State v. Wanda E. Davis

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee·Decided October 28, 1999·No. 01C01-9811-CR-00446·Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE

AT NASHVILLE FILED MAY SESSION, 1999 October 28, 1999

Cecil Crowson, Jr.

STATE OF TENNESSEE, ) Appellate Court Clerk C.C.A. NO. 01C01-9811-CR-00446 )

Appellee, )

)

) WILSON COUNTY

VS. )

) HON. J. O. BOND

WANDA E. DAVIS, ) JUDGE )

Appe llant. ) (Direct Ap peal - D .U.I.)

FOR THE APPELLANT: FOR THE APPELLEE:

HUGH GREEN PAUL G. SUMMERS 100 Pub lic Square Attorney General & Reporter Lebanon, TN 37087 ELIZABETH B. MARNEY

Assistant Attorney General 425 Fifth Avenu e North

Nashville, TN 37243

TOM P. THOMPSON, JR.

District Attorney General

JERRY HUNT

Assistant District Attorney 119 S. C ollege S t.

Lebanon, TN 37087

OPINION FILED ________________________ AFFIRMED JERRY L. SMITH, JUDGE

OPINION

The appellant, W anda E. D avis, was convicted by a W ilson County jury of one (1) count of driving under the influence, second offense. She was fined $600, and th e trial court sentenced her to eleven (11) months and twenty-nine (29) days in jail; all but 45 days of the sentence was s uspe nded . On ap peal, the appellant raised the following issues for this Court’s review:

(1) whether the trial cou rt erred by failing to dismiss the case becau se of alleg ed defe cts in the ind ictmen t;

(2) whethe r the trial court erre d in adm itting the testim ony of a state’s witness when the appellant was not provided with pretrial discovery information relating to the witness;

(3) whether the trial cou rt erred b y restric ting the appe llant’s cross examination of Trooper Vaughn;

(4) whethe r the trial cou rt erred by re fusing to a dmit testimony concerning a statement made by Trooper Vaughn to the appellan t;

(5) whether the trial court erred in denying a mistrial after the state condu cted imp roper qu estioning of the app ellant;

(6) whether the state’s closing argument constituted prosecutorial misconduct which warranted a mistrial; and

(7) whethe r the evide nce is su fficient to sup port the app ellant’s conviction.

After a thorough re view of the rec ord, we conc lude th at there is no re versible error and , therefore , affirm the ju dgme nt of the trial co urt.

FACTS

In the early morning of Janua ry 23, 199 7, Hen ry Kerr wa s traveling o n Mt.

Juliet Road when he noticed a vehicle in a ditch. When Kerr stopped to assist

the motorist, the appellant got out of the vehicle and asked Ke rr if he would push her vehicle from the ditch. K err refuse d the ap pellant’s re quest b ut offered to call a wrecker once he arrived at his home. Immediately upon arriving hom e, Kerr contac ted Oc o Ham blen, wh o owne d a wrec ker service .

Once Hamblen arrived at the scene, he hooked his wrecker to the appellan t’s vehicle and pulled it from the ditch. Hamblen then asked the appellant to get in the veh icle and e ither push down o n the bra kes or sh ift into park. Instead, the appellant shifted the vehicle into gear, allowing it to roll back into the ditch. After Ham blen p ulled th e vehic le from the ditch a second time, the appellant got out of her vehicle and began to complain that Hamblen had dama ged he r vehicle. H amble n respo nded b y calling the police.

State Trooper Jack Vaughn arrived on the scene about 12:25 a.m. The appellant informed him that she was driving on Interstate 40 when she took the wrong exit and, while trying to make a U-turn, drove her vehicle into the ditch. Vaughn noticed an open beer can in the vehicle and asked the appellant if she had been d rinking. T he app ellant ack nowled ged that she had consumed a coup le of beers that eve ning. V augh n adm inistere d three field sobrie ty tests, a ll of which the appellant performed unsatisfactorily. Based on his observations, Vaughn concluded that the appellant was under the influence of an intoxicant and placed her under a rrest. He th en ask ed her to subm it to a blood alcohol te st, and the appellan t consen ted. The blood alc ohol test re sults revea led that the appellan t’s blood a lcohol leve l was 0.21 %.

The appellant was indicted in a three-count indictment charging alterna tive counts of driving under the influence of an intoxicant, driving under the influence of an intoxicant, second offense, and driving with a blood alcohol content above .10. At trial, the appellant testified that she had not been driving her car that

night, but had m et a ma n nam ed “Allen ” at a local bar w hom s he had allowed to drive her autom obile. They we re driving on Mt. Juliet Road when they attempted to turn aro und in a residen tial driveway , and the c ar beca me stu ck. “Allen” left to seek a ssistanc e, but nev er returne d to the sc ene.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty for driving under the influence of an intoxicant, second offense. The trial court sen tenced the app ellant to eleven (11) months and twenty-nine (29) days, with all but 45 days suspended. From her convic tion, the appe llant no w bring s this ap peal.

ALLEGED INDICTMENT DEFECTS

The appellant claims that the indictment contained deficiencies which were undu ly prejud icial. First, she asserts that the indictment was defective because Count Two of the indictment, charging her with DUI “second offense” could not be taken into the jury room during deliberations. She further contends that the indictment was defective because she could not be convicted of driving under the influence of an intoxicant in Count One and driving with a blood alcohol content above the legal limit in Count Three because such counts are duplicitous.

Appellant ha s failed to provide this cou rt with authority in support of her argum ent. Wh en an app ellant fails to cite appropriate au thority in support of his or her issue on app eal, that issu e is waived . Tenn. C t. Crim . App. 10 (b); State v. Alvarado, 961 S.W .2d 136, 148 (Tenn. Crim . App. 1996 ).

Furthermore, defects in the indictment must be rais ed prio r to trial, or will be dee med w aived. Te nn. R. C rim. P. 12 (b)(2); State v. Kennedy, 649 S.W.2d 275, 279 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1982). Appellant failed to raise the issue of the indictm ent’s sufficiency prior to trial. Although this Court “may notice at any time

during the pendency of the proceedings the defen se that the indictme nt fails to show jurisdiction o r fails to charge an offense,” see Ruff v. Sta te, 978 S.W.2d 95, 96 (Tenn. 1998), the appellant does not challenge the trial court’s jurisdiction or com plain that the indictm ent fails to charge an offense. As a result, the appellant has w aived th e issue on this basis a s well.

This issu e is withou t merit.

PRETRIAL DISCOVERY

In her next iss ue, the ap pellant co ntends that the tria l court erred by admitting the testimony of Norman Kerr when the state failed, during pretrial discovery, to provide the defense with Kerr’s address and Kerr’s hand-written notes regarding the incident. The appellant claims that as a result of being denied access to the requested information, she was unfairly prejud iced b y Kerr’s testimony and was denied a full and fair cross-examination of the witness.

W ith regard to the state’s failure to provid e the d efens e with K err’s address, the state provided the defense with the na mes a nd add resses of its witnesses during pretrial discovery. The state listed Kerr as a witness, but did not provide his address because the state did not have that information at that time. The state was, however, able to obtain his address approxim ately one month prior to trial when a subpoena requiring Kerr’s presence at trial was issued.

The state is not required to furnish th e app ellant w ith inform ation e asily obtain able by exe rcising reasonable d iligence. See State v. Dickerson, 885 S.W.2d 90, 92 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1993 ). The defen se wa s provid ed with Kerr’s name during pretrial discovery. Once a name has been acquired, the address of the individual is usually obtainable with reasonable diligence. The appellant

has failed to show that sh e made any effort in addition to the p retrial discovery motion to ob tain the addres s of Mr. Kerr.

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