State v. Hanson

• Decision Date: 23 February 2009
• Docket Number: No. E2006-00883-SC-R11-CD.,E2006-00883-SC-R11-CD.
• Citation: 279 S.W.3d 265
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. David Harold HANSON.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

279 S.W.3d 265

STATE of Tennessee v. David Harold HANSON.

No. E2006-00883-SC-R11-CD.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville.

September 3, 2008 Session.

February 23, 2009.

J. Thomas Marshall, Jr., District Public Defender, Clinton, Tennessee, for the appellee, David Harold Hanson.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General & Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; Leslie E. Price, Assistant Attorney General; Dave Clark, District Attorney General; and Jan Hicks, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellant, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

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

The defendant, charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse, was convicted only upon the second count. While upholding the propriety of the jury instructions, the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, ruling that the state had failed to establish that the defendant had knowingly inflicted the injuries. We granted review in order to determine whether the evidence was sufficient to establish that the defendant acted knowingly and by nonaccidental means. Because the trial court provided adequate instructions and because the circumstantial evidence, as accredited by the jury, established the essential elements of the offense, the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is reversed and the conviction and sentence is reinstated.

Factual and Procedural Background

On May 22, 2003, Amanda Silcox ("Silcox") gave birth to a daughter, S.H.,¹ who was fathered by her boyfriend, David Harold Hanson (the "Defendant"). The couple shared a residence in Oak Ridge. Less than two months later, on the evening of July 13, the Defendant and Silcox brought S.H. to the emergency room of Children's Hospital in Knoxville ("Children's Hospital"). At the time, S.H. exhibited significant swelling and discoloration in her right leg. After x-rays and an examination, S.H.'s leg was placed in a splint and she was released, and Silcox and the Defendant were instructed to follow-up with their pediatrician. A series of examinations ensued, by both the pediatrician, Dr. C. Timothy Morris, and Children's Hospital. Dr. Morris, acting upon the request of a hospital physician, directed Silcox to Children's Hospital to obtain a full-body, skeletal survey x-ray of S.H. The survey indicated that S.H. suffered from not only two fractures above her swollen right ankle, but also thirteen other fractures, apparently incurred in at least two separate incidents. There were four "corner" fractures in her right leg and two "corner" fractures in her left leg, all of which appeared to have occurred within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of her first hospital visit. S.H. also had nine separate rib fractures, which appeared to be older injuries.

On June 1, 2004, the Defendant was charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse under Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-15-402 (Supp.2002)² — one count arising from the rib injuries ("Count I") and a second count arising from the leg injuries ("Count II"). Over the course of the four-day guilt phase of the Defendant's trial, the State established that the Defendant had physical custody of S.H. on July 13, 2003, the date she was first taken to the hospital for treatment. Other evidence presented by the State included the Defendant's out-of-court explanation of S.H.'s injuries and the testimony of five different physicians as to the nature and likely causes of S.H.'s injuries. The Defendant, who elected not to testify, offered no proof in rebuttal. The jury returned a unanimous verdict, acquitting the Defendant of Count I but convicting him of Count II. The trial court imposed a sentence of eighteen years.

In his direct appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Defendant contended that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his conviction. He also challenged the propriety of portions of the jury instructions. A majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed and dismissed the conviction, holding that the evidence was insufficient to establish that the Defendant acted knowingly and by non-accidental means:

Other than proof that the defendant fell on S.H. while walking on the stairs, the state did not present evidence at trial which would have allowed the jury to find that S.H.'s fractures were caused by the knowing conduct of the defendant. While we in no wise discount the fact that the state presented evidence that S.H. sustained injuries consistent with abuse, absent proof that the defendant knowingly treated S.H. in an abusive manner, the defendant's conviction cannot stand. The statute requires that the act of treating a child in an abusive manner must be knowing conduct.

State v. Hanson, No. E2006-00883-CCA-R3-CD, 2007 WL 2416103, at *8 (Tenn. Crim.App. Aug.27, 2007). The majority did, however, conclude "that sufficient medical evidence was presented at trial for the jury to find that S.H. experienced extreme physical pain as a result of the fractures to her legs and therefore suffered serious bodily injury." Id. at *9. Thus, had the requisite mens rea been satisfactorily established by the proof, our intermediate appellate court would have held that the injury qualified as serious enough to establish aggravated child abuse as opposed to the lesser offense of child abuse. Tenn.Code Ann. §§ 39-15-401 to 402. Judge Robert W. Wedemeyer dissented. While acknowledging that the State had no direct evidence of the Defendant's state of mind, he believed that the "surrounding circumstances" permitted the jury, as the finder of fact, to infer that the Defendant knowingly, rather than accidentally, inflicted the injuries on the child victim. Hanson, 2007 WL 2416103, at *13-14 (Wedemeyer, J., dissenting). Because the primary question for our review is whether the evidence offered at trial is sufficient to support the conviction of aggravated child abuse, we have provided a summary of the testimony of each witness.

Testimony of Amanda Silcox

Amanda Silcox testified that S.H. was born at the Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center ("Fort Sanders") in Knoxville approximately a year after she and the Defendant began living together in Oak Ridge. The Defendant worked intermittently at a Sonic restaurant, quitting and then returning to his job on multiple occasions over the term of his relationship with Silcox. During her pregnancy, Silcox also worked at Sonic, leaving her job only shortly before the birth of her child.

During her stay at Fort Sanders, Silcox was provided with basic instructions for the care of her infant. She confirmed, for example, that both she and the Defendant knew to hold S.H. in such a way as to support her head and body.

In early July, Silcox went back to work at Sonic. For the first few days, when both she and the Defendant were employed there, her mother cared for S.H. On the fourth day, however, the Defendant, without notifying Silcox of his intentions to do so, again quit his job. Thereafter, he undertook the duty of caring for S.H. during Silcox's absence.

On July 13, 2003, the couple lived in a residential neighborhood less than five minutes from the Oak Ridge Methodist Medical Center ("Methodist"). Silcox drove the couple's car to work, leaving the Defendant home alone with S.H. and without transportation. When Silcox returned from work at approximately six or seven that evening, the Defendant hugged her and tearfully explained that he had fallen with S.H. while carrying some laundry up the staircase. The two decided to take S.H. to Children's Hospital, despite the close proximity of Methodist, explaining that they preferred a hospital specializing in children, not because they feared the Methodist health providers would contact Oak Ridge law enforcement. Silcox also implied that her family members had encountered difficulties with Methodist on prior occasions. When asked if she called ahead to Children's Hospital, Silcox replied that she did not have a telephone at the time.

Silcox described S.H.'s right leg as "swollen and bluish-purple," and recalled that S.H. cried when a physician at Children's Hospital examined her. Doctors placed a splint on S.H.'s right leg, discharged her, and instructed Silcox and the Defendant to follow up with their pediatrician, Dr. Morris, in two to three days.³

Silcox saw Dr. Morris two days later. The Defendant was present. Although the swelling was reduced, S.H.'s right leg was still swollen and discolored. Dr. Morris directed the couple to immediately return to Children's Hospital for additional x-rays. There, the treating physicians authorized further x-rays and scheduled an appointment with orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Mark Turner for the following day. Dr. Turner ordered more x-rays and instructed Silcox to follow up with Dr. Morris.

On July 24, 2003, eleven days after she first reported the leg injury, Silcox again took S.H. to see Dr. Morris, with whom she had already scheduled a routine two-month check up. After Dr. Morris removed S.H.'s splint and observed her foot, he directed Silcox to take S.H. back to Children's Hospital for a full-body, skeletal x-ray. Silcox complied, and, afterwards, S.H. was admitted to the hospital. On the same day, Silcox gave a written statement to Detective Ron Boucher of the Oak Ridge Police Department, who had initiated an investigation for possible child abuse. Her explanation of the events to Detective Boucher was as follows:

David said he ... fell on the steps with [S.H.]. He said he went downstairs to get the laundry and took her with him. He then carried her in one arm and the basket in the other. He said he started up the stairs and tripped on the steps and fell face first and landed on top of her. He said when he fell her right leg bent back. He then took her on upstairs and fed and changed her. He said she acted fine and went to sleep. He also said that she slept for a...