State of Tennessee, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Timothy Michael Wilkerson, Defendant-Appellant

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's determination that Timothy Michael Wilkerson, who drove the wrong way down a divided highway while intoxicated and killed one motorist and seriously injured others, is a 'dangerous offender' under Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-35-115(b)(4). It nevertheless held that proof of dangerous-offender status alone does not justify consecutive sentencing: § 40-35-115 must be applied together with the rest of the Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1989, requiring findings that consecutive terms are necessary to protect the public from further criminal conduct and reasonably relate to the severity of the offenses. Because the trial judge treated the dangerous-offender proof as a sufficient basis for imposing a consecutive four-year vehicular homicide sentence, the case was remanded for resentencing. Review was de novo with a presumption of correctness under § 40-35-401(d), with the burden of showing impropriety on the appellant.