Petition for Writ of Certiorari — Natasha Bates, aka Tasha Bates, Petitioner v. Tennessee

Appendix

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Bates v. State | WestlawNext

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WESTLAW

Bates v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee. AT KNOXVILLE

January >3 2019

Slip Copy

2019 WL 211200 .'Appro* 7-7 papas)

20LO VVI, 21 1200

Only the: Wosllaw citation is currently avallahlc.

SUB RULE.19 OFTHE RULES OFTHE COUR T OF CRIMINAL APPEALS RELATING TO

PUBLICATION Ol‘‘ OPINIONS AND CITATION OI: UNPUBLISHED OPINIONS.’

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee,

AT KNOXVIU.F..

Natasha BATES

v.

STATE of Ten ncssee

No. Ri'017-0lbi;?-CCA-R3-PC

----------------------------- ------- Juiy_24, .2Cu8.Sessiou........................................ ......

FILED (11/16/20.19

Application for Permission to Appeal Dcnie-d by Supreme Court May 1.6. 2019

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Bradley County, No. 16-CR-286, Sandra Donaghy,

Judge

Attorneys and Law Firms

William J. Brown, Cleveland, Tennessee, for the appellant. Natasha Bates.

Herbert H. Slatery III. Attorney General and Reporter; Garrett 0. Ward. Assistant Attorney

General; Stephen Davis Crump. District Attorney General; and Brooklyn Townsend.

Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee. Slate of Tennessee.

/

Norma McGee Ogle, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Robert L. Holloway. Jr.,

and J. Ross Dyer. JJ.. joined.

OPINION

Norma McGee Ogle, J.

The Petitioner. Natasha Bates, appeals the Bradley County Criminal Court's denial of her

petition for post-conviction relief from her convictions of two counts of first degree felony

murder and two counts of aggravated child neglect and resulting effective sentence of two

consecutive life terms. On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the trial court should have

granted her motions to suppress evidence and that she received the ineffective assistance

of trial counsel. Based upon the oral arguments, the record, and the parlies' briefs, we affirm

ihe judgment of the post-conviction court.

LFactuaLBackground

*f On July 18. 2012, the Bradley County Grand Jury indicted the Petitioner for two counts of

first degree felony murder, two counts of aggravated child neglect, four counts of initiating

the process to manufacture methamphetamine,' and one count of promoting the manufacture

of methamphetamine. On direct appeal of the Petitioner's convictions, this court summarized

the State's proof at trial as follows:

This matter resulted from the deaths of the defendant's sons. R.B., age 3, and L.B., age 5,

and the discovery of evidence of the manufacture of methamphetamine at the defendant's

residence.

The State's first witness was Nicholas Glen Laney, who was employed by the Bradley

County EMS and said that, on June 28, 2012, he responded to a call to the residence of

Thomas Kile, the defendant's father. He found one of the victims on the sidewalk in front

of the home and the other inside the front door of the residence, both unresponsive. The

victims' clothes were soaked apparently with sweat: and R.B. had "warm,... pale ... [a]nd

moist” skin, with blue, lips and nail beds. No pulse was detected for R.B.. but L.B. was still

breathing and had a pulse.

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Dr. Jeffrey Lynn Miller testified that he was an emergency room physician at the SkyRidge

Emergency Room and was the Bradley County Medical Examiner. He described the

condition of R.B. when he arrived at the hospital.

He was obtunded, he was unresponsive, you know, as where we are working on the

child, you know, we are starting IV's and we are doing procedures to the child to try and

determine his ... condition. There was no response to anything we did. He was

completely unresponsive.

Dr. Miller said that the standard temperature is 98.6 degrees, but R.B.'s was 109.

Dr. Miller did not believe that R.B.'s playing outside could have caused a temperature as

high as R.B, had. Carol Hayes Mayo testified that she was on duty at the emergency

department at Children's Hospital at Erlanger when L.B. was brought in and that his core

temperature was 104 degrees.

Travis Smith testified that he was a patrol sergeant with the Bradley County Sheriffs

Office and, on June 28, 2012, responded to a call regarding LB. and R.B. He said that the

EMS technicians already were at the scene and working on the two victims. One was in

an ambulance, and the other was being brought out of the house. Initially, he thought it

was a drowning call, but the defendant said the incident had occurred on Keith Valley

Road. She said she had not called 911 from that location because she did not have a cell

phone and had to go to her father’s house.

Charles Dewayne Scoggins testified that he was a criminal investigator for the Bradley

County Sheriffs Office and responded to the call at 2:44 p.m. to 851 Armstrong Road and

immediately went from there to 879 Keith Valley Road, where the defendant was living. At

that location, he examined the Slip and Slide and explained its condition:

What I noticed initially when I got there the slide appeared to be relatively dry with the

exception of two very small puddles, all of which had dirt and bugs in it. The ground

around the Slip and Slide was dry, there was no wet grass anywhere that I could find,

and over all in general the Slip and Slide did not appear to have been used in the recent

past.

*2 He first spoke with the defendant at the SkyRidge Medical Center Emergency Room,

and she said the victims had been outside, playing on the Slip and Slide and when she

returned from the house, they were in the front yard and unresponsive. Because of the

suspicious circumstance" of the incident, he asked, and the defendant consented, to

having a blood sample taken from her while still at the emergency room. The defendant

returned with him to her residence, and later they went together to the Bradley County

Sheriffs Office. She said that she had gone inside her home, while the victims remained

outside in the yard, and when she returned twenty to twenty-five minutes later, she found

them. She said that she had fixed the victims eggs for breakfast, but Investigator Scoggins

found no evidence that eggs had been cooked that morning. Later, she said that she had

been inside for thirty to forty-five minutes. He asked her the whereabouts of her celt

phone, and she responded she thought it was In her car, which was then in the

possession of the sheriffs department. He said that he examined her cell phone and

found that it would “ring straight through to the Bradley County 911 Center." The

defendant did not explain why her phone had been found in the trunk of her car.

When Investigator Scoggins told the defendant of the autopsy findings, she responded

that the information she had previously given was accurate, although it was possible that

the victims had been under the front porch instead of in the yard. Later, she said she had

found the victims in her car:

When we were getting close to being finished she did finally admit that she in fact had

come out and found both children inside of her car. describing her younger child [R.B ]

to be in the front right passenger seat of the vehicle with that seat laid completely back,

and that her oldjer] son [L.B.] was partially hanging out of the right rear passenger door.

Two search warrants were executed at the defendant's residence. The first, on July 3,

2012. was to conduct a temperature study to determine the maximum temperature in the

defendant's car, where she said she had found the children. The next search warrant,

executed "approximately two weeks later," was to search for the manufacture of

methamphetamine. Regarding the temperature experiment, Investigator Scoggins said

that the temperature on June 28, 2012, was 101 degrees, and on July 3, when they

conducted the experiment, it was less than that. The car was parked in the same location

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as on June 28. and the purpose o' the experiment was to measure the outside

temperature and that at different locations in the car, using seven or eight thermometers.

Every thirty minutes, each thermometer was read for the temperature shown and was

photographed. The conditions on the day of the test were the same as on June 28. except

for the lower outside temperature. At 1:00 p.m. on the day of the test, the ambient air

temperature inside the car was 129 degrees.

Investigator Scoggins testified that the defendant told him she had a date with Mike

Mauradian the night of June 27 and was with him from 4:30 or 5:30 p.m. until about 10.00

p.m . when she left to go home. However, after officers asked to search her cell phone,

she recalled that later she had gone to the residence of Preston Woods. Describing the

layout of the interior of the defendant's vehicle, he said that the back passenger door “was

obstructed based on the front seat being leaned back very far and two car seats piled up

right behind it. you couldn't get between the seat and the car seats. It would have been

hard to get through there.’ He said that, of the four doors of the vehicle, "the only door that

opened from the inside was the right rear which was blocked by the two car seats.”

Melanie Carlisle testified that she was employed by the Tennessee Bureau of

Investigation (“TBI") as a special agent forensic scientist in the field of toxicology and

■B1oooT^e51igrSt1e’'saiirffT^WTeWig~6nne~deWaanrs''W6odshWea'v^phefaTiTine'at’

less than .05 micrograms per milliliter, and methamphetamine at less than .05 micrograms

per milliliter." She said that, following a methamphetamine "high," a user would reach a

"crash stage” and become depressed and sleepy.

Monica Datz testified that she was a crime scene investigator and latent print examiner

with the Bradley County Sheriffs Office. She examined the defendant's vehicle and

described the condition of the doors:

*3 The front driver door, the exterior handle was broken but the door can be opened

from the exterior by putting my hand in the hole and searching for and pulling, and I

actually had to have one of our garage employees show me how to do it. I couldn't get

the door open myself but I was able to pull on a mechanism inside there and open the

door. And the interior handle on the driver door is broken, but it can be opened by

pulling forward on a little piece that was still there, and I had to pull forward to open that.

As for the front passenger door, she said that f'Jthe exterior handle is missing, there's a

hole in this area. I pulled on a bar in the hole and it locked and unlocked all the doors, but

the door would not open for me." She added that the interior handle of the front passenger

door was broken off as well, and she could not open this door from the inside. The exterior

handle of the back driver door worked "properly.” but the interior handle was missing and

she could not open the door from the inside. She said that the defendant's cell phone was

in the trunk of the vehicle.

Jan Null testified that he was a meteorologist in Saratoga, California, and since 2001, he

had been studying when outside temperatures were between 72 and 96 degrees. He

described the effect of the sun's heating the interior of a vehicle:

A car basically acts as a greenhouse. The sun's energy comes in what is shortwave

energy, very high energy. It doesn't heat up the air very much but heats up objects

inside a vehicle. It's not uncommon for seats and dashboards to be 200 degrees. That

in turn gives off heat that warms the air inside of a car, the same sort of radiant heat you

would have from that... little glowing heater you have under your desk for those cold'

window [sic] mornings. That's heating up the car. Well, a car is a closed area and so

that heat continues to rise, and it actually heats up very rapidly. In the first 10 minutes a

car heats up about 19 degrees above whatever the outside air temperature. After a half

an hour it’s 34 degrees above whatever the outside air temperature is, and in an hour

it's 40 degrees plus above whatever the outside air temperature is.

Mr. Null added that, at about one hour, the interior temperature of a vehicle reached a

plateau of about 45 degrees more than the outside temperature. He had reviewed

temperature records, and the June 28 temperature at the Cleveland water treatment plant

was 101 degrees. He explained how the interior temperature of a car would rise as the

outside became warmer:

It would have heated up to. let's say what that 85 degree temperature, during that first

hour it would have gotten to 125 or so, and then gradually as the day warmed up, as the

day warmed from that 85 to 101 the temperature inside the car, again that plateau

would have been reached and it would have stayed up at that range.

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Mr Null said leaving the windows of a vehicle partly open made little difference of the

interior vehicle: "It mattered very little as far as windows being cracked. I have looked at a

number of days where they were cracked and it made a difference of about (wo or three

degrees on the extreme end of the temperatures."

Dr. Steven Cogswell testified that he was the deputy chief medical examiner at the

Regional Forensic Center in Knoxville. He described the effect on the human body as its

temperature rises.

Well, at a 109 degrees he will be comatose and probably die. Above a 108 we start

seeing brain damage, irreversible brain damage. Above 104 we start seeing reversible

kind of changes, the ones that I've already gone over. But when you gel to about,

roughly a 105 or 106 or so coma starts setting in because you are simply unable to

maintain conscientiousness [sic]. Your brain is not getting enough blood. What blood it

is getting doesn't have much oxygen, you are not moving it very well, and basically your

body begins this process of shutting down. Ultimately that leads to death. At a 109

degree core temperature though you would be expected to be in [a] coma if not death

(sic] by that point.

• •4-State-v..J>latasjhaJ^oses-BatesTJ4o.-E2O.U-00Z25.CCA-R3'C.DTJ>n.i-5-Wi^.i6O'rns7, at

.

*1-4 (Tenn. Crim. App. at Knoxville, Apr. 7. 2015), perm, app. denied (Tenn. Aug. 13, 2015).

In addition to the evidence described above, our review of the trial transcript shows that

Patrick Vasterling of the Department of Children's Services (DCS) testified that on June 28.

2012, he spoke with the Petitioner at SkyRidge Hospital, that she consented to a urine test,

and that a ten-panel drug screen of her urine was positive for methamphetamine.

Investigator Scoggins testified that during a search of the Petitioner's home on July 13.

2012. officers found items used to manufacture methamphetamine in the Petitioner's garage

and in a dumpster near the garage. Lieutenant John Stone of the Bradley County Sheriffs

Department's Narcotics Unit testified that he was familiar with the "one pot method* for

manufacturing methamphetamine and that items found in the Petitioner's home and

dumpster were consistent with the production and use of methamphetamine.

Detective Heath Arthur of the Bradley County Sheriffs Department testified that he had

worked on at least 200 cases involving methamphetamine laboratories, that he was familiar

with the "one pot method* for cooking methamphetamine, and that he helped execute the

search warrant for the Petitioner's home on July 13. During the search, officers found plastic

"shaker" bottles. Detective Arthur said that although the fluid in a shaker bottle could “eat

through" the bottle in two to three weeks, he did not see any signs of bottle deterioration in

this case. On cross-examination. Detective Arthur testified that the rate of deterioration

depended on the consistency of the contents in the bottle and that "I'm [no] expert on it. I'm

going by what was stated to me from a meth cook that I recovered a meth lab from.”

James Michael Derry of the Tennessee Meth and Pharmaceutical Task Force testified that

he was certified to operate an ion scan machine and that the machine could detect

methamphetamine residue on surfaces. He testified as an expert in the operation of the ion

scanner that he "tested [swabs] right on the spot as they were collected* in the Petitioner's

home. The ion scanner detected "a pretty substantial hit* of methamphetamine on a swab

collected from a piece of aluminum foil in the Petitioner's garage.

The Petitioner's mother, aunt, grandmother, and father testified on her behalf. Id, at *4-5.

The Petitioner testified that on the day of the victims' deaths, they were playing outside while

she was cleaning inside her home. She noticed she had not heard them playing for a while,

went outside to check on them, and found them lying in the yard. See id, at *5. The

Petitioner said she kept a marijuana pipe and a methamphetamine pipe in the garage but

denied knowledge of materials for making methamphetamine or providing a place to * 'cook'

methamphetamine. Id, On cross-examination, the Petitioner maintained that she found the

victims ‘[u]p toward the front yard past the Slip and Slide.* She “panicked," put the victims in

her car, and drove them to her father's house.

*5 On August. 29, 2013, a Bradley County Criminal Court Jury convicted the Petitioner as

charged of two counts of first degree felony murder and two counts of aggravated child

neglect, a Class A felony. The jury convicted the Petitioner of four counts of facilitation to

initiate the process to manufacture methamphetamine. a Class C felony, as a lesserinciuded offense of initiating the process to manufacture methamphetamine. The jury

acquitted the Petitioner of the one count of promoting the manufacture of methamphetamine.

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After a sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced the Petitioner to consecutive life

sentences for the felony murder convictions. The court sentenced her to twenty years for

each conviction of aggravated child neglecl and ordered that she serve the sentences

consecutively to each other but concurrently with the life sentences. The court sentenced

her to three years for each facilitation conviction and ordered that she serve the three-year

sentences concurrently with all counts.

On appeal of her convictions to this court, the Petitioner claimed that the evidence was

insufficient to support the convictions, that the trial court erred by not severing the charges of

initiating the process to manufacture methamphetamine from the remaining charges, and

that the trial court erred by ordering consecutive sentencing. Id at *1. This court found that

the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions but that the trial court erred by not

severing the drug offenses from the murder and aggravated child neglect offenses. Id This

court reversed the four convictions of facilitation to initiate the process to manufacture

methamphetamine and remanded the case to the trial court for a new trial as to those

counts, id This court affirmed the convictions of felony murder and aggravated child neglect

and the sentences for those convictions, including consecutive sentencing for the murder

convictions. Jd On remand, the State chose not to retry the Petitioner for the drug offenses

andclisrnissed the charges.

After our supreme court denied the Petitioner's application for permission to appeal, she filed

a timely pro se petition for post-conviction relief, alleging, in pertinent part, that she received

the ineffective assistance of trial counsel. The post-conviction court appointed counsel for

the Petitioner, and post-conviction counsel filed an amended petition. Relevant to this

appeal, posl-conviction counsel alleged that (1) the July 13 search of the Petitioner's home

was illegal because the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant did not establish probable

cause; (2) the temperature experiments conducted on the Petitioner's car exceeded the

scope of the July 3 search warrant for the car and, therefore, violated the Petitioner's Fourth

Amendment rights; and (3) she received the ineffective assistance of trial counsel.

Regarding the latter claim, the Petitioner alleged that trial counsel was ineffective because

he should have filed motions to suppress evidence seized pursuant to the illegal searches of

her home and car; failed to pursue pretrial motions in limine related to evidence obtained

from the ion scanner and her urine test; failed to object to the testimony of Investigator

Scoggins. Agent Carlisle, Lieutenant Stone. Detective Arthur, James Derry, and Patrick

Vasterling; and questioned her in such a manner on direct examination as to suggest to the

jury that he did not think she was a credible witness.

Relevant to this appeal, attorney Robin Flores testified at the post-conviction evidentiary

hearing that he had been practicing law since 2000 and that he was licensed in Tennessee

and Georgia. His law practice focused on civil rights litigation, criminal defense, and family

law, and he estimated that he had worked on hundreds of criminal cases. He said that he

had tried more than fifteen criminal cases, including five murder cases, but that he had

represented less than six petitioners in post-conviction cases.

*6 Over the State's objection, the post-conviction court allowed Flores to testify as an expert

in criminal defense that he reviewed the Petitioner's trial record and that the State's theory of

the case was that "we had a meth addled mother (who) was more interested in her drug

activity than paying attention to the children." Flores said that trial counsel filed a pretrial

motion in limine to suppress the results of the Petitioner's urine test, which was positive for

both methamphetamine and marijuana, but that trial counsel abandoned the motion. Flores

stated that trial counsel should have challenged the reliability of the urine test because it was

administered by a DCS employee "who did just a test strip that could be read any number of

ways." Moreover, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation already had conducted a blood test

on the Petitioner. Therefore, the urine test "just added" to the State's theory of the case.

Flores testified that trial counsel also filed a pretrial Daubert motion regarding the evidence

obtained from the ion scanner but failed to pursue the motion. He said that the results of the

ion scan supported the State's theory that methamphetamine was manufactured in the

Petitioner's home and that trial counsel had no reason to abandon the motion. Trial counsel

filed a similar pretrial motion regarding the temperature study on the Petitioner's car. Flores

said trial counsel never argued the motion, which "would have hit the heart of the State's

case, as far as the mechanism of death."

Flores testified that he reviewed the search warrants for the Petitioner's car and home. He

described the Petitioner's car as "the weapon" and “the instrumentality of death." He noted

that this courts direct appeal opinion referred to the temperature study as an “experiment."

Flores said the search warrant for the car did not authorize an experiment on the vehicle or

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the movement ot the vehicle back to the Petitioner's home for the experiment. Therefore,

trial counsel should have filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained trom the

experiment. Regarding the search warrant for the Petitioner's home, the affidavit in support

of the warrant contained information from informants who claimed to have seen the

Petitioner using drugs in her residence. However, the information was "stale" because the

incidents reported by the informants occurred almost two weeks before the affidavit was

presented to obtain the warrant. Moreover, because the informants used the drugs with the

Petitioner, they were part of the "criminal milieu." and the affidavit should have satisfied the

Jacumin and Aguilar-Spinelii standards for establishing their credibility and reliability.

Flores testified that he reviewed James D.erry's trial testimony about the ion scanner and that

trial counsel made “little, if any’ challenge to Derry's qualifications to testify about the results

obtained from the scanner. Flores said that a challenge to Derry's qualifications would have

been appropriate because Derry's testimony “put to a Jury that there was this ongoing

methamphetamine production going [on in] the residence." Trial counsel should have

objected to Derry's testimony about the ion scan and pursued the motion in limine he filed

regarding the evidence obtained from the scan.

Flores testified that trial counsel should have challenged Patrick Vasterling's qualifications to

a'gmirretBrnre'PSIiliBWs'uTmg'teslTng'ffiv^s'tigator SCo59iris'TuSnnc^onsT6''cohcltiHTTie"' .........

temperature experiment on the Petitioner's car and report the experiment's results.

Furthermore, although Investigator Scoggins testified that he did not work in narcotics, he

was allowed to testify about the importance of Coleman fuel and Drano in the process of

manufacturing methamRhetamine. Flores said Agent Carlisle also was allowed to testify “in

fields of expertise” in which she was not qualified. Specifically, Agent Carlisle testified that a

person “crashing" after being "high’ on methamphetamine would be sleepy. Flores said

Agent Carlisle's testimony was important to the State's theory that the Petitioner was “a meth

mom."

*7 Flores stated that Lieutenant Stone testified “very broadly in generalities about things that

he didn't observe at the scene." Lieutenant Stone also gave a “broad" opinion as to how

methamphetamine laboratories were created and how people participated in the

laboratories. Lieutenant Stone's testimony was prejudicial to the Petitioner because "again, it

piled on the State's case that this is a meth mom." Moreover, at sentencing, the trial court

used the repetitious trial testimony about a methamphetamine laboratory being in the home

to find that the victims were living in “horrible conditions.' Detective Arthur testified al trial

that he obtained his information from a "meth cook." However, trial counsel did not challenge

Detective Arthur's hearsay testimony. Flores said Detective Arthur's trial testimony was •

prejudicial because it was "a piling on ... about meth labs in general."

Finally. Flores testified that he reviewed trial counsel's direct examination of the Petitioner

and that it looks almost as if he was challenging his own witness." Flores said trial counsel

appeared to be the Petitioner's adversary rather than her advocate, which “signalled)’ to the

jury that it should not believe the Petitioner. Flores said that in his opinion, the Petitioner

received the ineffective assistance of trial counsel.

On cross-examination, Flores testified that this was his first time testifying as a criminal

defense expert in a post-conviction case and that he was not being paid for his testimony.

He acknowledged that he represented a defendant named Jason Rogers and that the trial

court later found him to have rendered the ineffective assistance of counsel in Rogers's

case.

Flores testified that he spent about six hours reviewing the Petitioner's trial record. He did

not interview any witnesses who testified at trial, did not review any discovery filed in the

case, and did not interview trial counsel. Regarding the search warrant for the Petitioner's

home, Flores acknowledged that Jacumin was later overturned and that the new standard

was “bad" for defendants. He said, though, that Jacumin was in effect when the affidavit to

obtain the search warrant for the Petitioner's home was submitted. He acknowledged that

trial counsel never challenged the legality of the search warrant in this case and that, if

addressed by the post-conviction court, the post-conviction court would have to look at the

legality of the warrant under the new standard.

Regarding the temperature experiment conducted on the Petitioner's car. Flores testified that

"[tjhere was a reference to [the experiment] toward the end of the affidavit" in support of the

search warrant but that the search warrant itself did not authorize any experiment or test on

the vehicle. The search warrant also did not authorize any movement of the vehicle.

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Flores acknowledged that defense counsel cross-examined the State's witnesses and filed a

motion for a hill of particulars, which was denied by the trial court. Trial counsel also filed a

motion to sever the offenses and raised the issue on appeal, and this court agreed with trial

counsel.

On redirect examination. Flores testified that even though trial counsel cross-examined the

State's witnesses, suppression of the evidence would have been the best trial strategy so

that the jury did not hear about the evidence. Flores said that in his opinion, trial counsel's

failure to pursue the motion in limine regarding the ion scanner was not a legitimate trial

strategy. He noted that trial counsel alleged in the Petitioner's motion for new trial that the

trial court erred by allowing the State to introduce the ion scanner results into evidence. He

also noted that during the hearing on the motion for new trial, the trial court said it waited for

trial counsel to object to the ion scan evidence during the trial but that counsel never did so.

Flores stated. "That tells me that the trial Court would have granted that [motion)."

'8 The Petitioner testified that trial counsel never talked with her about filing motions to

suppress the searches of her home or car and never talked with her about the motions in

limine he filed regarding her urine test and the ion scanner. The Petitioner and trial counsel

talked “a little bit” about her trial testimony. However, trial counsel never told her that he was

ivTcl

counsel asked if the Petitioner was comfortable with trial counsel's questions to her during

direct examination, and she said no.

On cross-examination, the Petitioner acknowledged that trial counsel talked with her about

how difficult the State's cross-examination was going to be. She also acknowledged that trial

counsel talked with her about preparing for the State's cross-examination and that trial

counsel told her the jury ‘needed to hear everything from her.' The Petitioner said, though,

that she did not know trial counsel was going to “jump all over [her]" on direct examination.

The Petitioner acknowledged that she and trial counsel discussed the ion scanner and that

he gave her discovery materials.

Trial counsel testified that he became licensed to practice law in 1989 and that he had been

working for the public defender's office since that time. He said he had served as lead

counsel in ten to twelve murder cases and had assisted other attorneys in an additional

twelve murder cases. The public defender's office was appointed to represent the Petitioner,

and trial counsel served as lead counsel. A second attorney served as assistant counsel and

met with the Petitioner in jail "almost on a weekly basis." Trial counsel also met with her but

not as often as assistant counsel.

Trial counsel testified that he considered the Petitioner's case to be a "major" case. When

trial counsel began representing the Petitioner, the State's investigation was ongoing. The

State provided open file discovery to trial counsel, and trial counsel reviewed discovery as

the investigation continued. He said that he filed a motion for a bill of particulars and a

motion to sever the drug offenses and that the motion to sever "in some ways acted as a

suppression motion. During the hearing on the motion to sever, trial counsel raised the

issue of stale information and access others had to the dumpster, which was part of his

strategy. However, the trial court denied the motion.

Trial counsel testified that as part of his investigation, he went to the Petitioner's home. He

also met with her mother, grandmother, and aunt to find out what they knew about the case.

Trial counsel said that his trial strategy was to mitigate the State's evidence as much as he

could. For example, trial counsel presented proof that the Petitioner's mother owned the

Petitioner s mobile home and garage. The Petitioner had lived there only a short time before

the victims died, and other people had access to the property.

Trial counsel testified that he reviewed the search warrants for the Petitioner's car and

home. Regarding the search warrant for the car. which was executed on July 3, 2012. trial

counsel did not think there was a basis for a motion to suppress based upon a lack of

probable cause. Trial counsel also did not consider the temperature study inside the car to

be an "experiment" or scientific evidence. During the study, police officers photographed the

car and recorded the temperature by the hour. Trial counsel said he did not think that the

sheriffs department needed a separate search warrant simply to monitor the temperature

inside the car or that monitoring the temperature violated the Fourth Amendment. Regarding

the search warrant for the home, which was executed on July 13. 2012, trial counsel said

that the affidavit and search warrant were "kind of a typical boiler plate search warrant and

affidavit that you see" and that he did not think a motion to suppress would have been

successful. The search warrant for the home was executed about ten days after the victims

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died and was obtained based on information provided by 'some associates' of the

Petitioner. The associates corroborated each other, and trial counsel did not think their

information was stale.

’9 Trial counsel testified that assistant counsel talked with James Derry before trial about

Derry's qualifications to use the ion scanner. At trial, trial counsel did not object to Derry's

testifying as an expert. Trial counsel had "very limited knowledge" about ion scanners but

• knew data collected from them 'wasn't exactly cutting edge" and had been admitted into

evidence in federal cases. He said he thought the ion scan met the Daubed test and that he

did not object to Derry's testimony about the scan results. Even though one of Derry's

samples was positive for methamphetamine. trial counsel knew from his research that

methamphetamine particles "remain months, even years later.” Therefore, trial counsel

thought he could show during Derry's cross-examination that the methamphetamine residue

could have been in the Petitioner's home for months or years before she lived there.

Regardless, even if the jury had not heard Derry testify about the ion scan results, the jury

would have heard that police officers found evidence of a methamphetamine laboratory in

garbage in her home and dumpster. Methamphetamine also was in the Petitioner's blood,

and trial counsel "didn't see any way around the admissibility of that blood test result.”

___ Accordingly, "meth was gonna be a part of the case." That said, trial counsel "tried to remove

[the Petitioner] as far as [he) could from any active manufacture of methamphetamine" and

show through his cross-examination of the State's witnesses that the Petitioner used

methamphetamine but was not actively involved in manufacturing methamphetamine.

Trial counsel testified that the Petitioner consented to her urine test, which was positive for

methamphetamine and marijuana. The Petitioner also consented to a blood test, which

showed methamphetamine in her system. Trial counsel filed a motion in limine to exclude

the urine test, but he did not know of a way to keep the blood test from the jury. Therefore,

he entered into an agreement with the State in which the State agreed not to reveal to the

jury that the Petitioner's urine was positive for both methamphetamine and marijuana. At

trial. Patrick Vasterling testified for the State that the Petitioner's urine was positive for

methamphetamine. However, he did not testify that her urine was positive for marijuana.

Trial counsel acknowledged that he did not object to Agent Carlisle's qualifications or her

direct testimony that crashing after a high on methamphetamine would make a person

sleepy. During her cross-examination, though, trial counsel pointed out to the jury that the

amount of methamphetamine in the Petitioner's system was low. Trial counsel also crossexamined Agent Carlisle “quite a bit" to show that the Petitioner was not using

methamphetamine at the time of the victims' deaths. Similarly, trial counsel cross-examined

Investigator Scoggins about the Petitioners demeanor at the hospital, and Investigator

Scoggins testified that he did not think the Petitioner was under the influence of

methamphetamine. Trial counsel said that although Investigator Scoggins was not an expert

on the manufacture of methamphetamine, other officers who testified for the State could

have qualified as experts. Therefore, even if trial counsel had objected to Investigator

Scoggins's testimony about manufacturing methamphetamine, the State had “other

ammunition." Regarding Detective Arthur, trial counsel did not try to exclude his testimony

about finding items used to manufacture methamphetamine in the Petitioner's home.

Nevertheless, trial counsel thought he could do a "good job’ of mitigating Detective Arthur's '

testimony by showing that the Slate could not link the manufacture of methamphetamine to

the Petitioner at the time of the victims' deaths. Trial counsel argued to the jury that the items

did not belong to the Petitioner and could have been in the home for a month before the

victims died.

Trial counsel testified that the Petitioner was going to claim at trial that she found the victims

in the yard. However, the evidence did not support her claim. Trial counsel said that he and

the Petitioner had "numerous conversations about her version of the events," that he was

concerned her version could not be corroborated by the evidence, and that he "thought there

was gonna be serious consequences" if the jury thought she was lying. Regarding the tone

and adversarial nature of his direct examination of the Petilioner. he stated,

[Mjaybe I was too hard on her. I thought I needed to be able to get her to

show some real emotion, and I thought, maybe she would have a different

version in front of the Jury as to what happened. I know what she told me. I

know what I anticipated her testimony to be. But I was concerned [that] the

testimony was gonna be I found them in the yard.

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*10 On cross-examination, trial counsel testified that he filed a motion to sever the drug

offenses and 'won ' that issue on appeal. Trial counsel argued to.this court that the.

seveiance error entitled the Petitioner to a new trial on all of the charges, not just the drug

charges, but this court ordered a new trial only on the drug charges. Trial counsel reviewed

the search warrants for the Petitioner's car and home and determined that motions to

suppress would not be successful. Therefore, his strategy was to focus on the short amount

of time the Petitioner was in the home and access to the home by other people. Regarding

the affidavit for the search of the home, the information given to the police by the Petitioner's

associates predated the victims' deaths by just a couple of days. Accordingly, the

information was not stale. In addition, the associates were not "criminal informants." Trial

counsel acknowledged that the police applied for the search warrant fourteen days after the

victims died. Trial counsel maintained that he thought he could mitigate the evidence found

during the search of the home because the Petitioner had lived there just a couple of weeks.

Trial counsel noted that the affidavit in support of the search warrant for the home requested

to use an ion scanner during the search. Although trial counsel filed a motion in limine to

exclude the ion scan results, he found cases in which ion scan results had been admitted

into evidence. During a pretrial hearing, the trial court stated that it would determine the

. admissibility of the results during the trial. Thai counsel never raised the issue at trial but

raised the issue in his motion for new trial. At the hearing on the motion for new trial, the trial

court considered the issue waived. Trial counsel explained, "[M)y thinking, right or wrong, my

tactic was to mitigate her involvement with [the manufacture of methamphetamine] because

she hadn't lived there for a long period of time." He acknowledged, though, that if the trial

court had granted his motion in limine, it would have affected the State's ability to prove the

manufacture of methamphetamine in the residence.

Regarding the search warrant for the Petitioner's car, trial counsel testified that he was not

aware of United. States v,Jones. 565 U.S. '100 (2012), He said he thought probable cause

existed to issue the search warrant because the State had evidence the victims died of heat

exhaustion in the car. Therefore, the car was the instrumentality of the crime, and the police

could return the car to the crime scene to conduct the temperature study. Trial counsel

stated that although the movement of the car and the temperature study were not mentioned

in the search warrant, he did not think the police were required to obtain a warrant "to simply

do [a] heat study on the inside of the vehicle, that they already, lawfully had in their

possession." He then stated, "There was no search." Regardless, even if a motion to

suppress the temperature study had been successful, nothing precluded the State from

obtaining a new search warrant and conducting the temperature study again. Trial counsel

acknowledged that Jan Null testified as an expert for the State based on the temperature

study but said that “we all know [without Null's testimony] cars heat up during the day if

they're left out in the sun." He acknowledged that the temperature study helped the State's

case.

Trial counsel acknowledged that during Investigator Scoggins' trial testimony. Investigator

Scoggins told the State that he was not qualified to testify about the manufacture of

methamphetamine. Nevertheless, the State continued to examine him about the subject.

Trial counsel said he did not object to Investigator Scoggins's continued testimony about the

manufacture of methamphetamine because his trial strategy was to show that the State

could not prove the Petitioner was involved in manufacturing the drug when the victims died.

In any event, even if trial counsel had successfully excluded Investigator Scoggins's

testimony, the State had other witnesses who could testify about methamphetamine

production. Trial counsel also did not object to Detective Arthur's testimony from a "meth

cook. Trial counsel reiterated that his trial strategy was to mitigate the State's proof and said

that he not object to Detective Arthur's testimony because he thought the evidence “was

coming in anyway." Trial counsel acknowledged that he allowed Agent Carlisle to testify

about the effects of methamphetamine on a person's body and that he should have objected

to her testimony.

*f 1 Regarding trial counsel's direct examination of the Petitioner, trial counsel explained as

follows:

I don't remember ever accusing her of being a liar. I'm asking her difficult questions about

inconsistencies in her statements, and what I believe to be inconsistencies with the crime

scene.... The same questions a Jury was gonna have. I absolutely thought the Jury was

gonna have some serious questions about the condition of that house, that that could

affect their decision on this, the bad conditions of the house. I couldn't - I couldn't -

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you've talked about me ignoring evidence and not filing motions I wasn't gonna ignore

that. She had to explain it. I confronted her with it. I thought she answered it fine.

in the beginning of the direct i thought she showed some good emotion, real emotion, a

mother who had lost two children That was my tactic, to get heartfelt emotion from her. I

thought that was important in this case. These were two small children. She was the

mother. They died in her care.

In a written order, the post-conviction court denied the petition for post-conviction relief. The

court found Robin Flores and trial counsel to be credible witnesses. The trial court also

found the Petitioner credible but stated that "her ability to remember was poor and her

testimony lacked specificity." Turning to the issues raised, the post-conviction court found

that trial counsel "probably" should have filed a motion to suppress the melhamphetamine

and ion scanner evidence obtained pursuant to the July 13 search warrant for the

Petitioner's home. The trial court noted that while trial counsel's strategy was to "distance"

the Petitioner from the State's evidence, the better strategy would have been for the jury not

to have heard about the methamphetamine and ion scanner evidence at all. The court

found, though, that even if trial counsel had filed a motion lo suppress and the trial court had

granted the motion, the jury still would have heard about other “meth-related" evidence, such

‘2sHhe"Pe'lfli0TO7'S"br063‘IeSt ariaTSxTmessages fri'irgrcelfulaTfelSpIioneTfiat' nnkecTher to

drug use. Thus, the court found that the Petitioner failed to demonstrate prejudice.

The post-conviction court also found that trial counsel "probably" should have filed a motion

to suppress the temperature study conducted on the Petitioner's car because the study was

outside the scope of the July 3 search warrant. That said, the post-conviction court found

that the temperature study was “an observation over time." not a "search," and, therefore,

that a search warrant for the temperature study was not required. The court found that two

cases relied on by the Petitioner. United States v Jones. 555 U.S. 400 (2012). and State v,

Meeks, 876 S.W. 121 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1993), were "readily distinguishable from the

observations or measurements made on an item of evidence in police custody."

Finally, the post-conviction court addressed the Petitioner's claim that trial counsel was

ineffective during his direct examination of her at trial. The court found that trial counsel's"

'accusatorial' ” style of questioning the Petitioner "[fell] under the umbrella of 'trial tactics'

made in the heat of battle." Thus, the post-conviction court denied the Petition for piostconviction relief.

II. Analysis

‘12 On appeal, the Petitioner contends that the post-conviction court should have granted

her post-conviction relief on her "stand alone" claims that the searches of her car and home

violated her Fourth Amendment rights. Regarding the search of her car, she asserts that the

movement of the car from the sheriffs department back to her residence and the subsequent

temperature study exceeded the scope of the search warrant. Regarding the search of her

home, she argues that the affidavit in support of the search warrant did not establish that

items related to the manufacture of methamphetamine would be present in her home on the

date of the search. The Petitioner also contends that she received the ineffective assistance

of counsel. Specifically, she contends that trial counsel was ineffective because he failed to

file motions to suppress the evidence found during the searches of her home and car; failed

to pursue motions in limine regarding the ion scan and urine test; failed to object to the

testimony of Investigator Scoggins, Detective Arthur, Agent Carlisle, James Derry, and

Patrick Vasterling; and questioned her so harshly that he suggested to the jury she was

lying. The State argues that the post-conviction court properly denied the petition for post­

conviction relief. We agree with the State.

Initially, we note that the State argues for the first time in a footnote of its brief that the

Petitioner s stand-alone claims regarding the searches of her car and home are not properly

before this court because she could have raised them at trial. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-30106(g). The Petitioner responds that the State has waived this defense because the State

failed to raise it in the State's written response to the petition for post-conviction relief or at

the evidentiary hearing. See State v. Walsh. 166 S.W.3d 641. 646 (Tenn. 2005) (concluding

that because Slate did not assert the defense of waiver at the post-conviction hearing, “the

State's waiver argument has itself been waived"). Flowever, “when suppression of evidence

seized pursuant to a search warrant is advocated, the burden is upon the accused to prove

by a preponderance of the evidence ... the existence of a constitutional or statutory defect in

the search warrant or the search conducted pursuant to the warrant. State v. Flenning. 975

S.W.2d 290, 298 (Tenn. 1998). The Petitioner did not present any testimony at the

evidentiary hearing regarding the affidavits filed in support of the search warrants or the

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legality of the warrants. Although Robin Flores testified about the affidavits and search

warrants, he did so in the context of ineffective assistance of counsel. Moreover, the postconviclion court did not address the search warrants as indepencieni claims for relief but

instead considered them solely as grounds for ineffective assistance of counsel. The

Petitioner does not assert that we should remand the case lo the post-conviction court and

direct that court to rule on his stand-alone claims regarding the search warrants. Thus, like

the post-conviction court, we will address those claims only within the context of ineffective

assistance of counsel.

'

To be successful in a claim for post-conviction relief, a petitioner must prove the factual

allegations contained in the post-conviction petition by clear and convincing evidence. See

lenn. Code Ann. § 4 0-30-110(0." 'Clear and convincing evidence means evidence in which

there is no serious or substantial doubt about the correctness of the conclusions drawn from

the evidence.’ ’ State v. Holder. 15 S.W.3d 905. 911 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1999) (quoting

Hodges v. S.C. Toof & Co.. 833 S.W.2d 896, 90'1 n.3 (Tenn. 1992)). Issues regarding the

credibility of witnesses, the weight and value to be accorded their testimony, and the factual

questions raised by the evidence adduced at trial are to be resolved by the post-conviction

court as the trier of fact. See Henley v. State. 960 S. W.2d 572. 579 (Tenn. 1997). Therefore,

the post-conviction court's findings of fact are emitted lo substantial deference on appeal__

unless the evidence preponderates against those findings. See Fields v. State. 40 S.W3d

450, 458 (Tenn. 2001).

.-l. _

A claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is a mixed question of law and fact. See State v.

Bums. 6 S.W.3d 453, 461 (Tenn. 1999). We will review the post-conviction court's findings of

fact de novo with a presumption that those findings are correct. See Fjejds. 40 S.W,3d at

458. However, we will review the post-conviction court's conclusions of law purely de novo.

id.

'13 When a petitioner seeks post-conviction relief on the basis of ineffective assistance of

counsel, ‘the petitioner bears the burden of proving both that counsel’s performance was

deficient and that the deficiency prejudiced the defense." Goad v. State. 938 S.W.2d 363,

369 (Tenn. 1996) (citing Strickland v. Washington. 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984)). To establish

deficient performance, the petitioner must show that counsel's performance was below "the

range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases." Baxter v. Rose. 523 S.W.2d

930, 936 (Tenn. 1975). To establish prejudice, the petitioner must show that "there is a

reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the

proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to

undermine confidence in the outcome.” Strickland. 466 U.S. at 694. Further.

[bjecause a petitioner must establish both prongs of the test, a failure to

prove either deficiency or prejudice provides a sufficient basis to deny relief

on the ineffective assistance claim. Indeed, a court need not address the

components in any particular order or even address-both if the [petitioner]

makes an insufficient showing of one component.

Goad, 938 S.W.2d at 370 (citing Strickland. 466 U.S. at 697).

A. Car Search Warrant

The Petitioner claims that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to file a motion to suppress

the temperature study conducted on her car because the movement of the car from the

sheriffs department to her residence and the temperature study exceeded the scope of the

warrant. The State argues that counsel was not ineffective for failing to file a motion to

suppress. We agree with the State.

On July 2, 2012, Detective Kevin White of the Bradley County Sheriffs Department

submitted an affidavit in support of a search warrant for the Petitioner's car. The affidavit

stated that the car was being stored at the sheriffs department and that probable cause

existed to believe the car "will contain evidence, contraband, fruits, instrumentalities or other

items criminally possessed or tends to demonstrate that said person(s) participated in the

commission of violations of [Tennessee Code Annotated section) 39-15-402 Aggravated

Child Abuse and Child Neglect or Endangerment." The affidavit then listed eight paragraphs

in support of probable cause. The eighth paragraph addressed the proposed temperature

study and stated as follows:

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A consent search was conducted on the vehicle to be searched on B-29-12.

At the time of this search several facts were not known. Items that would

show the whereabouts of [the Petitioner) such as paperwork, receipts ana

other documents were not examined because of the information provided at

that time. Additionally, temperatures inside of the automobile were not

recorded due to the information at the time being provided by the mother [the

Petitioner). Now that it is known the children likely died in a confined space,

this automobile needs to be examined for conditions and temperatures as

well as any item that would show the whereabouts of [the Petitioner], For the

purposes of the examination of the conditions inside the vehicle during

heated conditions, the vehicle will need to be transported back to the

residence where the incident is alleged to have occurred to create similar

conditions to document the temperature inside of the vehicle

A search warrant was issued on July 2, 2012, and authorized law enforcement "to make a

forthwith search of the 1995 Green Toyota Corolla bearing Tennessee registration A7267Y

owned by [the Petitioner] and all of its contents including any and all electronic devices,

currently being stored at the Bradley County Sheriff's Office]!' Based on the warrant, the

sheriffs department transported the car back to the Petitioner's residence and conducted the

temperature study on July 3. At the post-conviction evidentiary hearing, trial counsel testified

that he did not file a motion to suppress the results of the temperature study because the car

was the instrumentality of the crime; therefore, the police did not need a search warrant to

conduct the study. Trial counsel also stated that he did not think the temperature study

constituted a “search." The post-conviction court found that while trial counsel “probably "

should have filed a motion to suppress, the temperature study was not a search. Thus, the

police did not need a warrant for the temperature study.

‘14 Both the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 7 of

the Tennessee Constitution provide protection for citizens against "unreasonable searches

and seizures.' Generally, absent a few narrowly defined exceptions, a search must be

conducted according to a valid search warrant to be reasonable. See State v. Brown. 294

S.W.3d 553, 561 (Tenn. 2009).

In support of her claim that the movement of the car and subsequent temperature study

constituted a search that exceeded the scope of the search warrant, the Petitioner relies, as

she did at the post-conviction evidentiary hearing, on United States v. Jones. In that case,

law enforcement installed a GPS tracking device on a vehicle and monitored the vehicle's

movements for twenty-eight days. Jones. 565 U.S. at 949. The government later used

evidence obtained from the GPS device to connect the defendant to a cocaine "stash"

house, hi The United States Supreme Court held that the installation and monitoring of the

device constituted a "search” under the Fourth Amendment and. therefore, required a

warrant. As the court explained,

It is important to be clear about what occurred in this case: The Government

physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining information.

We have no doubt that such a physical intrusion would have been considered

a “search' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when it was

adopted.

[d However, we agree with the post-conviction court that Jones is quite distinguishable from

the present case in that the 'information'' obtained in Jones was the defendant's movements

during an ongoing crime.

In this case, R.B. died on June 28, and LB. died on the afternoon of June 29. Investigator

Scoggins testified that on the evening of June 29, the Petitioner told him that she found the

victims in her car. According to Investigator Scoggins' July 2 affidavit in support of the search

warrant, the car was searched pursuant to consent on June 29. Crime Scene Investigator

Monica Datz testified at trial that she “started examining the vehicle for evidence" on the

evening of June 29 and that her examination included testing the car's exterior and interior

door handles. According to her report, the car was later transported to the sheriffs

department's impound lot. Trial counsel testified that the police had probable cause to

believe the victims died of hyperthermia in the car. We note that Robin Flores, the

Petitioner's own expert, repeatedly referred to the car as the "weapon." The post-conviction

court found that the car was in the sheriffs department's custody at the time of the heat

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study, and the evidence does not preponderate against the finding of the post-conviction

court

Law enforcement can seize a vehicle that was the instrumentality of the crime. See State v.

-QiJ LL9.!ci.. c u rt !S _ Re Id. No M1999-00058-CCA-R3-CD. 2000 Wl 502678. at 7 (Term. Crim

App at Nashville. Apr 28, 2000); Slate v. Arthur B. Harbin. Jr. No C.C A. No 60. 1990 Wl.

126* 29. ai 1 Henri. Grirn App. at Jackson. Sept 5. 1990). Moreover, a subsequent

inspection of the vehicle is not an unlawful search. Arthurs Harbin Jr. C.C A. No. 60, 1990

WL 126729, at '1; see People v. Teale. 450 P.2d 564. 570 (Cal. 1969) (stating that "it is

plainly in the realm of police investigation to subject objects that have been properly seizedj.

including automobiles,J to scientific testing and examination"); People v. William Earl Sorrell.

363 N.w.2d 18, 19 (Mich. Ct. App. 1984} (officers, who lawfully seized automobile as an

instrumentality of the crime, could conduct tests on the vehicle); StatejL.Lewjs, 258 N,E.2d

445, 449 (Ohio 1970) (providing that "(sjince the seized car was an instrumentality used in

the crime, the authorities had as much right to examine it as they would to examine a

weapon claimed to have been used in the commission of a crime"). In fact, police officers

‘routinely and properly conduct testing of items taken into evidence.' State v. Shannon A.

NcJlO.dav. No, E2004-02358-CCA-R3-CD, 2006 WL 304685, at ‘7 (Tenn. Crim. App. at

Knoxville. Feb. 8. 2006) (J. Wfeide, concurring). Thus, weconclude that the Petitioner has

failed to show that trial counsel was deficient for failing to file a motion to suppress the

temperature study.

B, Home Search Warrant

*75 The Petitioner claims that trial counsel was ineffective by failing to file a motion to

suppress the methamphetamine and ion scan evidence obtained from the July 13 search of

her home. She contends that the affidavit submitted in support of the search warrant

contained stale information from informants and failed to establish probable cause that

evidence of manufacturing methamphetamine would be found in the residence at the time of

the search. The State argues that the information was not stale and that the affidavit

established probable cause for the search warrant; therefore, a motion to suppress the

evidence would have been unsuccessful. We conclude that trial counsel was deficient but

that the Petitioner has failed to demonstrate prejudice.

On July 13. 2012, Investigator Scoggins submitted an affidavit in support of a search warrant

for the Petitioner's home. The affidavit stated that probable cause existed to believe the

house contained evidence of the Petitioner's drug use and manufacturing methamphetamine

and listed eleven paragraphs as bases for probable cause. The Petitioner takes issue with

the following paragraphs:

h) On Monday July 9. 2012 Mr. Preston Woods was interviewed due to information

received that he was with the mother Tasha Moses Bates the night before the children

died. Mr. Woods told your affiant that he observed Tasha Moses Bates “Geeking" and

using marijuana that night at her home. Mr. Woods also states that both children were

present while he was there. He stated that Tasha Moses then drove him home in her

green Toyota Corolla.

i) On Tuesday July 10, 2012, Terry and Rachel Murphy told [your] affiant that they were at

the home of Tasha Moses two nights before the children died and that Marijuana was

being smoked by all parties present including Tasha Bates. They also stated that at least

one of Ms. Bates children was present.

j) On Wednesday July, 11, 2012, Mr. Robert Keith Taylor told your affiant that on the day

of the children's funeral he was party to a conversation between Scott Rouse and Robert

Edward Hamilton. During this conversation Mr. Hamilton asked Mr. Rouse if had gotten all

of the garbage cleaned up before the police arrived. Mr. Taylor stated that they were

taking about garbage from methamphetamine production which apparently occurred at the

home where the children died and now the subject of this request to search. Additionally,

Mr. Rouse had given a statement to your affiant and Det. Kevin White on July 3, 2012

admitting that he smoked marijuana with Tasha Moses.

k) Now that it is known that drug use and manufacturing likely occurred at the home where

the children died ... and that the mother in charge of their health and welfare may have

been under the influence of drugs or manufacturing drugs while the children were present

your affiant is requesting authorization to search again for this reason. Additionally, a

specific technique known as lonspectrometry used with a device called an lonScan will be

used to test trace amounts of narcotics for drug residue which is normally left on surfaces

where the manufacturing of drugs and use of drugs occur.

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Based on the information contained in the affidavit, a search warrant for the Petitioner's

home was issued and executed on July 13. 2012. During the search, police officers

seai ched a dumpster that was near the home's garage Two plastic bags m the dumpster

contained items used to manufacture methamphetamine and items linking the Petitioner to

the bags. Specifically, one of the bags contained a civil warrant issued to the Petitioner, and

the other bag contained a checkbook with the Petitioner's name on it. The police searched

the Petitioner's garage and found additional garbage bags containing items used to

manufacture methamphetamine. One of the bags contained a torn photograph of the

Petitioner, and a second bag contained photographs of a small child who looked like one of

the victims. James Derry's ion scan machine detected methamphetamine on a piece of

aluminum foil found in the garage.

'16 Our supreme court has stated that

(t]he Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires that search warrants

issue only "upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation.' Article l. Section 7 of

the Tennessee Constitution precludes the issuance of warrants except upon "evidence of

the fact committed." Therefore, under both the federal and state constitutions, no warrant

is to be issued except upon probable cause. Probable cause has been defined as a

'

reaBonatste'grotjriB'for^Tispicm’riT'sirppBngrtiy'CifcumstsfTCBS'frrairatitfB'bfsrnnggai'acr''..- ■ •

Penning. 975 S.W.2d at 294 (footnote and citations omitted). "[A] finding of probable cause

supporting issuance of a search warrant must be based upon evidence included in a written

and sworn affidavit." Icf In examining the affidavit, this court's standard of review is limited to

whether the issuing magistrate had ' 'a substantial basis for concluding that a search

warrant would uncover evidence of wrongdoing.'" State.v. Tuttle, 515 S W 3d 282. 299

(Tenn. 2017 (quoting State v. Jacumin. 778 S.W.2d 430. 432 (Tenn. 1989)). We note that1

affidavits must be looked at and read in a commonsense and practical manner', and ... the

finding of probable cause by the issuing magistrate is entitled to great deference.” State v,

Bryan. 769 S.W.2d 208. 211 (Tenn. 1989) (quoting Slate v. Melson. 638 S.W.2d 342, 357

(Tenn. 1982)).

Regarding staleness, our supreme court has explained.

"The time of the occurrence of the facts relied upon by the affiant is ... a prime element in

establishing probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant. If the information

contained in the affidavit is too old. it is considered stale" and will be insufficient to

establish probable cause. W. Mark Ward. Tennessee Criminal Trial Practice. § 4.11

(2016-17 ed.) ...; see also Everett v. State. 184 S.W.2d 43, 45 (1944); Welchance v. State.

114 S.W.2d 781.782 (1938). Nevertheless, there is no hard and fast rule defining

stateness, and “(wjhen the illegal activity described is ongoing, courts have generally held

that (an] affidavit does not become stale with the passage of time.” State v. Thomas. 818

S.W.2d 350, 357 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1991); see also State v. Norris. 47 S.W.3d 457, 47071 (Tenn. Crim. App. 2000); State v. McCarv. 119 S.W.3d 226. 249 (Tenn. Crim. App.

2003).

State v. Tuttle. 515 S.W.3d-282, 301 (Tenn. 2017).

Turning to the instant case, Investigator Scoggins' affidavit included information obtained

regarding the Petitioner's drug use near the time of the victims' deaths, which was just two

weeks prior to the search. Moreover, Investigator Scoggins obtained the information on July

9 through 11, just days before he submitted the affidavit in support of the warrant. Therefore,

■ we conclude that the information was not stale and that the affidavit established probable

cause to believe that the Petitioner was using illegal drugs in her home.

That said, the only basis for believing that the Petitioner was manufacturing

methamphetamine in her home came from the Investigator Scoggins' brief assertion in his

affidavit that Robert Taylor told him on July 11, 2012, that Taylor heard a conversation

between Scott Rouse and Robert Hamilton in which Hamilton asked Rouse if Rouse ‘had

gotten all of the garbage cleaned up before the police arrived." Taylor told Investigator

Scoggins that Rouse and Hamilton were talking about garbage from methamphetamine

production inside the residence. We agree with the Petitioner that the information in the

affidavit did not establish probable cause to believe that evidence of manufacturing

methamphetamine would still be in the home at the time of the search. Therefore, trial

counsel was deficient for failing to file a motion to suppress any evidence related to the

manufacture of methamphetamine, and we turn to whether the Petitioner was prejudiced by

the deficiency.

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‘<7 The State's theory at trial with regard to the felony murder and aggravated child neglect

convictions was that the victims died due to their being trapped in ttie Petitioner's hot car

wnile she was steeping and that she was sleeping due to her use of methamphetamine. On

direct appeal of her convictions to this court, this court summarized the evidence and

explained why it was sufficient to support the convictions:

Investigator Scoggins testified that the defendant changed her explanation several times

as to what the victims had been doing while outside the morning of their deaths. Among

other statements, she first said that they had been playing the yard but later said it was

"possible" they had been under the front porch. When told of the results of the autopsies

of the victims, she said the victims had been beside the motor vehicle but later admitted

she had found the younger victim. R.B.. in the right front passenger seat of the vehicle and

L.B. "partially hanging out of the right rear passenger door." The defendant and other

witnesses, as we have set out. testified that the victims liked to play in the car.

The State presented testimony that the defendant tested positive for methamphetamine

when she was tested shortly after the bodies of the victims had been discovered. This

drug makes the user sleepy. Additionally, the evidence showed that the victims liked to

play in the defendant's car and that on the day of their deaths the temperature was over

......... Too-dBgrees.-TtirststeTsr^wt^tfmwirart^usgOTtnFbWgh'mtew-aodr............

handles, it was difficult, if not impossible, to open the doors from the inside [of] th e car.

Meteorologist Jan Null testified that the temperature inside the vehicle would have been

about 45 degrees higher than the outside temperature, which was 101 degrees on the day

of the victims' deaths. Upon being questioned about the deaths, the defendant gave

conflicting statements as to how long the victims had been unsupervised and where she

had discovered their bodies. Instead of immediately going to a neighbor's to seek help, the

defendant, instead, drove the victims to her father's house, delaying the arrival of

emergency medical personnel. Medical experts testified that the core temperature of the

victims could not have been so high unless they had been in the defendant's car.

From all of this proof, a reasonable jury could have concluded that the defendant was

sleeping, as a result of her use of methamphetamine, while the victims were in the yard

unsupervised, for an unknown period of time. The defendant knew that the victims liked to

play in the car. that the day was hot, and that the car doors could not be opened by the

children from the inside of the vehicle. Further, a reasonable jury could have concluded

that, to mask her responsibility, the defendant gave conflicting versions as to what had

occurred and how she had found the victims. Thus, the evidence is sufficient to sustain

the defendant's convictions for felony murder and aggravated child neglect.

Natasha Moses Bates. No. E2014-00725-CCA-R3-CD. 2015 WL 1593657. at '7. In

addressing whether the trial court erred by failing to sever the drug offenses from the felony

murder and aggravated child neglect offenses, this court noted that “the State presented no

proof that the defendant was inattentive because, as the victims were trapped and dying,

she was facilitating to initiate a process to manufacture methamphetamine or purchasing

ingredients to do so." Id at '9. Thus, we conclude that the Petitioner has failed to show that

trial counsel's failure to file a molion to suppress evidence of manufacturing

methamphetamine would have changed the outcome of her trial.

'18 In a related argument, the Petitioner contends that trial counsel's failure to file a motion

to suppress evidence of manufacturing methamphetamine was highly prejudicial to her at

sentencing because the trial court relied on the evidence to order consecutive sentencing as

a dangerous offender. According to the Petitioner, "the trial court expressed outrage over the

conditions the victims were living in. That conclusion had to come from the photographs

obtained in the July 13. 2012 search. We disagree with the Petitioner. Investigator Monica

Datz testified at trial that on June 28, 2012, she took photographs inside the Petitioner's

home. Investigator Datz testified about the photographs, and the State introduced them into

evidence. We have reviewed the photographs, and they show that the victims were living in

deplorable conditions with piles of debris and trash all over the floor in every room, heavily

stained mattresses with no sheets in the bedrooms, a cluttered kitchen counter with dirty

dishes piled in the kitchen sink and a stovetop with food stains on it. and bathroom sinks

containing dirt and trash. Moreover, this court addressed consecutive sentencing in the

Petitioner's direct appeal of her convictions. Despite this court's finding that the trial court

erred by not severing the drug offenses from the felony murder and aggravated child neglect

offenses, this court upheld consecutive sentencing for the felony murder convictions, stating.

•Because the defendant in the present appeal, at a minimum, demonstrated extreme

callousness toward the health and welfare of the victims, and the results were fatal, the trial

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court, in our view, had 3 reasonable basis for imposing consecutive sentences.' Therefore,

we again conclude that the Petitioner has failed to demonstrate prejudice.

C. Witness Testimony

The Petitioner contends that she received the ineffective assistance of counsel because trial

counsel failed to "object to the testimony of witnesses who clearly were not qualified to

testify about the subject matter they were asked to testify about, some of whom

acknowledged that lack of qualification.' Specifically, the Petitioner contends that

Investigator Scoqqins should not have been allowed to testify about items used in the

manufacture of methamphetamine when he admitted he was not qualified to do so: that

Detective Arthur should not have been allowed, to testify about how to cook

methamphetamine when he admitted he was not qualified to testify about the subject: that

Agent Carlisle, who testified as an expert in toxicology and blood testing, should not have

been allowed to testify about the effects of methamphetamine on the human body; that

James Derry, who was certified to operate the ion scanner, should not have been allowed to

testify about the manufacture of methamphetamine; and that Patrick Vasterling. a social

worker, should not have been allowed to testify about the results of the Petitioner's urine

test. The Petitioner also contends that trial counsel was ineffective during his direct

. examination of her because he accused her of lying. The State argues that counsel was not

ineffective. We agree with the State.

~

~

We have carefully reviewed the testimony of Investigator Scoggins and Detective Arthur.

Investigator Scoggins testified that he was “not as well versed'' in the production of

methamphetamine as some officers, and Detective Arthur testified that he was not an

"expert’ in the manufacture of methamphetamine. However, neither officer said he was not

qualified to testify about the process of manufacturing methamphetamine. In fact. Detective

Arthur testified that he had assisted with the investigation of "at least 200"

methamphetamine laboratories. Therefore, we find no merit to the Petitioner's claim that trial

counsel was ineffective by failing to object to their testimony on the basis that they were not

qualified to testify.

As to Agent Carlisle's testimony, the witness testified as a toxicology expert, and the

Petitioner offered no proof at the evidentiary hearing that Agent Carlisle was not qualified to

testify about the effects of methamphetamine on the human body. Likewise, the Petitioner

offered no proof that James Derry was not qualified to testify about the process to

manufacture methamphetamine. We note that Derry testified at trial that he had worked for

the Tennessee Meth and Pharmaceutical Task Force since 2004. Finally, the Petitioner

offered no proof at the hearing to show that Patrick Vasterling was not qualified to testify

about the urine test. In any event, given that the Petitioner's blood test also showed she had

used methamphetamine. the Petitioner has failed to demonstrate prejudice.

Regarding trial counsel's direct examination of the Petitioner at trial, trial counsel testified

that although he may have been "hard" on the Petitioner, he was trying to get “some real

emotion’ from her. The post-conviction court found that trial counsel's method of questioning

the Petitioner was part of his trial strategy. This court has stated that "[wjlten reviewing trial

counsel s actions, this court should not use the benefit of hindsight to second-guess trial

strategy and criticize counsel's tactics." !rick_yjState, 973 S.W.2d 643, 652 (Tenn. Crim.

App. 1998). In any event, we have reviewed the Petitioner's testimony and see nothing

improper in trial counsel's questioning of the Petitioner. Although trial counsel was

accusatory at times, the Petitioner fails to acknowledge the difficult position in which she put

trial counsel. The Petitioner first told Investigator Scoggins that she found the victims in the

yard but then told him she found the victims in the car. At trial, she testified that she found

the victims in the yard, which totally contradicted the State's proof. Accordingly, we agree

with the post-conviction court that trial counsel was nol ineffective.

III. Conclusion

’19 Based upon the oral arguments, the record, and the parties' briefs, we affirm the

judgment of the post-conviction court.

All Citations

Slip Copy, 2019 WL 211200

End of

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