State v. Butler
| Decision Date | 24 June 2003 |
| Parties | STATE of Tennessee v. Rodney M. BUTLER. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Nathan B. Pride, Jackson, Tennessee, for the appellant, Rodney M. Butler.
Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Michael Moore, Solicitor General; J. Ross Dyer, Assistant Attorney General; Jerry Woodall, District Attorney General; and Shaun A. Brown, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
WILLIAM M. BARKER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which FRANK F. DROWOTA, III, C.J., and E. RILEY ANDERSON, and JANICE M. HOLDER, JJ., joined. ADOLPHO A. BIRCH, J., filed a concurring and dissenting opinion.
The defendant, Rodney M. Butler, was convicted in the Criminal Court for Madison County of: 1) unlawfully driving or being in physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant; 2) unlawfully driving or being in physical control of a motor vehicle with a blood or breath alcohol concentration of .10% or more; and 3) driving under the influence, fourth offense. At the sentencing hearing, after merging the first two counts into count three, the trial judge reduced the $15,000 fine assessed by the jury to $10,000 and sentenced Butler to four years in the Department of Correction as a Range II offender. We granted this appeal to determine whether the evidence was sufficient to support the defendant's convictions and also to determine whether the defendant was properly sentenced. After an examination of the facts and the law pertinent to the issues, we hold that the evidence was sufficient to support the defendant's convictions. Additionally, we hold that the defendant's sentence was proper.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Shortly before midnight on March 18, 2000, Madison County Deputy Dan Owen was off duty and working as a security guard at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Jackson, Tennessee when a customer informed him that a man "was wandering around the parking lot [who] appeared to be intoxicated." Deputy Owen confronted the defendant, Rodney M. Butler, in the parking lot approximately fifty feet from the entrance to the store and approximately one hundred yards from the defendant's motorcycle. The defendant, who was carrying a sparkplug and a sparkplug wrench, explained to Deputy Owen that he had driven to the store to get a part for his motorcycle. Deputy Owen testified that the defendant appeared to be intoxicated. He also noticed that the defendant had a bottle protruding from his jacket pocket.
Deputy Owen escorted the defendant into the Wal-Mart and conducted four field sobriety tests. After witnessing the defendant perform poorly on three of the tests, Deputy Owen placed the defendant under arrest and discovered that the half-empty bottle contained tequila. Deputies Ashley Johnson and Tommy Ferguson were summoned to transport Butler to the police station in order to conduct a breathalyzer test. Deputy Owens testified that after the defendant was transported to the police station, he recovered the defendant's helmet from the store's automotive department. He also stated that he never actually witnessed the defendant on the motorcycle.
Upon arriving at the police station, the defendant consented to the breathalyzer test, which indicated that the defendant's breath alcohol concentration was .19%. In addition to offering testimony on the administration of the breathalyzer test, Officer Johnson testified that the defendant was unsteady on his feet and had slurred speech. Officer Ferguson also testified that the defendant was unsteady on his feet and added that Butler was belligerent during the transport from the Wal-Mart store to the police station.
Janae Owen,1 the State's final witness, testified that she witnessed Deputy Owen bring Butler into the store from the parking lot. She testified that the defendant told Deputy Owen that he had driven to Wal-Mart to get a sparkplug for his motorcycle. She also stated that the defendant was staggering around and "just reeked with the smell of alcohol."
In his own defense, Butler testified that the purpose of his trip to Wal-Mart was to get some food because he had not eaten that day. He stated that his motorcycle began to sputter during the trip and that it stopped working when he got to Wal-Mart. Butler stated that he had stopped at the liquor store, where he purchased the bottle of tequila, prior to going to Wal-Mart. After arriving at the Wal-Mart store, the defendant testified that he could not decide what he wanted to eat so he began drinking the tequila while browsing through the automotive department. He also stated that he thought that the tequila would help him cope with a painful toothache. The defendant testified that he was not having success finding a matching sparkplug for his motorcycle in the sparkplug books, so he decided to remove the sparkplug from his motorcycle hoping to match it with one for sale inside the store. Butler testified that when he removed the sparkplug from his motorcycle and attempted to walk back into the store, he was confronted by Deputy Owen. On cross-examination, Butler admitted having mechanical trouble with his motorcycle earlier that day and not merely when he arrived at Wal-Mart.
Additionally, Mr. Carroll Henderson, a mechanic, testified that a few days after the motorcycle was towed from the Wal-Mart parking lot to Gene's Tire and Wrecker, he helped the defendant render the motorcycle operational. He testified that after replacing the sparkplug and draining the cylinder, which was flooded with gas, the motorcycle promptly began to run and was driven off by the defendant. Mr. Henderson was uncertain how the flooding occurred in the defendant's motorcycle, but stated that it could have been a result of attempts to start the motorcycle without the sparkplug.
At the conclusion of the proof, the trial court instructed the jury on the offenses of driving or being in physical control of a motor vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant, see Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-401(a)(1) (1998 & Supp. 2002), and also driving or being in physical control of a motor vehicle with a blood or breath alcohol concentration of .10 or greater, see Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-401(a)(2) (1998 & Supp. 2002). Following deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts. The jury then heard evidence of the defendant's three prior convictions in Tennessee for driving under the influence. Following further deliberation, the jury found the defendant guilty of driving under the influence, fourth offense, see Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-403(a)(1) (1998 & Supp.2002), and imposed a fine of $15,000.
At the sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced the defendant to four years in the Department of Correction as a Range II offender and reduced the jury-assessed fine from $15,000 to $10,000. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed both the defendant's conviction and his sentence and fine. For the reasons stated herein, we affirm the Court of Criminal Appeals and hold that the evidence was sufficient to support the defendant's convictions. We also hold that the defendant was properly sentenced and fined.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
The standard for appellate review when a criminal defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence is whether, "considering the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Reid, 91 S.W.3d 247, 276 (Tenn.2002); see also Tenn. R.App. P. 13(e); Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); State v. Smith, 24 S.W.3d 274, 278 (Tenn.2000). When reviewing the evidence, "the State is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the evidence and to all reasonable and legitimate inferences that may be drawn therefrom." Smith, 24 S.W.3d at 279. Moreover, this Court does not substitute its own "inferences drawn from circumstantial evidence for those drawn by the trier of fact." Reid, 91 S.W.3d at 277.
In addition, the defendant challenges his sentence and fine as being overly harsh. In reviewing such a challenge, the task of the appellate court is to conduct a de novo review with a presumption that the sentence imposed by the lower court was correct. Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-401(d) (1997). This presumption is "conditioned upon the affirmative showing in the record that the trial court considered the sentencing principles and all relevant facts and circumstances." State v. Ashby, 823 S.W.2d 166, 169 (Tenn.1991).
ANALYSIS
SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE
Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-401(a) (1998 & Supp.2002) ("section 55-10-401(a)") states:
It is unlawful for any person to drive or to be in physical control of any automobile or other motor driven vehicle on any of the public roads and highways of the state, or on any streets or alleys, or while on the premises of any shopping center, trailer park or any apartment house complex, or any other premises which is generally frequented by the public at large, while:
(1) Under the influence of any intoxicant, marijuana, narcotic drug, or drug producing stimulating effects on the central nervous system; or,
(2) The alcohol concentration in such person's blood or breath is ten-hundredths of one percent (.10%) or more.2
(Emphasis added). For the jury to convict the defendant of driving under the influence of an intoxicant, it had to find that the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant drove or was in physical control of a motor vehicle, while under the influence of an intoxicant or with a blood or breath alcohol concentration of .10% or higher, and while the defendant was located in a prescribed area.
According to Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-8-101(31) (1998 & Supp.2002), the term "motorcycle" is included in the definition of "motor vehicle."...
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