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State v. Norton7/20/1999
The defendant, Albert L. Norton, appeals his Blount County Circuit Court jury conviction of second-offense DUI, a class A misdemeanor. He does not challenge his jail sentence of eleven months, 29 days at 90 percent, to be probated after serving 90 days, a $2,500 fine, and a two-year license revocation. Rather, he challenges his conviction by raising the following issues:
1. The evidence was insufficient to support his conviction.
2. The trial court erred by allowing evidence of the defendant's blood test result despite the failure to establish aproper chain of custody of the blood sample.
3. The trial court erred in allowing evidence of drugs being present in the defendant's blood sample.
4. The trial court erred by admitting testimony that the defendant failed to pass a horizontal gaze nystagmus fieldsobriety test. After a review of the record, the briefs of the parties, and the applicable law, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Sergeant Mark Taylor of the Maryville Police Department arrested the defendant for DUI on March 7, 1995, after watching the defendant swerve his car across the street centerline on two or three occasions and make a wide left turn during which he appeared to strike a curb. Taylor stopped the defendant, who had blood-shot eyes, smelled of alcohol, fumbled with his wallet when trying to extract his drivers license, and staggered upon getting out of the car. The defendant told Taylor he had a couple of beers earlier in the day and that he was on three types of medication, including a pain medicine and a muscle relaxant. Taylor administered three field sobriety tests -- the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test, the one-leg stand, and the walk and turn test. After explaining that the HGN test involved an assessment of the effects of intoxicants on the muscles in the eyes, Taylor testified that the defendant tested "positive" on all six "clues" for which the testing officer looks. On the one-leg stand, the defendant dropped his foot a few times while counting and finally put his foot down and said he could not finish the test. During the walk and turn test, he stepped off the line twice, used his arms to keep his balance, missed connecting heel to toe three times, and incorrectly executed the turn.
Michael J. Lyttle, a forensic scientist with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), analyzed the defendant's blood sample for the presence of drugs. He found the presence of 1.1 micrograms per milliliter of carisoprodol, a muscle relaxant, and testified that the therapeutic range for carisoprodol is ten to 40 micrograms per milliliter. He found the presence of 9.2 micrograms per milliliter of meprobamate, which is a metabolite of carisoprodol. The therapeutic range for meprobamate is 3.0 to 26 micrograms per milliliter. He found the presence of dihydrocodeinone, a narcotic analgesic, for which the therapeutic range is .002 to .024 micrograms per milliliter. The concentration of dihydrocodeinone was below the level of .1 micrograms per milliliter, and by policy, the TBI lab does not "quantitate" concentrations below this level. It simply refers to the result as being "less than" .1 micrograms per milliliter. Nevertheless, Lyttle assessed the dihydrocodeinone level in order to determine if it exceeded the .1 level and found the level to be .05, which is less than .1 but about twice .024, the upper limit of the therapeutic range. Lyttle testified that all of these drugs are depressants that in general have a sedative effect.
Jerry Main, another forensic specialist with the TBI, testified that he conducted the analysis of the defendant's blood sample for the purpose of ascertaining the prese
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