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IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE

AT KNOXVILLE  FILED  
                MAY 1998 SESSION  June 18, 1998  
Cecil Crowson, Jr.  
STATE OF TENNESSEE,  )  Appellate C ourt Clerk  

)  
Appellee,  )  No. 03C01-9709-CC-00395  
)  
)  Blount County  
v.  )  
)  Honorable D. Kelly Thomas, Jr., Judge      
)  
JOHNNY K. BLANKENSHIP,  )  (Obtaini ng a contro lled subs tance by f orgery)  
)  
Appellant.  )  

For the Appellant: For the Appellee:
Mack Garner John Knox Walkup District Public Defender Attorney General of Tennessee 419 High Street and Maryville, TN 37804 Todd R. K elley       (AT TRIAL) Assistant Attorney General of Tennessee          
425 Fifth Avenue North John E. Herbison Nashville, TN 37243-0493 2016 Eighth Avenue South Nashville, TN 37204 Michael L. Flynn (ON APPEAL) District Attorney General
and Philip Morton Assistant District Attorney General 363 High Street Maryville, TN 37804
OPINION FILED:____________________
AFFIRMED
Joseph M. Tipton Judge
O P I N I O N
The defendant, Johnny K. Blankenship, appeals as of right from his conviction upon a guilty plea in the Bl ount County Circui t Court for obta ining a controlled substance by forgery, a Class D felony.  The trial court sentenced the defendant as a Range I, standard offender to three years incarceration in the custody of the Department of Correction to be suspended and served on probation after serving thirty days in the county jail.  The trial court also imposed a five hundred dollar fine. The defendant contends that the sentence imposed is excessive and that the trial court erred by denying full probation.  We affirm the judgment of conviction.
The record reflects that the defendant was charged with obtaining hydrocodone by forgery.  The record also reflects that the defendant entered a guilty plea to the offense, although it does not include a transcript of the guilty plea hearing at which the convicting evidence would be presented by stipulation or testimony.  A guilty plea hearing often provides an important occasion for the state to present its proof, and thus, it is the equivalent of a trial and should be made part of the record on appeal in order to comply with T.C.A.

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