State v. Wilkes

684 S.W.2d 663, 1984 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 2677
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedNovember 30, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by127 cases

This text of 684 S.W.2d 663 (State v. Wilkes) 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. Wilkes, 684 S.W.2d 663, 1984 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 2677 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

TATUM, Judge.

This is an attempt to appeal from judgments entered on guilty pleas to three counts of crime against nature (fellatio), and one count of employing a minor for obscene purposes. Reservations were made to appeal judgments of the trial court denying motions to suppress evidence obtained by searches pursuant to two search warrants. For the reasons hereinafter discussed, the appeal is not authorized and must be dismissed. However, the guilty pleas are vacated and the cases are remanded to the trial court for proper disposition.

The indictment contained 234 counts charging crimes against nature and using minors for obscene purposes (T.C.A. § 39-6-1137). A motion to suppress was filed and a transcript of the hearing on that motion is a part of the record. No other facts are available to us except those found in the transcript of the hearing on the guilty plea.

The defendant worked and lived in Georgia during the week and returned to his residence in Fairview where he stayed on weekends. In February, 1981, he gave a key to his house to Johnny Wayne Ownes, one of the minors with whom he had been sexually involved. Owens lost his key and the defendant then gave a key to his barn and to his house to another minor, Robert Graves. According to the defendant, the *665 key to the barn was to enable Graves to obtain dog food to feed the defendant’s dogs and the key to the house was for use in an emergency. Graves lived on property adjacent to the defendant's property in Fairview and for a considerable period had been spending nights with the defendant on nearly every weekend.

On April 6, 1981, during defendant’s absence, Graves and his 16-year-old sister, Evelyn Oliphant, went to the defendant’s house to feed the dogs. Evelyn entered the house looking for cigarettes and found a 1978 calendar book. The calendar book was stated to be an exhibit but was not made a part of the record for our inspection. From the transcript, we glean that the book contained from three to seven photographs per page depicting about 50 males, ranging in age from 3-years-old to 17-years-old, in various poses and sexual acts.

Graves, his sister, and their father took this book to the police. The chief questioned Evelyn about the book and talked to three of the males depicted in the photographs in the book.

After receiving information from these young males, the calendar book and Ms. Oliphant, the chief of police went to the District Attorney General for help in drafting an affidavit and search warrant. After executing the affidavit, a search warrant was issued by the General Sessions Judge. Armed with the search warrant, the chief entered the defendant’s residence and found additional photographs, cancelled checks and other items. This evidence was not preserved for our review.

After this search, the chief talked with two other minor males and obtained further information. He then procured another search warrant for the defendant’s residence. On his second search, he found pill bottles believed to contain human secretions and labelled with the initials of minors involved in unnatural sex activities, and a computer believed to have the capacity to program records of unnatural sex activities.

The motion to suppress was aimed only at the validity of the two search warrants and the admissibility in evidence of the fruits of the ensuing searches. Thus, even if these searches were invalid and the evidence obtained by the police searches was suppressed, other evidence available to the State would not be affected. Evidence that was not obtained in the two searches would include the calendar book and photographs found by Ms. Oliphant, testimony of the young males, and perhaps other evidence.

Before we can reach the questions involving the validity of the two search warrants and the constitutionality of the ensuing searches, we must first determine the threshold question of whether an appeal lies from the guilty plea. The appeal purports to have been brought pursuant to Rule 37(b), T.R.Cr.P.:

“(b) When an Appeal Lies. — An appeal lies from any order or judgment in a criminal proceeding where the law provides for such appeal, and from any judgment of conviction:
(1) Upon a plea of not guilty; or
(2) Upon a plea of guilty or nolo con-tendere if:
(i) Defendant entered into a plea agreement under Rule 11(e) but explicitly reserved with the consent of the state and of the court the right to appeal a certified question of law that is dispositive of the case; or
(ii) Defendant seeks review of the sentence set and there was no plea agreement under Rule 11(e); or
(iii) The error(s) complained of were not waived as a matter of law by the plea of guilty or nolo contendere, or otherwise waived, and if such errors are apparent from the record of the proceedings already had; or
(iv) Defendant explicitly reserved with the consent of the court the right to appeal a certified question of law that is dispositive of the case.” (Emphasis supplied)

The guilty pleas were bargained. In announcing the agreement between the State and the defendant, the Attorney General *666 said that part of the agreement was that the defendant

“be allowed to reserve the search question in this particular case, although there is no stipulation as to whether that would be outcome (sic) determinative or not, when we understand that, but that he be allowed to maintain his— the search question and appeal that search question and that question be certified on all of the issues raised at that hearing.” (Emphasis added)

From this statement of the Attorney General and other portions of the guilty plea hearing, it is obvious that neither the State, the defendant, nor the trial judge considered the search issues to be disposi-tive. We quote other excerpts from the guilty plea hearing:

“THE COURT: Do you understand that you give up all of those rights by pleading guilty; that if you plead guilty, except for your right to appeal the search question and have a retrial, if you prevail there? You are giving up your right to a confrontation of the witnesses against you in a trial, and you are giving up your right to appeal? (Emphasis added)
MR. WILKES: Yes, sir.”
⅝ ‡ ⅜: ⅝ * ajt
“THE COURT: Okay. And you do understand that in the event that you are successful in your appeal, that doesn’t mean that you are acquitted; that simply means you would come back and have a trial with the evidence put on, but excluding the evidence that is in question?
MR. WILKES: Yes, sir.”
* * * * * *
“MR. DANIEL: (defense counsel) All right. The only other thing I have, Your Honor, and Gen.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
684 S.W.2d 663, 1984 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 2677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wilkes-tenncrimapp-1984.