State v. Campbell

• Decision Date: 18 January 2008
• Docket Number: No. E2005-01849-SC-R11-CD.,E2005-01849-SC-R11-CD.
• Citation: 245 S.W.3d 331
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. Susan Marie Gilliam CAMPBELL.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

245 S.W.3d 331

STATE of Tennessee v. Susan Marie Gilliam CAMPBELL.

No. E2005-01849-SC-R11-CD.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville.

October 25, 2007 Session Heard at Maryville.¹

January 18, 2008.

Greg W. Eichelman, Public Defender, for the appellant, Susan Marie Gilliam Campbell.

Robert E. Cooper, Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; and Leslie E. Price, Assistant Attorney General; C. Berkeley Bell, District Attorney General; and Douglas Godbee, Amber DePriest, and Virgil Everhart, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

GARY R. WADE, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which WILLIAM M. BARKER, C.J., and JANICE M. HOLDER, CORNELIA A. CLARK, and WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., JJ., joined.

We granted review to determine whether the Court of Criminal Appeals correctly determined that the evidence at trial was sufficient to support dual convictions of criminally negligent homicide and facilitating escape. Because the defendant, who was charged with the care of the five-year-old victim, took him swimming at a lake without notifying his parents, drank beer and used marijuana, and dared the victim into the water and then failed to supervise his activities, the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction of criminally negligent homicide. Because the defendant, after discovering the disappearance of the victim, discouraged immediate contact with the authorities so that her son, a fugitive from justice, could avoid the police, the evidence was also sufficient to support the conviction of facilitating escape. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The Defendant, who was tried jointly with Michael Zar, was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and facilitating escape, both Class E felonies. The jury acquitted Zar. The trial court imposed concurrent sentences of two years for each of the defendant's convictions.

Proof at Trial

On July 16, 2004, Susan Marie Gilliam Campbell (the "Defendant") was babysitting her four-year-old granddaughter and the five-year-old victim, William Blake Simpson. Without informing the victim's parents or seeking their permission, the Defendant took the children swimming at Cherokee Lake in Hawkins County, Tennessee. The Defendant invited her boyfriend, Willie Mullins, and her seventeen-year-old son, Travis Gilliam. They arrived at the lake at approximately 3:00 p.m. and were later joined by Carrie Hawley and Michael Zar.

Leanita Scott and her sister, Jeana Kenney, who were sunbathing on the lake's shoreline, were present when the Defendant, Mullins, Zar, and Gilliam, accompanied by the two children, waded through the water to a small island. At trial, Scott testified that she saw the Defendant and her adult companions drink beer and pass around a marijuana joint while the victim and the four-year-old granddaughter walked along the bank of the island. After acknowledging that she had also been using marijuana on the day of the drowning, Scott testified that she recalled seeing the victim give the Defendant's granddaughter "a round ... tube." The victim was not, however, wearing a life jacket. Scott testified that the Defendant and the other adults directed the children to "get in the water" and remembered that the Defendant ridiculed the victim, commenting that "he had to grow up sometime." She testified that Zar also taunted the victim, who was playing both in the water and on the shore, warning him not to be "a pussy your whole life."

At one point during the afternoon, Scott, joined by Kenney, waded toward the small island to ask Gilliam if they could borrow his raft. The victim's "little tube" was on the shore. As Scott approached the island, she overheard the Defendant remark that she did not know where the victim was. The Defendant then screamed, "Where's Blake?" Scott and Kenney dove into the water, searching in vain for the victim. When Scott got out of the water to call 911, the Defendant and the others "started to yell for [her] not to call the police" because Gilliam "was a fugitive." According to Scott, the Defendant told the others to "get [Gilliam] out of there before the police got there because they would send him off or put him back in jail." As Scott placed the 911 call, she observed Zar and Gilliam walking toward their truck. Scott complained to Zar that she "couldn't believe he was going to leave with that little boy in the water." Although Zar returned, Hawley drove Gilliam away from the scene. According to Scott, the Defendant hid the group's cooler in "tall weeds" and did not enter the water to search for the victim.

During her testimony, Kenney confirmed that before the victim's disappearance, the Defendant and the other adults were drinking beer and smoking marijuana. Kenney recalled that when she last saw the victim, he was out "a little ways" on a pink raft. She joined Scott in their futile effort to locate the victim in the water.

Hawkins County Emergency Medical Services employee, Jamie Miller, spoke with the Defendant at the scene. The Defendant explained that the victim needed floatation arm bands in order to swim but was not wearing them when she last saw him. Miller described the Defendant as "excited" and "upset," but he could not determine whether she was intoxicated.

Michael Allen, a Hawkins County Sheriff's Deputy, described the Defendant as "withdrawn," but not in tears, when he arrived. He overheard the Defendant explain that she thought the victim had come out of the water. She speculated that he could be "wandering around in the woods." Allen also spoke to Scott, who informed him that the Defendant had been drinking and showed him where the cooler had been hidden. Allen testified that the cooler contained "some rolling papers," empty beer cans, and some cans that contained beer. Officers also found two life preservers, a float ring, and a "noodle" floating device on the small island. Allen did not find marijuana, nor did he observe whether the Defendant or the other adults were intoxicated.

Wayne Lovin, a law enforcement officer with the Tennessee Valley Authority, testified that the cooler contained ten empty beer cans and twelve full beer cans. Officer Lovin also observed several discarded beer cans on the island, along with several Styrofoam cups containing a yellowish liquid that he believed to be alcohol. He did not, however, find any marijuana in the possession of the Defendant or her companions.

Rogersville Police Officer Chris Pinkston, a diver for the Hawkins County Rescue Squad, arrived at the scene well after the victim's disappearance. After collecting information from witnesses, he devised a grid and began to search for the victim. Although the water visibility was poor, Officer Pinkston located the body by the use of a dragging device. The victim was found at a water depth of ten feet and approximately six feet from the shore.

Dewayne Broome, a Commander for the Tennessee Valley Authority's Criminal Investigation Division, questioned the Defendant. After obtaining a waiver of her Miranda rights, he learned that the Defendant, who had been babysitting her granddaughter and the victim for the past two days, was aware that the victim had been in the water nearly the entire time since their arrival. According to the officer, the Defendant claimed that the victim had been wearing an inflatable ring around his waist before his disappearance but had refused to wear a life jacket. She stated that she had last seen the victim standing near Hawley, who was inflating a float. She contended that she had been distracted by her granddaughter, who was crying, before she realized that the victim was missing. The Defendant informed Commander Broome that she had screamed for help before the others at the scene joined in the search. According to the officer, the Defendant admitted that her son, Travis Gilliam, who had escaped from the Mt. View Juvenile Home near Johnson City, had been staying with her. She denied having warned Scott "not to call the cops" and also denied that anyone in her group smoked marijuana prior to the drowning. She claimed that she had drunk only one-half can of beer during her time at the lake.

Commander Broome interviewed Michael Zar three days after the drowning. He recalled that Zar had stated that he and Hawley had been at the lake for only thirty minutes before the victim disappeared. According to the officer, Zar claimed that the victim wore a "blow-up ring" around his waist each time he went into the water. Zar contended that Hawley was in the water blowing up a raft when the victim disappeared. While Zar claimed that he and Gilliam intended to search for the child as they walked towards his truck, he admitted that Hawley drove Gilliam away from the scene before the authorities arrived. Zar acknowledged drinking two beers but denied that he or anyone else in the group had been smoking marijuana. He insisted that he did not taunt the victim or call him names, explaining that he had instead called Gilliam a "wussy" for not trying to make conversation with Scott or Kenney.

Cindy Herron, the victim's mother, testified that she did not know that the Defendant intended to take the victim to the lake. She stated that the victim never swam without floats and had never before refused to wear his life jacket. She explained that she had not provided these items to the victim because she was unaware that the Defendant had any plans to go swimming.

Dr. Gretal Stephens, who performed the autopsy, determined that the victim had experienced a "wet" drowning. That is, he had inhaled water. According to Dr. Stephens, the water in the lungs contained some mud, suggesting that the victim may have been close to the bottom of the lake or on a slope in a shallow part of the water near the shore.

Nancy Davis, the Director of Court Services for the Hawkins County Juvenile Court, testified that Travis Gilliam...