State v. Magness

• Decision Date: 28 February 2005
• Citation: 165 S.W.3d 300
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. Kevin MAGNESS.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

165 S.W.3d 300

STATE of Tennessee v. Kevin MAGNESS.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, at Nashville.

July 21, 2004 Session.

September 28, 2004.

Application for Permission to Appeal Denied by Supreme Court January 14, 2005.

Petition to Rehear Denied February 28, 2005.

Steven R. Roller, McMinnville, Tennessee, and Donald Capparella, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Kevin Magness.

Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Helena Walton Yarbrough, Assistant Attorney General; Clement Dale Potter, District Attorney General; and Larry G. Bryant, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

JOSEPH M. TIPTON, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which NORMA McGEE Ogle and ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JJ., joined.

A Warren County Circuit Court jury convicted the defendant, Kevin Magness, of manufacturing more than one hundred grams of methamphetamine, a Class B felony, and the trial court sentenced him as a Range I, standard offender to eight years in confinement. The defendant appeals, claiming that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction, and (2) the trial court erred by allowing into evidence the manner by which the state calculated the weight of the substance containing methamphetamine. We hold that the evidence is sufficient to show felonious manufacturing but that an incorrect standard was used to calculate the weight of the controlled substance. We modify the defendant's conviction to reflect a conviction for a Class C felony, and we remand the case to the trial court for resentencing.

This case relates to the defendant's manufacturing methamphetamine on June 12, 2002. At trial, Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Stewart Caldwell testified that he received a tip that the defendant was operating a methamphetamine laboratory ("meth lab") at his house on Old Shelbyville Road. He said that he and Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Murphy decided to investigate by driving to the defendant's house. Deputy Caldwell testified that they drove into the defendant's driveway, parked, and approached the house. He said the defendant came out of his house and asked them why they were there. Deputy Caldwell said he explained to the defendant that he had received information that someone at the defendant's address was manufacturing methamphetamine and asked the defendant for permission to search the premises. He said the defendant consented to the search.

Deputy Caldwell testified that they went to the defendant's barn and began to search. He said he found a "large garbage bag containing trash from a meth lab" as soon as he began to search. He said the trash consisted of "brake cleaner and coffee filters that were stained." Deputy Caldwell testified that they stopped the search upon finding what they believed to be evidence of a meth lab.

Deputy Murphy testified that when they stopped the search, he advised the defendant of his Miranda rights and that, upon their request, the defendant signed a consent form allowing the deputies to continue searching the barn. Deputy Murphy said that after the defendant consented in writing, other law enforcement officers arrived at the defendant's home to conduct the search. He said that during the search, he found layered liquids of what he believed to be iodine.

Deputy Murphy testified that he had been responsible for the evidence log during the search of the barn. He said many different items were found during the search which are used in the process of manufacturing methamphetamine. He testified that these items included (1) a jar containing a layered liquid, (2) two twenty ounce bottles containing layered liquids, (3) iodine crystals, (4) Red Devil lye, (5) a respirator, (6) a tea jug containing red residue, (7) "several matchbooks with striker pads missing," (8) stained coffee filters, (9) a chemical suit, (10) rubbing alcohol, (11) cans of brake cleaner, and (12) an exhaust system. He testified in meticulous detail as to how each of these items is used in order to manufacture methamphetamine.

Warren County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Jody Cavanaugh testified that he obtained a search warrant in order to search the defendant's house and that the search of the house revealed over four hundred eighty diet and sinus pills containing pseudoephedrine, a substance critical to manufacturing methamphetamine. Lieutenant Cavanaugh also explained how the items discovered in the barn were used in the methamphetamine manufacturing process.

Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Daniel Chisam testified that he was involved in the investigation of the defendant's barn. He said he had received meth lab investigation and interdiction training from the Drug Enforcement Administration at a week-long program in Quantico, Virginia. He said that as a result of this enhanced training, he was certified to investigate "clandestine meth labs." He also testified as to how the items discovered in the barn and in the house are used in the methamphetamine manufacturing process. On cross-examination, Deputy Chisam conceded that only one of the three bottles found in the barn tested positive for methamphetamine and that the bottle which did test positive lacked one step from being completed in order for the drug to be capable of being consumed. Deputy Chisam said the layered bottle would have to "be gassed off, using muratic acid or salt." He explained, "What this gas does is evaporate the brake cleaner and turn the liquid into a powder." Deputy Chisam also conceded that there was no way of knowing for certain how much methamphetamine would result after the final step was completed, and that until the final step was completed, the drug could not be ingested.

David Brown of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Forensic Services Division testified that he tested the substances sent to him by the Warren County Sheriff's Department. Agent Brown said that the testing revealed one of the substances contained methamphetamine and that the total weight of the substance containing methamphetamine was 101.1 grams. On cross-examination, Agent Brown acknowledged the substance containing methamphetamine was not consumable until the brake cleaner was removed.

The defendant testified that he had made methamphetamine in the past for his own personal use because he did not want to die from using methamphetamine manufactured by someone else. He said that he was not currently using or making methamphetamine and that the items recovered from his barn were either related to his work or they were "from other people doing it." The defendant denied ever making methamphetamine in his barn, and he said he did not know how the substance containing methamphetamine got into his barn.

The jury convicted the defendant of manufacturing methamphetamine over one hundred grams. After finding no applicable enhancement factors, the trial court sentenced the defendant to a term of eight years in the Department of Correction, the presumptive minimum sentence for a Range I, standard offender convicted of a Class B felony.

I. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

[REDACTED FROM PUBLISHED OPINION]

II. WEIGHING A SUBSTANCE CONTAINING METHAMPHETAMINE

The defendant claims that the trial court erred by allowing the state to admit into evidence the weight of the substance containing methamphetamine as 101.1 grams. He claims this was error because brake cleaner was included with the methamphetamine in the substance which TBI Agent Brown tested. The defendant argues that this impermissibly increased the weight of the substance containing methamphetamine because it rendered the substance unmarketable and requests this court to apply the "market-oriented" approach to Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-17-417 in order to determine the weight of a substance containing methamphetamine. The defendant claims that this issue presents a question of first impression in Tennessee.

The state has urged that we look to the plain meaning of the statute and conclude that the term "substance containing" applies to the mixture of brake cleaner and methamphetamine. The statute provides that a person who knowingly manufactures "one hundred grams or more of any substance containing amphetamine or methamphetamine" is guilty of a Class B felony. T.C.A. § 39-17-417(i)(10) (emphasis added). The state argues the plain meaning of this section allows it to include in its calculation the weight of the brake cleaner fluid, provided that a detectable amount of methamphetamine is present.

"A basic principle of statutory construction is to ascertain and give effect to legislative intent without unduly restricting or expanding the intended scope of a statute." Parks v. Tennessee Mun. League Risk Management Pool, 974 S.W.2d 677, 679 (Tenn.1998) (citing Owens v. State, 908 S.W.2d 923, 926 (Tenn.1995)). However, if the statutory language is ambiguous "courts must look to the statutory scheme as a whole, as well as legislative history, to discern its meaning." Parks, 974 S.W.2d at 679 (citing Owens, 908 S.W.2d at 926). If the plain meaning of a statute is applied in specific situations so as to produce an absurd or incongruous result, the intent of the General Assembly will prevail over the statutory language. See Barnett v. Barnett, 27 S.W.3d 904, 909 (Tenn.2000) (citing Business Brokerage Centre v. Dixon, 874 S.W.2d 1, 5 (Tenn.1994)).

When the fair import of the language of a penal statute, in the context of the legislative history and case law on the subject, still results in ambiguity, the rule of strict construction would apply to limit the statute's application to those persons or circumstances clearly described by the statute. State v. Horton, 880 S.W.2d 732, 735 (Tenn.Crim.App.1994). In other words, "[t]he rule of lenity is a tie-breaker when there is an otherwise-unresolved ambiguity." United States v. White, 888 F.2d 490, 497 (7th Cir.1989). This rule is more than one of convenience. The application of strict...