to find him guilty of aggravated burglary. Secondly, he argues that the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing him. We find the first issue to be without merit but, in regard to the second issue, we remand this case for resentencing in conformity with this opinion.

At trial, three (3) witnesses testified for the State. Vickie Harrison, ex-girlfriend of the defendant. and one of the victims, testified that she had begun a live-in relationship with the defendant in 1989. The relationship had been stormy, and the defendant moved out on May 20, 1991. On the evening of the incident, Ms. Harrison worked the 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 p.m. shift at Remay, a local manufacturing company. She then picked up her sixteen(16)-year-old daughter at her mother’s house, and they arrived at Ms. Harrison’s home at approximately 1:30 or 2:00 a.m.

Because she had locked her house, Ms. Harrison used her key to unlock the front door. When she entered the home, the defendant came out of her bedroom with a pitchfork. She attempted to call the police, but realized that the phone had been disconnected. The defendant then told her, “I’m going to mess you up.... I’m going to cut all your hair off. I’m going to cut your face all up and I’m going to make it where nobody will ever look at you again.” He then scrubbed crushed glass from perfume bottles into her face and stabbed her in the arm with a pair of scissors. He also hit her in the face with the top of the toilet tank.

During this altercation, Ms. Harrison’s daughter, Heather, came into the bedroom and attempted to assist her mother by hitting the defendant in the head with a brass lamp. He then turned and struck Heather. More words were exchanged, and Ms. Harrison pitchforked the defendant’s foot to the floor. Heather then sprayed the defendant with a fire extinguisher, and the defendant told Ms. Harrison that he was going to kill both her and her daughter.

Meanwhile, Heather left by the back door and went for help. The police were called, and the defendant was discovered hiding under a utility table. He was arrested, and the two (2) victims were taken to a local hospital, treated, and released.

Before leaving her home, Ms. Harrison assessed the property damage. The defendant had not only punctured her water bed and ruined the carpet, but he had also destroyed two (2) doors, two (2) color televisions, a VCR, and a bedroom dresser. He had poured paint thinner in the bedroom and had taken all of Ms. Harrison’s clothes, some of her jewelry, her daughter’s baby book, and family pictures out to the back yard and set them on fire.

Heather, Ms. Harrison’s daughter, testified next. In summary, her testimony corroborated that of her mother’s as to most details.

Officer Steve Lawrence then testified as to the condition of the defendant, the victims, and the home when he had arrived at the scene. He described Ms. Harrison as having looked “distraught and disheveled.” He observed that when he found the defendant, the defendant had appeared to have been drinking. And he testified that “[s]ome damage had been done to the house” and that “[t]he house looked like a hurricane had [blown] through.” He described it as “one of the worst scenes inside a house I [had] ever [seen].”

The defendant was the sole witness to testify for the defense. In vivid contrast to the victims’ version of the facts, he testified that he and Ms. Harrison had lived together until June 19 or 20 and that on June 26,1991, he had gone by Ms. Harrison’s house to get some of his tools. He testified that Ms. Harrison had called him around 6:00 p.m. that evening and told him that if he “eared anything about [their] relationship and future, ..., dreams of being together[,] to be at the house when she got off work at midnight.”

[837]*837When he arrived at the house, he couldn’t find the key so he broke out a window and cleaned up the glass. He watched TV while waiting for her and then got upset. He admitted taking her clothes outside and burning them.

He testified that when Ms. Harrison had arrived home, she had begun cursing and hitting him in the head and groin with her fist. He wrestled with Ms. Harrison, and Heather hit him in the head with a lamp. He stated that he had then jumped up and knocked the lamp out of her hand, pushing her backward. Ms. Harrison then pricked him above the eye and in the chest with the pitchfork. The defendant testified that after she had stabbed him about six (6) times, he had “smacked her hard.”

The defendant then went to the bathroom to try and calm Heather when Ms. Harrison came in and grabbed the toilet seat, cracking the defendant in the head with it. The defendant smacked her, and Heather then got the fire extinguisher and sprayed him in the face.

Again according to the defendant, Ms. Harrison cursed her daughter because she had hurt the defendant, and she then helped him wash the white powder from his face. The daughter informed them that she had called the police, and Ms. Harrison told the defendant to hide under a table in the utility room.

In his first issue the defendant argues that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury’s finding that he is guilty of aggravated burglary. Specifically he contends that the State failed to prove the following essential elements of the offense:

(1) That the defendant entered the habitation without the effective consent of the property owner,
(2) That the defendant entered the habitation with the intent to commit a felony or theft, and
(3) That the defendant remained concealed with the intent to commit a felony or theft.

In addressing this issue, we must begin by agreeing with the State that the defendant has misconstrued T.C.A. § 39-14-402 as to the elements of the offense of aggravated burglary.

In order to sustain a conviction for burglary, T.C.A. § 39-14-402 requires the following:

(a) A person commits burglary who, without the effective consent of the property owner:
(1) Enters a building other than a habitation (or any portion thereof) not open to the public, with intent to commit a felony or theft;
(2) Remains concealed, with the intent to commit a felony or theft, in a building;
(3) Enters a building and commits or attempts to commit a felony or theft; or

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
885 S.W.2d 834, 1994 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-chrisman-tenncrimapp-1994.