State of Tennessee v. Keena D. Mathes

The defendant was convicted by a jury of reckless aggravated assault, a Class D felony, for cutting the victim's face with a razor blade. The trial court granted her judicial diversion, sentencing her as a Range I, standard offender to two years incarceration, but suspending the sentence and placing her on three years of probation under the supervision of the Department of Correction, including among the conditions that she pay restitution for the victim's medical bills and lost wages. Following extensive testimony as to the defendant's limited financial resources, the trial court ordered as a condition of probation that she legitimate her nine-month-old daughter to ensure that she could meet her financial obligations, including payment of restitution to the victim. In a timely appeal to this court, the defendant raises the sole issue of whether the trial court erred by requiring her to legitimate the younger of her two illegitimate children and seek child support payments for that child. We conclude that the legitimation requirement is a valid condition of probation. However, since a judgment of conviction, although not to be entered following judicial diversion, was entered in this matter, we remand for withdrawal of the judgment, the trial court to then clarify whether the defendant is to be sentenced with the sentence suspended or to be granted judicial diversion.