Preview:

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE
AT KNOXVILLE
Assigned on Briefs December 18, 2007

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. VON ARLEN MCKINNEY
Direct Appeal from the Criminal Court for Hamblen County
No. 06CR063 John Dugger, Jr., Judge

No. E2007-00747-CCA-R3-CD - Filed December 29, 2008
The defendant, Von Arlen McKinney, was convicted of driving under the influence (DUI), third offense; driving on a revoked license, fourth offense; possession of drug paraphernalia; and violation of the implied consent law. He was sentenced to eleven months and twenty-nine days at seventy-five percent for his DUI offense; eleven months and twenty-nine days for driving on a revoked license, to run concurrent to the DUI; eleven months and twenty-nine days for possession of drug paraphernalia, to run concurrent to the other sentences; and eleven months and twenty-nine days for violation of the implied consent law, with five days to run consecutive to his other sentences, for a total effective sentence of eleven months and thirty-four days. On appeal, the defendant argues that the evidence was insufficient and that the sentence imposed was excessive.  After careful review, we affirm the judgments from the trial court.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed
JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which THOM AS T. WOODALL and
J.C. MCLIN, JJ., joined.
Greg W. Eichelman, District Public Defender, and D. Clifton Barnes, Assistant Public Defender (on appeal), and Jefferson Fairchild, Rogersville, Tennessee (at trial), for the appellant, Von Arlen McKinney.
Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Lacy Wilber, Assistant Attorney General; C. Berkeley Bell, Jr., District Attorney General; and Kimberly Morrison, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION
The defendant was arrested for driving under the influence after a Morristown Police Department officer observed him staggering toward the door of a convenience store after exiting his vehicle. Earlier, the officer had received a dispatch to be on the lookout for a small, black sport utility vehicle (SUV) after 9-1-1 received a phone call that the driver of the SUV was drunk.  The officer saw a black SUV carrying three people.  He followed the vehicle into the parking lot of a convenience store. The officer saw two passengers wearing seat belts in the vehicle.  The office also observed a person, the defendant, outside the vehicle

Download mckinneyvaOPN.pdf

Tennessee Law