State of Tennessee v. Alisha Lynn Alsup

In this appeal, the State challenges the trial court’s dismissal of a DUI by impairment charge as an impermissible “broadening and/or substantial amendment” to the original charge of DUI per se. The Defendant, Alisha Lynn Alsup, was initially indicted by the Lawrence County Grand Jury for driving while the alcohol concentration in her blood or breath was 0.08% or more (DUI per se), T.C.A. § 55-10-401(2); driving without her eyeglasses, id. § 55-50-331; and driving with inoperable headlights, id. § 55-9-402. Alsup filed a motion to suppress the results of the field sobriety tests, the blood sample, and the blood test results, and, shortly thereafter, the grand jury issued a superseding indictment, charging her with driving under the influence (DUI by impairment), id. § 55- 10-401(1), in addition to the previously charged offenses. Thereafter, Alsup filed a brief in the trial court asking that the superseding indictment be dismissed. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted the motion to suppress the blood alcohol results and stated that “in light of the . . . suppression of the blood sample in this case, the Court finds it unnecessary to address the dismissal of the superseding indictment in that Count II of said indictment is premised on [Alsup’s] blood alcohol content being 0.08[%] or more.” The trial court then held that the State would only be allowed to proceed on the original indictment, which the court mistakenly believed charged Alsup with DUI by impairment. Thereafter, the trial court entered a second order, the subject of the State’s appeal, correcting some errors in the previous order, reiterating its suppression of the blood test results, dismissing the DUI per se counts in the original and superseding indictments based on the suppression of the blood test results, and dismissing the DUI by impairment charge in the superseding indictment as time-barred after determining thatthis charge was “a broadening and/or substantial amendment” to the DUI per se charge in the original indictment. In response, Alsup argues that the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction by entering the second order amending its first order pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36, that the State failed to timely appeal from the first order entered, and that the trial court properly determined that the DUI by impairment charge was barred by the statute of limitations. Although this was a very close case, we conclude that the DUI by impairment charge in the superseding indictment broadened and substantially amended the charge of DUI per se in the original indictment. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.