State v. Broyles

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. MICHAEL BROYLES

No. E2019-01033-CCA-R3-CD

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE

December 16, 2020 Session

May 27, 2021

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Greene County

No. 17CR503

Alex E. Pearson, Judge

The Defendant, Michael Broyles, was convicted by a Greene County Criminal Court jury of four counts of cruelty to animals, a Class A misdemeanor. See T.C.A. § 39-14-202(a)(2) (2018). The trial court denied judicial diversion and sentenced the Defendant to eleven months, twenty-nine days for each conviction and imposed the sentences concurrently. The court ordered split confinement consisting of ninety days' jail service followed by probation. On appeal, the Defendant contends that (1) the animal cruelty statute under which he was convicted is unconstitutionally vague, (2) the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions, (3) the court erred in denying judicial diversion, (4) the court erred in imposing a sentence involving confinement, and (5) the court erred in imposing fines and restitution without making the appropriate factual findings. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed

ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which NORMA MCGEE OGLE and D. KELLY THOMAS, JR., JJ., joined.

Gregory Eichelman, District Public Defender; Brennan M. Wingerter (on appeal), Assistant Public Defender - Appellate Division; and J. Todd Estep (at trial), Assistant District Public Defender, for the Appellant, Michael Broyles.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Katherine C. Redding, Assistant Attorney General; Dan E. Armstrong, District Attorney General; David Baker, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

The Defendant's convictions relate to four horses belonging to Verland Prather, who had entrusted the Defendant with the horses' care. The Defendant claimed that he maintained a horse rescue operation at which the horses were used as therapy animals for domestic abuse survivors. He kept the horses on leased farm property.

At the trial, Greene County Sheriff's Detective Jimmy Willett testified that he and John Hodges of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture went to a farm on July 31, 2017, in response to a report of possibly abused animals. Detective Willett said that when he arrived, he saw a couple of horses that appeared to be healthy and that he later learned that these horses were not the ones that had been the subject of the report. He said he encountered the Defendant, who met him "in the treeline." Detective Willett said he went through a wooded area to a back field, where he saw a horse lying on the ground. He said the horse was in a one-third to one-half acre fenced area. He later said the fence "appeared to be taken down to where [the] horses was at." He said the horse appeared to be in distress and "was breathing funny." He said a circular area around the horse appeared to be where the horse had "pawed trying to get up." He thought water on the ground near the horse was there from the Defendant's effort to "pour the water down its mouth." Detective Willett said the Defendant stated that a veterinarian had been to see the horse on the previous day. Detective Willett said that the Defendant thought the horse was "wormy" and that the Defendant said he could not get Mr. Prather to obtain worm medicine. Detective Willett said that the Defendant stated he was trying to "get [the horse] better." Detective Willett said the Defendant stated he was trying to feed and water the horse and that a veterinarian had told him to "to try to get it up."

Detective Willett testified that the area around the horse had little vegetation. He said, "All the grass had been eat off." He said buckets of water and grain were present. Referring to a photograph exhibit, he agreed that a portion of the field in the background of the photograph had more vegetation. Detective Willett testified that he took photographs depicting the horses and the area, which were shown to the jury and received as exhibits. Detective Willett described the pasture area as "green till we get to the back field" and said a "little creek" without much water ran through the area. He said the amount of water in the creek "wouldn't have went over the top of [his] shoes." He said the creek was about ten feet from the horse that lay on the ground. He said he walked around the property and did not see other water sources but acknowledged he did not walk the entire property. He said that the horses on the property could roam into an area with grass on July 31, 2017. He said he could see where the horses had "torn down the fence." He said he saw fence posts on the ground which "appeared to have been there recently." A photograph exhibit shows fence posts in a stacked pile. Referring to a photograph, he identified a salt or mineral block.

Detective Willett testified that the Defendant gave Detective Willett a pamphlet about the Defendant's horse rescue services, and the pamphlet was received as an exhibit. The pamphlet advertised horsemanship training services related to improving horse obedience and to the relationship between horse and owner.

Detective Willett testified that on July 31, 2017, the Defendant showed him text messages between the Defendant and the horse's owner, Mr. Prather, in which the Defendant stated that Mr. Prather's horses had been "infested with worms" and had not had their hooves trimmed in five to six months at the time the Defendant received them. Detective Willett also stated that the Defendant showed him a text message in which the Defendant told Mr. Prather that Mr. Prather "had [Mr. Prather's] colt in a stall for four or five months" without exercise, without cleaning the stall, and subsisting on "nothing but oats." Detective Willett stated the Defendant's text messages to Mr. Prather said that Mr. Prather "let [Mr. Prather's] minis go untrimmed for over a year" and that the Defendant had "done nothing but try to fix [Mr. Prather's] abuse and negligence of these horses." Detective Willett acknowledged that he did not subpoena the Defendant's cell phone records to obtain the contents of additional text messages. Detective Willett said the text messages the Defendant showed him were from July 2017 and that he did not see any text messages from earlier months. Detective Willett said the Defendant forwarded to Detective Willett some emails between the Defendant and Mr. Prather.

Detective Willett agreed that the Defendant cried on July 31, 2017, and that the Defendant said he had prayed "for some sort of answer."

Detective Willett testified that he and the Defendant spoke by telephone with Dr. Fuller, the veterinarian the Defendant identified as having been to the farm the previous day. Detective Willett said Dr. Fuller stated he had seen the horse the previous day and that he told the Defendant to "get the horse up with a tractor and get it food and water." Detective Willett said the Defendant stated he "was not able to get access to a tractor." Detective Willett said that Dr. Fuller stated that a corral for the horses had been erected with nylon tape when Dr. Fuller had been at the farm the previous day. Detective Willett said the nylon tape corral was not present on July 31, 2017. Detective Willett said that he asked Dr. Fuller what could be done to help the horse and that Dr. Fuller responded that if the horse could not stand by now, it probably needed to be euthanized. Detective Willett said that Dr. Fuller did not give him instructions about how to euthanize the horse and that Detective Willett shot the horse. Detective Willett said the Defendant did not object.

Detective Willett testified that he knew from the investigation that the Defendant had kept four horses for Mr. Prather. Detective Willett said he and Mr. Hodges saw the horses, other than the one he had to shoot, at Mr. Prather's farm within a couple of days of July 31, 2017. Detective Willett described the three horses at Mr. Prather's farm as"skinny" but said they were standing. Detective Willett said he and Mr. Hodges photographed the horses, and the photographs were received as exhibits.

Detective Willett testified that he spoke with Mr. Prather, Pam Prather, Dr. Fuller, and the Defendant in the course of the investigation. He agreed he did not talk to the owner of the farm where the Defendant kept the horses.

Billy Fuller, D.V.M., testified that he had been to the farm where the Defendant kept Mr. Prather's horses in the spring, a few days after the horses had been transported to the farm, to treat an injured horse. Dr. Fuller said he returned a couple of weeks later to check on the horse's healing. He said the Defendant had done a good job taking care of the horse because the horse was healing well. Dr. Fuller "vaguely" recalled stating at the preliminary hearing that he treated the injured horse on July 1, 2017, and made a visit on July 10 to check on the horse's healing. He said his basis of knowledge for the length of time the horses had been in the Defendant's care was information provided to him by Mr. Prather. Dr. Fuller said the Defendant did not live on the farm.

Dr. Fuller testified that he went to the farm on July 30, 2017, when the Defendant called him about "a down horse." Dr. Fuller said that when he arrived, he found the horse in a back pasture in a "polywire, plastic wire electric fence . . . paddock." He said the horse had access to water in a creek within the fenced area. He said the creek had a small amount of water. He said the fence prevented the horse from getting to the area where other horses were. He said the area where the horse was confined lacked grass and shelter. He said there was no food for the horse. He said that bark had been eaten from the trees and that the ground was bare. He said it appeared the horse had tried to eat weeds. He thought the...