State v. Williams

914 S.W.2d 940, 1995 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 653
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedAugust 3, 1995
StatusPublished
Cited by92 cases

This text of 914 S.W.2d 940 (State v. Williams) 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. Williams, 914 S.W.2d 940, 1995 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 653 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

JONES, Judge.

The appellant, Julian Kent Williams, was convicted of custodial interference, 1 a Class A misdemeanor, by a jury of his peers. The trial court sentenced the appellant to pay a fine of $500 and serve eleven months and twenty-nine days in the Sullivan County Jail.

Three issues are presented for review:

I. The trial court erred in denying appellant sentencing alternative to incarceration.
II. Course and conduct of trial deprived appellant of a fair trial.
III. The evidence was insufficient to sustain appellant’s conviction.

The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

On August 27,1992, the marriage of Deborah P. Williams and the appellant was dissolved by a decree of divorce in the Chancery Court of Sullivan County. Ms. Williams was awarded custody of the parties’ child, Lindsey Rebecca Kaitlin Williams. The final decree states in part:

2. That the exclusive control and custody of the parties’ minor child ... is awarded to the plaintiff [Deborah Jean Perry Williams].
3. That defendant, Julian Kent Williams, shall have visitation with the parties’ minor child beginning Friday, August 21,1992 at 5:00 P.M. and extending until Sunday, August 23, 1992 at 5:00 P.M. and every other weekend after this first weekend. Defendant shall exercise one weekend of visitation in Kingsport, Tennessee, and may exercise his visitation on the subsequent weekend in Norris, Tennessee along with the intervening petitioners [the paternal grandparents]. A visitation schedule for summers and holidays is hereby reserved by the court until [a] further time. Nothing in this order shall restrain the parties from making an agreement on their own concerning summer and holiday visitation.

On Friday, February 5,1993, the appellant exercised his visitation rights. Ms. Williams delivered her daughter, then four years of age, to the appellant at the designated time and place, the Wal-Mart store located in the Colonial Heights area of Kingsport. The appellant was to return the child to Ms. Williams on Sunday, February 7, 1993, at 5:00 p.m.

Ms. Williams arrived at the Wal-Mart store on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. When the appellant did not appear after the passage of a reasonable period, Ms. Williams went to her home to see if the appellant had left a message on her answering machine. There were no messages. Ms. Williams returned to the Wal-Mart store and waited until 6:15 p.m. The appellant did not appear with the child. Thereafter, Ms. Williams returned to her home and called the Sullivan County Sheriffs Department.

*944 Sergeant Joe Miller was dispatched to Ms. Williams’s residence. He called the appellant from Ms. Williams’s home. When the appellant came to the telephone, he identified himself as the appellant. While Sergeant Miller was advising the appellant why he was calling, the appellant told Sergeant Miller that he apparently had the wrong number and terminated the conversation. Sergeant Miller then called the Norris Police Department. The officer who answered the telephone advised Sergeant Miller that he knew the appellant and he would have the appellant call Sergeant Miller. The appellant called Sergeant Miller shortly after the call to the Norris Police Department was terminated.

The safety and well-being of the child was the main concern of both Ms. Williams and Sergeant Miller. The appellant advised Sergeant Miller that the child was “fine.” The appellant permitted Ms. Williams to talk to her daughter. Sergeant Miller then instructed the appellant that he was required to obey the decree entered by the Chancery Court, and he directed the appellant to return the child immediately. The appellant refused to return the child that night. However, he agreed to surrender the child the following day, Monday, February 8,1993, at the Norris Police Department.

Ms. Williams went to Norris, Anderson County, Tennessee, and, per the agreement with the appellant, went to the Norris Police Department to obtain her child. The appellant was.not present, the child was not present, and neither the appellant nor the child could be found. Ms. Williams conferred with her attorney in Kingsport. She then returned to Sullivan County.

Law enforcement efforts to obtain the return of the child failed. On February 16, 1993, an arrest warrant, charging the offense of custodial interference, was issued for the appellant’s arrest. The warrant was executed by a Roane County deputy sheriff at 6:47 p.m., on February 16th, at the appellant’s place of employment in Kingston, Tennessee. Ms. Williams travelled to Roane County, obtained custody of her daughter, and returned to her Sullivan County home. The appellant was subsequently transported to Sullivan County by law enforcement officers.

The appellant testified in support of his defense. He stated that he arrived at the Wal-Mart store in Colonial Heights on Sunday, February 7, 1993, at 4:15 p.m. When Ms. Williams did not show, he left at 5:30 p.m. with the child. He apparently returned to Norris, Tennessee, where his parents lived.

He admitted that he agreed to return the child to Ms. Williams at the Norris Police Department on Monday, February 8th, but changed his mind either later that night or the following morning. Instead, the appellant went to the Department of Human Services office in Clinton, Tennessee, the county seat of Anderson County, and talked with a child abuse counselor. The appellant told the counselor that the child said Ms. Williams had left her alone without supervision while Ms. Williams was at her place of employment. 2 He asked the investigator if he could leave the child in her custody until the child could be returned to Ms. Williams. The child abuse investigator referred the appellant’s complaint to the Sullivan County office of the Department of Human Services. However, she told the appellant that it was against department policy to take custody of a child without a court order. She also told the appellant that Ms. Williams was entitled to the custody of the child, that he should return the child to Ms. Williams in Sullivan County, or that he should make arrangements for Ms. Williams to meet him in Anderson County and let Ms. Williams take custody of the child.

The appellant testified that he did not return the child because he was “seared to death” for his daughter. His fear was asso- *945 dated with the alleged complaint that Ms. Williams had left the child at home while she was at her place of employment. He also claimed at the sentencing hearing that the child needed medical attention. It appears that the child had a cold and had developed a rash. Ms. Williams had provided the appellant with medication for the cold. The doctor who saw the child did not treat the rash.

I.

The appellant contends that the evidence contained in the record is insufficient, as a matter of law, to support a finding by a rational trier of fact that he is guilty of custodial interference beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
914 S.W.2d 940, 1995 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 653, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-williams-tenncrimapp-1995.