State of Tennessee v. Patricia White and Craig White

A Gibson County jury convicted Patricia White of theft of property valued over $10,000, a Class C felony; the trial court sentenced her to a term of four years, suspended, and fifteen years’ probation. The same jury also convicted Patricia White’s husband, Craig White, of facilitation of theft of property valued over $10,000; the trial court sentenced him to a term of two years suspended, and two years’ probation. As a condition of probation, the trial court held the couple jointly liable for $124,000 in restitution. On appeal the defendants contend that the trial evidence is insufficient to support their convictions. They also contest the amount of restitution they have been ordered to pay. After an exhaustive review of the record, the briefs of the parties, and applicable law, we conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support Patricia White’s conviction, but we are unable to reach the same conclusion for Craig White’s facilitation conviction. Accordingly, we affirm Patricia White’s conviction; the conviction of Craig White is reversed, and the charge is dismissed. Finding that the trial court made inadequate findings in assessing restitution, we further remand that issue for determination based on the required statutory findings. Finally, we take notice that based on three statutory enhancement factors (none of which involved prior criminal history), the trial court set the length of Patricia White’s sentence at one year above the presumptive minimum sentence of three years; pursuant to Blakely v. Washington, ___ U.S. ___, 124 S. Ct. 2531 (2004), we modify her sentence to three years but leave undisturbed the length and terms of her probation.