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IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE
AT JACKSON
Assigned on Briefs December 2, 2008

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. TOBIAS TOBY HORTON and LATOYA LYNN TOWNSEND
Direct Appeal from the Circuit Court for Obion County
No. CC-08-CR22  William B. Acree, Jr., Judge

No. W2008-01170-CCA-R3-CD  - Filed August 13, 2009
The Defendant-Appellant, Latoya Lynn Townsend, pleaded guilty to facilitation to distribute cocaine, a Class C felony, and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, a Class E felony.  For the facilitation offense, she was sentenced to three years at Westate, a community based alternative to imprisonment. For the marijuana offense, she was sentenced to two years at Westate, to be served concurrently with the sentence imposed for the facilitation offense, and ordered to pay a fine.  The Defendant-Appellant, Tobias Toby Horton, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, a Class B felony, and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, a Class E felony.  For the cocaine offense, he was sentenced to eight years in the Tennessee Department of Correction, and he was ordered to pay a fine.  For the marijuana offense, he was sentenced to two years in the Tennessee Department of Correction, which was to be served concurrently with the sentence imposed for the cocaine offense and his sentence for a prior probation violation.  Townsend and Horton, as a part of their conditional plea agreements, attempted to reserve certified questions of law under Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 37.  In agreed orders filed contemporaneously with their judgment forms, they each set out the following certified question of law:  whether the search of the residence leased by Townsend was unconstitutional in violation of Article I, section 7, of the Tennessee Constitution and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.  Because the certified questions fail to identify the scope and limits of the legal issue reserved, we conclude that we are without jurisdiction to consider this appeal and, therefore, it is dismissed.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Appeal Dismissed
CAMILLE R. MCMULLEN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS and J.C. MCLIN, JJ., joined.
Joseph P. Atnip, District Public Defender, for the appellants-defendants, Tobias Toby Horton and Latoya Lynn Townsend.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Elizabeth T. Ryan, Assistant Attorney General; Thomas A. Thomas, District Attorney General; and James T. Cannon, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION
I. Background.  Townsend and Horton were indicted for possession of cocaine with intent to deliver within 1000 feet of a school, and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver within 1000 feet of a school.  Both were represented by the same defense attorney.  On March 14, 2008, the trial court held an evidentiary hearing on their motion to suppress any and all evidence seized as a result of the alleged illegal, invalid, and warrantless search of their apartment on November 12, 2007. In this motion, Townsend and Horton also challenged the validity of the search warrant that preceded the second search.  The suppression hearing was continued to April 4, 2008, to allow the State and the defense to research whether the officers had the right to go to the apartment

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Tennessee Law