State v. Fowler

23 S.W.3d 285, 2000 Tenn. LEXIS 345, 2000 WL 793946
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJune 20, 2000
DocketE1997-00037-SC-R11-CD
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 23 S.W.3d 285 (State v. Fowler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fowler, 23 S.W.3d 285, 2000 Tenn. LEXIS 345, 2000 WL 793946 (Tenn. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

ANDERSON, C.J.,

delivered the opinion of the court,

in which DROWOTA, BIRCH, and HOLDER, JJ., and BYERS, Sp. J., joined.

This is an appeal from the Circuit Court for Jefferson County which convicted the defendant of felony vandalism, two counts of aggravated assault, and felony evading arrest. The defendant appealed and argued that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on facilitation of a felony as a lesser-included offense of criminal responsibility. The Court of Criminal Appeals held that because a defendant is criminally responsible for any offenses committed by codefendants in the pursuance of a criminal offense or as a natural and probable consequence thereof, facilitation is not a lesser-included offense as a matter of law. We hold that facilitation of a felony is a lesser-included offense but that an instruction was not warranted under the facts of this case. Accordingly, we affirm the judgments of the Court of Criminal Appeals and the trial court.

We granted this appeal to determine whether the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the offense of facilitation of a felony.

The defendant, Warren Tyrone Fowler, was convicted of felony vandalism, two counts of aggravated assault, and felony evading arrest. The convictions were based on the defendant’s criminal responsibility for the acts of a codefendant. The trial court did not instruct the jury on the offense of facilitation of a felony.

In affirming the judgment, the Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury on facilitation of a felony. The court determined that because a defendant is criminally responsible for any offenses committed by codefend-ants in the pursuance of a criminal offense or as a natural and probable consequence thereof, facilitation is not a lesser-included offense as a matter of law.

After reviewing the record and authority, we conclude that facilitation of a felony is a lesser-included offense of criminal responsibility but that the evidence in this case did not support a jury instruction on facilitation. We therefore disagree with the analysis of the Court of Criminal Appeals but affirm its judgment on the grounds stated in this opinion.

BACKGROUND

On August 16,1996, the defendant, Warren Tyrone Fowler, a co-defendant, James Benton, and two other men traveled in two vehicles from Knoxville to Morristown, Tennessee. The vehicle in which Fowler was riding, a blue van, had been stolen. The men attempted to burglarize or steal a vehicle in Morristown but were chased from the scene by a witness. The Ham-blen County Sheriffs Department was contacted and informed that the suspects were occupants of a blue van and a white van.

*287 Officer Terry Costner saw the two vans, activated his lights and siren, and pursued them. When the white van drove into a subdivision, Costner pursued the blue van, which was being driven by Benton with Fowler in the front passenger seat. Benton drove the van into an airport, onto a ramp, around some parked airplanes, out of the airport and into a neighborhood where he eluded a roadblock set up by the Morristown Police Department, but he could not elude Costner. Benton drove from the neighborhood and onto the wrong side of a four lane divided highway, where he traveled at speeds of 100 miles per hour.

With Costner still pursuing him, Benton drove into Jefferson County and through Jefferson City traffic at speeds of 80 miles per hour. The blue van rammed the car of a Jefferson County police officer that had tried to intervene, and, moments later, rammed the car of a second Jefferson County officer, forcing it into a utility pole. The van continued its flight into a “zinc mine” and stopped long enough for Costner to stop and place his car into park. When another officer appeared, however, the van again took flight. This time, Costner caught up to the van and fired a shot at the front tire. The van ran into a ditch and stopped. Fowler and Benton were arrested.

The defendant pled guilty to the offenses of felony theft, attempt to commit felony theft, and burglary of an automobile for events that occurred prior to the chase. He was charged with and convicted of felony vandalism, two counts of aggravated assault and felony evading arrest for the events that occurred during the chase. 1

The trial court did not instruct the jury on the offense of facilitation of a felony. Though the defense did not request an instruction on facilitation at trial, it argued on appeal that the trial court erred by failing to give the instruction sua sponte as a lesser-included offense. The Court of Criminal Appeals determined that facilitation was not a lesser-included offense under the circumstance of this case and affirmed the judgments of conviction. We granted Fowler’s application for permission to appeal to review this issue.

Facilitation of a Felony as a Lesser-included Offense

We begin our analysis by reviewing the statutory provisions governing both criminal responsibility and facilitation. As applicable in this case, a person is criminally responsible for the conduct of another person if that person, “[ajcting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, or to benefit in the proceeds or results of the offense, ... solicits, directs, aids, or attempts to aid another person to commit the offense.” Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-11-402(2) (1997). As noted in the sentencing commission comments, this statute sets forth what formerly was known as accessories before the fact and aider and abettors. Id.

In contrast, a person is “criminally responsible for the facilitation of a felony if, knowing that another intends to commit a specific felony, but without the intent required for criminal responsibility under § 39-11-402(2), the person knowingly furnishes substantial assistance in the commission of the felony.” Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-ll-403(a) (1997). The statute applies to a person who has facilitated the commission of a felony by another by furnishing substantial assistance but without the intent to promote, assist in or benefit from the felony’s commission. Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-11-403 (Sentencing Comm’n Cmts.). Sentencing for facilitation is in the class next below the felony committed. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-11 — 403(b).

In State v. Burns, 6 S.W.3d 453 (Tenn.1999), we recently adopted the following *288 framework and concluded that an offense is a lesser-included offense of another if:

(a) all of its statutory elements are included within the statutory elements of the offense charged; or

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
23 S.W.3d 285, 2000 Tenn. LEXIS 345, 2000 WL 793946, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fowler-tenn-2000.