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State v. Williams6/22/2005
On January 25, 2003, Deputy Brian Baker of the Humphreys County Sheriff's Department was in the department's central communications office when a telephone call came in to dispatch about 11:00 p.m. Charles Richen reported to the dispatcher that the appellant and Mr. Richen's daughter had gotten into a domestic dispute, and the appellant had followed her to Mr. Richen's home on Sherwood Avenue in Waverly, Tennessee. According to Mr. Richen, the appellant was driving a white Ford Ranger pickup truck with a Shelby County license plate. Deputy Baker understood the appellant to be at Mr. Richen's home at the time of the call.
Deputy Baker immediately left the communications office and went on patrol. Within five minutes of Mr. Richen's call, Deputy Baker, who was traveling west on Main Street, saw a white Ford Ranger traveling east and coming from the direction of Sherwood Drive. The truck turned left onto Highway 13, and Deputy Baker turned right and began following the truck. Deputy Baker saw that the truck had a Shelby County license plate and decided to stop the truck in order "to investigate and see if there was any further acts of domestic [violence] that had occurred." He activated his blue lights but the truck continued for approximately one-half mile before stopping. Deputy Baker approached the truck and asked its driver, who was the appellant, for his driver's license. The appellant told Deputy Baker that he did not have a license, and Deputy Baker asked him to step out of the truck. The appellant told Deputy Baker that he and his girlfriend had gotten into an argument in Clarksville and that he had followed his girlfriend to her parents' home in Waverly. As the appellant was talking, Deputy Baker noticed a strong odor of alcohol, that the appellant's eyes were red, and that his speech was very slurred. Deputy Baker gave the appellant four field sobriety tests, which the appellant performed "poorly." He arrested the appellant for DUI and driving on a revoked license.
At the suppression hearing, Deputy Baker testified on cross-examination that he did not hear Mr. Richen's actual call to the dispatch office. He stated that when he stopped the appellant's truck, the appellant had not broken any traffic laws. He said that as soon as the appellant got out of the truck, he smelled alcohol and asked the appellant if he had been drinking. Deputy Baker related that the appellant was not under arrest at that time and that he had not given the appellant Miranda warnings. After Deputy Baker administered the field sobriety tests, he took the appellant to the sheriff's department, and the appellant agreed to take a breathalyzer test. After waiting twenty minutes, the appellant refused to take the breathalyzer test, but agreed to take a blood test. Deputy Baker took the appellant to a hospital emergency room, where his blood was collected. Deputy Baker could not recall the results of the blood test.
No other witnesses testified at the suppression hearing, but the defense introduced several documents into evidence. According to the general sessions warrant filled out by Deputy Baker, Deputy Baker stopped the appellant "for domestic investigation." The defense also introduced into evidence the incident report typed by the dispatcher at the time of Mr. Richen's call. The report names Mr. Richen as the caller and provides,
CALLER ADVISED HIS DAUGHTER HAD BEEN BEATEN UP BY HER BOYFRIEND IN CLARKSVILLE WALTER WILLIAMS HE HAS NO DL AND IS INTOXICATED 5'9" STOCKY WHITE MALE IS IN A WHITE FORD RANGER 95 WITH SHELBY COUNTY TAGS GAVE TO CITY UNITS SEE INCIDENT NUMBER 0301001526[.]
In denying the appellant's motion to suppress, the trial court noted that Deputy Baker
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