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State v. Bryant4/1/2005
On April 14, 2004, the defendant submitted an open guilty plea to three counts of vehicular homicide based on intoxication, one count of vehicular assault, and two counts of driving while intoxicated. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced the defendant to standard offender, Department of Correction terms of ten years for each homicide and of three years for vehicular assault. The trial court merged the convictions of driving while intoxicated into the first conviction count of vehicular homicide. The court imposed the sentences to run con- secutively, creating an effective incarcerative sentence of 33 years.
The convictions resulted from the October 10, 2003, Highway 51 accident in which the defendant, whose blood-alcohol content was .27 percent, collided her car into a pair of motorcycles being ridden by the four victims. In the accident, John Wesley Sanders, Sr., the only surviving motorcyclist and thus the victim of the vehicular assault conviction, lost his wife, daughter, and son-in-law.
At the sentencing hearing, Mr. Sanders testified that, as a result of the collision, two bones in his leg were broken, and his ankle was crushed. He had undergone three surgeries to insert plates and screws and faced the possibility of further surgeries. Mr. Sanders testified that his personal loss of family members was extremely grievous and that the loss to the community was substantial - two of the deceased victims were nurses and the third was a fireman. Mr. Sanders' daughter and son-in-law who were vehicular homicide victims left behind three children and two grandchildren. He explained the difficulty experienced by the children and grandchildren.
Michael Gill, 24 years of age, testified that his wife lost her parents in the accident and that the Gills were taking care of the children left behind.
The defendant, 38 years of age and mother of four children, testified that in 2003 she maintained three jobs. She testified that she did not remember the accident but knew that she was "extremely drunk that day." The defendant testified that she had not eaten for three or four days prior to the accident and had drunk some beer and gin after getting off from work shortly after noon. Later, she went to the home of her "Avon lady" to pay a bill because the lady was "worrying about the money." The accident occurred after the defendant left the Avon lady's house. Later, the defendant talked to the Avon lady and acknowledged at the hearing that the lady "said tried to stop me from driving, and I don't even remember that."
The presentence report established that the defendant had been previously convicted in 1998 of misdemeanor child abuse, in 1997 of driving without a license, and in 1987 of shoplifting.
The trial court enhanced the length of the defendant's sentences by considering the defendant's prior criminal history, that the offenses involved more that one victim, and that the defendant committed the offense without hesitation when the risk to human life was high. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-35-114(2), (4), (11) (2003). With respect to the vehicular assault, the court applied the enhancement factor that the victim's personal injuries were particularly great. Id. § 40-35-114(7). In mitigation, the court found only that the defendant was remorseful for the deaths and injuries she caused. See id. § 40-35- 113(13). Based upon the enhancement factors far outweighing the mitigating factor, the court imposed a sentence of ten years in each vehicular homicide case and of three years in the vehicular assault case. Based upon its finding that the defendant had an extensive record of criminal activity and that she was a dangerous offe
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