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IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE
June 19, 2002 Session STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JEFFREY DANA YORK
Direct Appeal from the Circuit Court for Marshall County No. 14718 Charles Lee, Judge

No. M2001-02956-CCA-R3-CD - Filed December 3, 2002

The defendant was charged with twenty-four separate counts including one count of driving under the influence, nine counts of reckless endangerment involving a deadly weapon, one count of reckless driving, eight counts of aggravated assault, two counts of failure to give notice of an accident, two counts of evading arrest creating a risk of death, and one count of false imprisonment. Eight of the reckless endangerment and reckless driving counts merged with other charges. The defendant entered guilty pleas to the other sixteen counts. After a sentencing hearing, the trial court imposed an effective sentence of thirty years and six months. The defendant appealed the sentence as excessive, arguing that the trial court erred in calculating his total sentence. After review of the record, we affirm the judgments of conviction but remand for entry of corrected judgments. Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Circuit Court Affirmed and Remanded for Entry of Corrected Judgments ALAN E. GLENN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which DAVID G. HAYES and ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JJ., joined. Merrilyn Feirman, Nashville, Tennessee (on appeal); Donna L. Hargrove, District Public Defender (on appeal and at trial); and Andrew Jackson Dearing, III, Assistant Public Defender (at trial), for the appellant, Jeffrey Dana York. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Helena Walton Yarbrough, Assistant Attorney General; William Michael McCown, District Attorney General; and Weakley E. Barnard, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION

FACTS According to the presentence report, the defendant, Jeffrey Dana York, picked his wife, Cindy Curry, up from work sometime after 4 p.m. on April 2, 2001. She said that he was upset and she could tell that he had been drinking, but he would not say what was upsetting him other than, "you are all a bunch of bitches." Curry tried to get out of the car, but the defendant pulled her back. According to Curry's statement, he then "started speeding down the road driving all crazy," as she pleaded with him to let her out of the car. Lewisburg police officers responded to a reckless driving call and, upon seeing the defendant's vehicle, turned on their lights and sirens. Instead of stopping, the defendant fled, crashing into a car stopped at a stop sign. Officer Chris Steel, testifying at the sentencing hearing, described the ensuing chase of the defendant's vehicle. With his vehicle, Steel tried to block the defendant's vehicle from hitting a car which had stopped for a stop sign. However, the defendant's vehicle came around the police car and struck the stopped vehicle, which was occupied by Shelly Kousser and her ten-year-old daughter Courtney. Both were taken to the hospital and released that same day. This incident resulted in indictment counts 4, 5, and 6. The defendant's wife again tried to get out of the car, but he pulled her back and sped off. With Officer Steel in pursuit, his siren and blue lights activated, the defendant ran a stop sign and proceeded "at a high rate of speed" through a hilly residential neighborhood. Because the chase was occurring at 4:30 p.m., the area was "busy because school [was] still in session and work [was] getting out." Apparently, as the defendant ran the stop sign, his vehicle became airborne and he struck an automobile occupied by Martin Zynda and his twenty-three-month-old son Travis, both of whom were subsequently taken to the hospital as a result. They were released that same evening. This collision resulted in indictment counts 9, 10, 11, and 12. The defendant's striking the Zynda car pushed it into oncoming traffic, where it struck another vehicle head-on. This vehicle contained two young adults and two children, ages six and fourteen. All four were transported to a local hospital, with the fourteen-year-old then being transferred to Maury Regional Hospital, where she was released later that night. This collision resulted in indictment counts 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22. The defendant's vehicle went off the road and hit a tree, becoming wedged between the tree and a fire hydrant. As Officer Steel approached the vehicle, the defendant was trying to free it. His wife was still in the vehicle, "holding her head," and it appeared that her head had struck the windshield or dashboard. The defendant refused to get out of the vehicle or show the officers his hands. They pulled their weapons, but the defendant still refused to get out of his vehicle. When finally he got out of his vehicle, the defendant was "combatant, fighting" and the officers had to forcefully restrain him with handcuffs. Officer Steel then described what occurred after the defendant had been placed into a patrol car:

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He was kicking the windows, banging his head against the windows, up against the cage, hollering and screaming. He had to be restrained several times, opening the door. We had to use our chemical weapons on him in the back of the car because he was kicking the back window out. Officer Steel described the defendant's behavior at the hospital: They had to give him a catheter, and he had gotten up and yanked it out. He was spitting blood and trying to get out of the emergency room. So they handcuffed him to the bed. And while he was in the bed handcuffed to the bed, he was doing flips with the handcuffs on his wrists. I guess the cuffs were spinning around his wrist. He was attempting to bite at his wrists to get the handcuffs off. So they had to give him several sedatives. A blood sample of the defendant revealed an alcohol level of 0.20% and tested positive for marijuana. According to the presentence report, the defendant made the following statement as to the incident: On April the 2nd I was depressed about many problems I was having. Every way I turned I was getting deeper into debt like child support and other things. I went home and started drinking and blacked out and ended up causing a wreck. I never set out to hurt nobody [sic] or cause any harm. I was trying to get help through mental health but I didn't get the help I needed in tim [sic]. If I hadn't of [sic] been drinking I wouldn't be where I am now. I understand that what I did was wrong and I ask the victims to forgive me and pray that the court has mercy on me. Those victims who provided a victim impact statement detailed their injuries. Martin Zynda reported that, as the result of his vehicle having been struck by that of the defendant, he had sustained a "severe sprain to left knee and left ankle and sever[e] bruising to chest and left arm." He was treated in the emergency room and underwent two weeks of physical therapy. He reported further that, as a result of the injuries, he lost his jobs and expended $5844.49 for car repairs and medical expenses. His son sustained "severe bruises on his chest and shoulders and stomach." The defendant's wife, Cindy Curry, reported that she sustained a "cracked bone in left foot, torn ligaments in right foot, bruised upper and lower arm, contusion to forehead, and infection in right foot." She said that she had to use crutches for two months to walk and took medication for pain and inflammation in both of her feet. She missed work for two and one-half months and was continuing -3-

to pay the loan payments on the car operated by the defendant which was destroyed as the result of the incident. According to the presentence report and judgments, the defendant has seven prior felony convictions, all in 1994: three convictions for theft of property $1,000 - $10,000, each resulting in a four-year sentence, and four convictions for "reckless endangerment - deadly weapon involved," each resulting in a two-year sentence. The reckless endangerment convictions were reported in the presentence report to have resulted from the defendant's "being involved in a hit and run accident which caused personal property damage and injuries to the occupants of the other vehicle." The defendant had been paroled in 1995, with the parole being revoked in 1997, apparently resulting in his being incarcerated until 1999. ANALYSIS The only issue raised on appeal is whether the trial court erred in ordering that certain of the defendant's sentences be served consecutively. I. Standard of Review When an accused challenges the length and manner of service of a sentence, it is the duty of this court to conduct a de novo review on the record with a presumption that "the determinations made by the court from which the appeal is taken are correct." Tenn. Code Ann.

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