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State v. Connelly11/6/2001
The defendant, Daniel O. Connelly, appeals from his conviction of driving under the influence of an intoxicant (DUI) imposed after a bench trial in the Dickson County Circuit Court. He claims on appeal that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction and that the trial court erred in overruling a pretrial motion to suppress any evidence that the state garnered following the defendant's warrantless arrest. After hearing oral arguments and reviewing the record, the parties' briefs, and the applicable law, we affirm the conviction.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed.
James Curwood Witt, Jr., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which David H. Welles and Joe G. Riley, JJ., joined.
OPINION
In the light most favorable to the state, the evidence presented in the defendant's bench trial showed that on the evening of October 16, 2000 Ms. Tesa Black was sitting on the front porch of her home near White Bluff when she saw a white truck fail to negotiate a curve in front of her house on Claylick Road and run into the ditch. She saw a man in or about the truck and saw no other occupants. Before the man removed the truck from the ditch and left the scene, she obtained the license number and reported by telephone the truck's description and license number to the police. She told the police that the driver may be intoxicated.
White Bluff Police Officer Johnny Blanks responded to the call and arrived at the scene. He noted that a vehicle had apparently plowed into the ditch but found no damage to property or fixtures at the site. Via his radio, he learned that Dickson County Deputy Sheriff Mark Ward had found a white truck on the side of Highway 47 nearby, and Officer Blanks drove to Ward's location. He arrived approximately seven to thirteen minutes after receiving the original dispatch. When he arrived, he found Deputy Ward on the roadside near a parked white truck. The license number on the truck matched the number given to the police department by Ms. Black.
Having been dispatched to the scene of the accident near Ms. Black's house and while in route on Highway 47, Deputy Ward saw the white truck parked beside the highway approximately one-half to one mile from Claylick Road. When he pulled up to investigate, he noticed that the license number matched the number provided in the dispatch. The truck was damaged on the right front section. The truck's lights were on. Although the vehicle was not running, the keys were in the ignition switch. Registration records revealed that the defendant owned the white truck.
The defendant was standing near the truck holding a tire iron. When Deputy Ward approached, the defendant became "agitated" and responded to questions in an "irate manner." The officer noticed that the right front tire was flat. The rim of the wheel was bent, and there was mud on the front of the vehicle. The defendant denied being on Claylick Road earlier and denied driving the truck. He stated that his wife had been driving and had walked away from the scene to get help.
Deputy Ward smelled alcohol on the defendant's person and inside the truck, although he found no other evidence of alcoholic beverages inside the truck. He noticed that the defendant "was a little unsteady on his feet . . . was very evasive in his answering." His speech "wasn't slurr to the point you couldn't understand him," but it was not "crisp and clear." The officer asked the defendant to perform three field sobriety tests. On the straight-line-walk-and-turn, the defendant took ten steps instead of the nine he was instructed to take and lost his balance on the turn. Deputy Ward indicated that, althou
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