State v. Hiner

988 S.W.2d 697, 1998 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1023
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedSeptember 28, 1998
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 988 S.W.2d 697 (State v. Hiner) 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. Hiner, 988 S.W.2d 697, 1998 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1023 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

THOMAS T. WOODALL, Judge.

The Defendant, Starling Jean Hiner, appeals as of right her conviction for first offense DUI following a jury trial in the Circuit Court of Coffee County. Defendant was subsequently found guilty by the trial court of violation of the Implied Consent Law. The trial court sentenced Defendant to eleven (11) months, twenty-nine (29) days with all but four (4) days suspended for the DUI conviction, and the court revoked her license for a period of one (1) year for the violation of the Implied Consent Law. Defendant raises the following two issues in this appeal: (1) whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain a conviction for DUI beyond a reasonable doubt, and (2) whether the arresting officer made a proper traffic stop and whether he had the authority to make that stop. The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

On June 29, 1996, Officer Ray Stewart, Constable Calvin McGee and Lakewood Park security guard Terry Jackson, were all called to the home of Lucy Grizzle, a resident in Lakewood Park, regarding a disturbance between Ms. Grizzle and her neighbor, the Defendant. Officer Stewart, Constable McGee and Mr. Jackson testified at trial that upon their arrival at the Grizzle residence at approximately 5:00 p.m., Defendant appeared to be intoxicated as she was speaking loudly, slurring her words, and was unsteady on her feet. The officers calmed everyone down and then asked Defendant and her boyfriend to return to their home. Officer Stewart instructed Defendant and her boyfriend that should the officers need to return, that he would arrest them for public intoxication.

At approximately 9:45 p.m. that same evening, Constable McGee pulled over a vehicle in Lakewood Park driven by Defendant. Mr. Jackson was in the car with Constable McGee. Constable McGee testified at trial that he had first observed a vehicle roll through a stop sign at the intersection of Lakewood Drive and Rim Fire Drive and proceed to the left on Rim Fire Drive. Constable McGee then followed the vehicle for approximately two and a half blocks where he observed it traveling slowly and swerving to some extent. While following the vehicle he realized that the car belonged to either Defendant or her boyfriend although he could not tell who was driving at the time.

After initiating the “blue lights” and pulling the vehicle over, Constable McGee asked Defendant, who was in fact the driver, to step out of the car. At this point he noticed that Defendant smelled of alcohol, was unsteady on her feet and slurred her speech. Constable McGee then administered two field sobriety tests, recitation of the alphabet and the finger to nose test, both of which Defendant failed. Constable McGee determined Defendant to be under the influence of alcohol.

[699]*699Mr. Jackson, who was riding with Constable McGee, also observed that Defendant failed the field sobriety tests. He testified that Defendant had been driving the vehicle very slowly and that it was weaving prior to being stopped. When Defendant got out of the car, Mr. Jackson noticed that she was “barely able to stand up” and that she smelled of alcohol.

Constable McGee radioed Officer Stewart when he was following Defendant’s car and told him that he was about to stop a car because of a suspected intoxicated driver. Officer Stewart, who was only a few blocks away, drove to the scene to aid Constable McGee. While Officer Stewart ran a records check on the Defendant’s license, he watched Defendant stagger towards the back of her car and fail to successfully complete the field sobriety tests. In his opinion, Defendant was “obviously drunk” and “had no business doing any driving of any kind.” He further testified that she appeared to be more drunk at 9:45 p.m. than when he had seen her earlier that day.

Constable McGee placed Defendant under arrest, had her vehicle towed, and took her to the Coffee County Jail. While driving Defendant to jail, she told him that she had consumed five beers. Also while in the patrol car, a car in front of them was “driving all over the road” and Defendant commented to the officers that “[h]e’s drunker than I am.”

Officer Dale Brissey, a correctional officer at the county jail, testified that when Defendant arrived at the jail she appeared to be under the influence of an intoxicant. He noticed that her eyes were bloodshot, her speech was slurred, and that she was unsteady on her feet. Defendant refused to submit to the intoximeter test.

Defendant testified that she was not intoxicated and that she only consumed one and one-half beers prior to being stopped by Constable McGee. She said that the reason she couldn’t recite the alphabet was because she was too nervous to do so. However, she claimed that she was not incapable of driving. Her boyfriend, Ramsey Johnson, testified that Defendant was not drunk and that she consumed less than two beers that evening. He said that she drove the car because she had had less to drink that evening than he had. Officer Stewart, Constable McGee, Mr. Jackson and Ms. Grizzle all testified that even though Lakewood Park is a privately owned and operated development the general public nonetheless travels on the roads within Lakewood Park on a regular daily basis. Lakewood Park does have a gated entrance into the subdivision, but according to testimony presented at trial, essentially no one is denied access into the subdivision.

I. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

When an accused challenges the sufficiency of the convicting evidence, the standard is whether, after reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). This standard is applicable to findings of guilt predicated upon direct evidence, circumstantial evidence or a combination of direct and circumstantial evidence. State v. Matthews, 805 S.W.2d 776, 779 (Tenn.Crim.App.1990). On appeal, the State is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the evidence and all inferences therefrom. State v. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d 832, 835 (Tenn.1978). Because a verdict of guilt removes the presumption of innocence and replaces it with a presumption of guilt, the accused has the burden in this court of illustrating why the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict returned by the trier of fact. State v. Tuggle, 639 S.W.2d 913, 914 (Tenn.1982); State v. Grace, 493 S.W.2d 474, 476 (Tenn.1973).

Questions concerning the credibility of the witnesses, the weight and value to be given the evidence, as well as all factual issues raised by the evidence, are resolved by the trier of fact, not this court. State v. Pappas, 754 S.W.2d 620, 623 (Tenn.Crim.App.), perm, to appeal denied, id. (Tenn.1987). Nor may this court reweigh or reevaluate the evidence. Cabbage, 571 S.W.2d at 835. A jury verdict approved by the trial judge accredits the State’s witnesses and resolves all conflicts in favor of the State. Grace, 493 S.W.2d at 476.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Tennessee v. Gerald Eugene Rogers
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2010
State v. Dobbins
265 S.W.3d 419 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2007)
State of Tennessee v. Carlton Lee McAlister
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2003
State of Tennessee v. Ali Mohsenzadeh
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2001
Brent Allen Blye v. State
Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 2000

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
988 S.W.2d 697, 1998 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1023, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hiner-tenncrimapp-1998.