State v. Lewis

978 S.W.2d 558, 1997 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1105, 1997 WL 672642
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 30, 1997
Docket01C01-9608-CC-00378
StatusPublished
Cited by76 cases

This text of 978 S.W.2d 558 (State v. Lewis) 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. Lewis, 978 S.W.2d 558, 1997 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1105, 1997 WL 672642 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

PEAY, Judge.

Defendant Patrick K. Lewis, II (“Kelly”) was indicted for driving under the influence, possession of marijuana, felony reckless endangerment, and evading arrest. Defendant Patrick K. Lewis (“Mr. Lewis”), Kelly’s father, was indicted for evading arrest, being an accessory after the fact in the evasion of an arrest, and tampering with evidence. Defendant Donna Lewis (“Mrs. Lewis”), Kelly’s mother, was indicted for aiding in an evasion of arrest, being an accessory after the fact in the evasion of an arrest, and two counts of tampering with evidence. All cases were consolidated for trial. The jury convicted Kelly of simple (misdemeanor) possession of marijuana, felony reckless endangerment,. and evading arrest. It convicted Mr. and Mi's. Lewis of evading arrest and Mrs. Lewis of one count of tampering with evidence. The trial court subsequently entered a judgment of acquittal on the tampering with evidence conviction.

After a hearing, Kelly was sentenced on the felony conviction as an especially mitigated offender to nine tenths of a year incarceration, suspended, and two years probation. 1 On the misdemeanor possession charge, he was sentenced to six months jail, suspended, and eleven months, twenty-nine days probation. For the misdemeanor evading arrest conviction, he received six months’ jail, suspended, and eleven months, twenty-nine days probation. Kelly was also fined $3,000 on the felony reckless endangerment offense, $2,000 on the possession offense, and $2,000 on the evading arrest offense. All sentences were run concurrently. Mr. Lewis was sentenced to thirty days in jail, suspended, and eleven months, twenty-nine days probation on the evading arrest charge and fined $2,500. Mrs. Lewis’ sentence was identical to her husband’s.

The defendants now join in this appeal as of right challenging their convictions for evading arrest. Defendant Kelly also challenges his conviction for reckless endangerment, asserts that the trial court erred in denying his request for judicial diversion on his possession of marijuana charge, complains that his fine on the possession charge was . excessive, and asserts that his fines *561 should be run concurrently rather than consecutively. 2 Upon our review of the record, we reverse all three convictions for evading arrest and dismiss those charges; remand this matter for further proceedings on Kelly’s request for judicial diversion on the possession charge; and remand for reconsideration the fine imposed for the possession offense. In all other respects, we affirm the judgments below.

FACTS

On the evening of March 4, 1994, the defendant Kelly met his friend, James Walter Inman, for dinner at approximately 8:30 p.m., according to Kelly. During dinner, he drank approximately two beers. He left the restaurant between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m. At approximately 11:30 p.m., Kelly was driving home headed east on state highway 96. As he came down a hill and around a blind curve, he was temporarily blinded by oncoming headlights. According to his testimony, “I was having a very difficult time seeing. And I let off the gas to slow down and the [oncoming] car passed me. And when it passed me, I realized that I was up on the rear end of another vehicle that was stopped in the middle of the road.”

The other vehicle belonged to Jason Raus-chenberger who had stopped to make a left turn onto Clovercroft Road. Rauschenberger had stopped in order to allow an oncoming cai' to pass. According to Rauschenberger, as he began his left turn, a “[c]ar c[a]me from behind me like they were going to pass me and hit me in my left front of my vehicle.... The other vehicle went off into the ditch and it knocked mine down the road.” Rauschenberger testified that the car that hit him had been “going very fast, probably 60 something miles an hour.” Kelly testified that, as he realized he was about to collide with the turning vehicle, he “basically just jerked the wheel to try to keep from rear-ending the other vehicle and go around the vehicle. And at the time that I did that, the best I can remember the vehicle turned into me, into my car. And it caused me to veer to the left and go through a guardrail and down into the ditch.” Rauschenberger suffered a strained neck muscle from the collision and Kelly suffered cuts to his hands.

Following the collision, Kelly was taken to a nearby hospital. Meanwhile, Officer Fed-incio Medina arrived on the scene of the accident. After spending about thirty minutes at the scene, Officer Medina went to the hospital to speak with Kelly. Officer Medina testified that, while speaking with Kelly, he noticed “an odor of alcohol type beverage on his person and also smelled an odor of marijuana, smell of marijuana on him.” He testified that Kelly had told him he had had a couple of drinks. He further testified that he had then explained that he wanted to administer a field sobriety test and that Kelly had not cooperated in the administration of that test. Officer Medina testified that he had then “advised [Kelly] that [he] would be going to the magistrate’s office to attempt to swear out a warrant against him for DUI.” At that point, Officer Medina left the hospital and returned to the scene of the accident “to get the license of [Kelly] and do an inventory of the vehicle.” Prior to leaving the hospital, he testified, he had told the nurses “that [he] would be returning back with warrants to attempt to get a blood alcohol drug screen on [Kelly].”

After he had returned to the scene of the accident, Officer Medina testified, he encountered Kelly’s father, Mr. Lewis. According to Officer Medina, Mr. Lewis approached him as he was conducting his inventory search of the vehicle and asked him what authority he had to be searching the car. By this time, Officer Medina had found a film canister in the car that contained “green plant material.” This was later determined to be approximately one-half gram of marijuana. Officer Medina testified that he had told Mr. Lewis that he was the investigating officer and that he was going to go to the magistrate’s office to attempt to obtain warrants against Kelly for DUI and possession of a controlled substance, and that “as soon as [he] got the warrant that [he] would be returning back to the hospital to place [Kelly] under arrest for any other charges that *562 stemmed out of the investigation.” He also testified that, after obtaining the warrants for Kelly’s arrest, he had called the hospital and told Sandra Isenberger, one of the nurses there, to “tell the family that I was en route to the emergency room to serve the warrants on Patrick Kelly Lewis.”

Mr. Lewis testified that, after receiving a phone call, he and his wife had gone to the hospital. While his wife remained with his son, he went to the accident scene. He denied that he had had any conversation with Officer Medina there. He testified that he had remained there long enough to see what was being done with Kelly’s car and then returned to the hospital. He further testified that he never saw Officer Medina at the hospital, was never told by anyone at the hospital that he could not leave, and was never told by anyone that his son was under arrest.

Mrs. Lewis testified that, on the night in question, she never understood her son to be under arrest and that she never saw or spoke with Officer Medina.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
978 S.W.2d 558, 1997 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1105, 1997 WL 672642, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lewis-tenncrimapp-1997.