State v. Andrews

• Docket Number: M2022-00812-CCA-R3-CD
• Decision Date: 27 December 2023
• Parties: STATE OF TENNESSEE v. WILLIAM JAMES ANDREWS
• Court: Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals

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STATE OF TENNESSEE
v.
WILLIAM JAMES ANDREWS

No. M2022-00812-CCA-R3-CD

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, Nashville

December 27, 2023

Session August 15, 2023

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Williamson County No. M-CR210102 James G. Martin, III, Judge

Following a bench trial, the trial court found the Defendant, William James Andrews, guilty of two counts of vehicular homicide by intoxication, two counts of vehicular homicide by recklessness, two counts of reckless aggravated assault resulting in death, and two counts of vehicular homicide with a prior DUI conviction. The trial court imposed an agreed-upon twenty-year sentence in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant challenges the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence of drugs in his blood, contending that he did not give consent for a blood draw. After review, we affirm the trial court's judgments.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Circuit Court Affirmed

John S. Colley, III, Columbia, Tennessee, for the appellant, William James Andrews.

Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Edwin Alan Groves, Jr., Assistant Attorney General; Stacey Edmonson, District Attorney General; and Dale L. Evans District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Robert W. Wedemeyer, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Robert L. Holloway, Jr., and J. Ross Dyer, JJ., joined.

OPINION

ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JUDGE

I. Facts

This case arises from a vehicle crash that resulted in the deaths of two people, Olga Danylov and her minor child, N.D.^[1] The Defendant drove his vehicle directly into the oncoming lane of traffic and hit the Danylov's Infiniti SUV. The Defendant was

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transported to the hospital, his blood tested, and results indicated the presence of fentanyl and clonazepam. A Williamson County grand jury indicted the Defendant for two counts of vehicular homicide by intoxication, two counts of vehicular homicide by recklessness, two counts of reckless aggravated assault resulting in death, two counts of reckless aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and two counts of vehicular assault with a prior conviction for driving under the influence ("DUI"). The Defendant filed a motion to suppress the results of the blood test, which the trial court denied. The Defendant waived his right to a jury, and the trial court conducted a bench trial and found the Defendant guilty. The Defendant's only issue on appeal relates to the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress the results of the blood test.

A. Suppression Hearing

The Defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence of drugs found in the Defendant's blood, claiming that he did not voluntarily consent to a blood draw. The State filed a response maintaining that the Defendant had consented and, alternatively, that exigent circumstances existed to justify the warrantless blood draw. As the trial court's suppression ruling is the only issue relevant to the Defendant's appeal, we will summarize the facts from the suppression hearing and the trial as it relates to the Defendant's challenge to consent and the State's alternative argument of exigent circumstances.

On December 20, 2020, Mr. and Mrs. Gary and Gale Francis were driving on Goose Creek Bypass in Williamson County, Tennessee, on their way to Cool Springs. The day was sunny with good driving conditions. The couple was on a portion of the road that had two lanes divided by double yellow lines when Mrs. Francis noticed a black Ram truck in the oncoming lane that was about a third to half of the way over the double yellow line and into her lane. The truck was approximately three car lengths away from the Francis's white Nissan Rogue. Mrs. Francis "knew that . . . whoever was in that [Ram truck] had no control over it" and that if she did not move off the road, the Ram truck was going to hit her. Mrs. Francis quickly pulled over to the shoulder of the road to avoid a crash. As she looked into her rear view mirror she saw the Ram truck hit the white Infiniti SUV ("SUV") driving behind her.

Mrs. Francis parked her car, put on her flashers, and she and her husband exited their vehicle to see if they could help. They saw the front seat passenger of the SUV, Mr. Danylov, who appeared to be in a daze, get a little girl, V.D., out of the SUV. Mrs. Francis intervened and helped V.D. find her dog that had been in the SUV and then stayed with V.D. while Mr. Danylov attended to the other people in his car.

The Francises remained at the scene for over an hour and gave statements to a Highway Patrol officer. The first responder to the crash scene was from the Williamson

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County Sheriff's Department, who immediately began moving the crowd that had gathered back away from the crash site. A Tennessee Highway Patrol officer, who arrived later, requested that Mrs. Francis fill out a crash report statement. The statement read as follows:

As I was driving East on Goose Creek Bypass a dark truck began moving into my lane. I smoothly, but quickly moved my car onto the shoulder to avoid the oncoming truck. Very soon afterwards we heard the crash

Before this accident, Jason Peveler was also driving along Goose Creek Bypass when the Defendant pulled out in front of Mr. Peveler by the Shell gas station. Mr. Peveler observed the Defendant's driving in the minutes leading up to the crash and noted that the Defendant hit the median barrier on three occasions. The Defendant also weaved within his lane of traffic, which caused Mr. Peveler concern. As they continued driving, Mr. Peveler observed the Defendant move into the oncoming lane and hit a white Infiniti SUV head on. The Ram truck did not brake at all as it moved toward the oncoming SUV.

Mr. Peveler parked his car and ran to the Ram truck where he found the Defendant "passed out." There was a hole in the windshield where it appeared the Defendant had tried to kick out the windshield but, by the time Mr. Peveler arrived, the Defendant was slumped against the passenger door with a cut to his forehead. Mr. Peveler checked the Defendant's truck to make sure no explosive materials were leaking from the truck. He spoke with Mr. Danylov briefly, cautioning him not to try to remove his wife from their SUV but to wait for emergency personnel to attend to her medical needs due to the severity of her injuries.

Mr. Peveler testified that the Williamson County Sheriff's Office deputies arrived first, followed by an ambulance and then Tennessee Highway Patrol officers. The medical responders were at the scene a short period before placing a white sheet over Mrs. Danylov, the driver of the SUV. Mr. Peveler attempted to comfort the distraught Mr. Danylov. He provided a statement to a Highway Patrol officer:

I was behind the driver of the black Dodge Ram. He got in front of me around the Chick-Fil-A at Berry Farms. I watched him swerve several times to the left from when he got in front of me....[W]hen he hit the wreck, the driver looked like he blacked out. He went to the left directly in to oncoming traffic, no brakes, no swerve, just straight in to oncoming traffic. He hit the white Infinit[i] head-on

George Danylov testified that he, his wife Olga, son N.D., and daughter V.D. were driving to the Sports Academy in Cool Springs to buy a kickstand for N.D.'s bicycle. Mrs. Danylov was driving the SUV, with Mr. Danylov seated in the front seat, V.D. directly

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behind him, and N.D. behind the driver. As they passed McLemore Farms on Goose Creek Bypass they drove behind a white Nissan Rogue. The Rogue unexpectedly swerved right, and Mr. Danylov saw a black Ram truck, approximately fifty feet away, driving directly toward them. The driver of the vehicle, later identified as the Defendant, appeared to be unconscious with his head down to the side. The primary impact was to the driver's side where Mr. Danylov's wife and son were seated. The Danylovs' SUV came to a stop on the grass on the side of the road. Mr. Danylov asked if everyone was okay, his wife and son were breathing heavily, and V.D. answered that she was "okay."

Mr. Danylov exited the SUV and extracted V.D. from the SUV through his passenger door since all of the car doors were locked. Mr. Danylov then walked around to the driver's side and saw that Mrs. Danylov "had a really big cut, wide open." Mrs. Danylov was "covered with metal." Mr. Danylov began pulling the metal out but quickly realized that the metal was "stuck in her." Mr. Danylov tried to open the rear passenger door but pulled the handle off the car instead. He began screaming for help. He described the scene as "complete chaos." Mr. Danylov's phone was lost during the impact, so he asked bystanders gathering at the scene to call the police. He watched as Mrs. Danylov stopped breathing.

The first person to arrive was a Sheriff's deputy. By this time, approximately twenty to thirty people from a nearby neighborhood had gathered. Some were standing back but others were closer to the vehicles. Mr. Danylov asked the deputy to get an ambulance to assist his wife and son. Mr. Danylov could hear his son, who was pinned under Mrs. Danylov's seat, crying. Sheriff's deputies began working to get N.D. out of the car. Once N.D. was freed from the vehicle, the emergency responders encouraged Mr. Danylov, who was distraught over seeing his wife die, to step away from the vehicles.

Mr. Danylov told both the initial deputy who arrived on the scene and a female Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper what had occurred, including that he saw the Defendant's head drooped down as the Defendant drove toward them. When released from the scene, Mr. Danylov drove to Williamson Medical Center where his son had been transported. He had seen N.D. move his arm before he was loaded into the ambulance, so Mr. Danylov believed that N.D. would be "okay." When he...