State v. Robert Booher

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE FILED SEPTEMBE R SESSION, 1997 December 17, 1997 Cecil W. Crowson Appellate Court Clerk STATE OF TENNESSEE, ) C.C.A. NO. 01C01-9612-CC-00525 ) Appellee, ) ) HUMPHREYS CO UNTY ) V. ) ) HON. ROBERT E. BURCH, JUDGE ROBERT K. BOOHER, ) ) Appe llant. ) (VIOLATION OF RE GISTR ATION L AW) FOR THE APPELLANT: FOR THE APPELLEE: ROB ERT K. BO OHE R, pro se JOHN KNOX WALKUP 104 C apps Hill Attorney General & Reporter Wa verly, TN 37185 JANIS L. TURNER Assistant Attorney General 2nd Floor, Cordell Hull Building 425 Fifth Avenue North Nashville, TN 37243 DAN M. ALSOBROOKS District Attorney General GEORGE C. SEXTON Assistant District Attorney General Humphreys County Courthouse Room 205 Waverly, TN 37185 OPINION FILED ________________________ AFFIRMED THOMAS T. WOODALL, JUDGE OPINION The Defen dant, Robert K. Booher, appeals as of right from the judgment of the Circ uit Court o f Hum phreys C ounty. Following a jury trial, the Defendant was convicted of driving without proper vehicle registration and driving without a license, both Class C misdemeanors. In this pro se appeal, Defendant raises many issues which can co llectively b e sum mariz ed as challe nging the constitution ality of the applicable motor vehicle statutes and the denial of adequ ate due proces s of law. W e affirm the judgm ents of the trial court. From the sparse record, it appears that on Nove mbe r 20, 19 95, W averly police officer W .B. Frazie r saw the Defendant driving a vehicle without proper registration plates. See Tenn . Code Ann. § 5 5-3-102 . Upon stopping the vehicle, Officer Frazier discovered that Defendant also did not possess a valid Tennessee driver’s licen se. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-50-301. The jury found the Defenda nt guilty of both offenses . The trial court imposed a suspended sentence of 30 days for each offense and fined him a total of $100. The record on ap peal c ontain s no motion for new trial filed by the Defen dant. Rule 3 (e) of th e Te nnes see R ules o f Appe llate Pro cedu re state s in part: [I]n all cases tried by a ju ry, no issue presented for review shall b e pred icated upon error in the admission or exclusion of evidence, jury instructions granted or refused, misconduct of jurors, parties or counsel, or other action committed or occurring during the trial of the case , or other ground upon which a new trial is sought, unless the same was s pecific ally -2- stated in a m otion fo r a new trial; otherwise, such issues will be treated as waived. This rule do es no t enco mpa ss issu es wh ich, if decid ed favo rably to the accused, would result in the dismissal of the pros ecution. State v. Keel, 882 S.W.2d 410, 415-16 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1994). Since the relief requested, if granted in the instant case, would be dismissal of the prosecution, then the waiver provision contained in Rule 3(e) is not applicable. Thus, the issues presented by Defendant would normally be considered on the merits. Howeve r, the Defendant has not included the transcript of the trial or any pre-trial hearings as part of the record o n appe al. It is the app ellant’s duty to “have prepa red a tra nscrip t of suc h part o f the evid ence or proc eedin gs as is necessa ry to convey a fair, accurate and complete account of what transpired with respec t to those iss ues tha t are the bases of appeal.” Tenn. R. App. P. 24(b). Wh en neces sary parts of the record are n ot included on appeal, the co urt must presume that the trial court’s ruling was correct. State v. Oody, 823 S.W.2d 554, 559 (T enn. C rim. App . 1991). Therefore, even if review of the issues presented is proper in the instant case, this Court must defer to the findings of the trial court sinc e no tran script is includ ed in the re cord. Furthermore, Defendant was also convicted at a different trial for the same type of offen ses a s in the instan t case , but wh ich occurred on a different date. The identical issues presented in the case sub judice were presented in the direct appeal by Defendant from the other convictions, and were resolved by another panel of this Cou rt against D efenda nt. Even if the issues w ere not waived by failure to file a complete record, we would adopt the reasoning and analysis of -3- the panel of this Co urt in State v. Robert K. Booher, C.C.A. No. 01C01-9604-CC- 00131, Hum phrey s Cou nty (Te nn. C rim. A pp., N ashville , filed Au g. 22, 1 997) in finding that the issues presented in the case sub judice are witho ut merit. Accordingly, the judgments of the trial court are affirmed. ____________________________________ THOMAS T. W OODALL, Judge CONCUR: ___________________________________ GARY R. WA DE, Judge ___________________________________ J. CURWO OD W ITT, JR., Judge -4-