State v. Dotson

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. MATTHEW THOMAS DOTSON

No. E2019-01614-CCA-R3-CD

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, Knoxville

July 27, 2021

Session March 30, 2021

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Roane County No. 2012-CR-120 Michael S. Pemberton, Judge

Matthew Thomas Dotson ("Defendant") appeals his Roane County convictions for first degree felony murder in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse, first degree felony murder in the perpetration of aggravated child neglect aggravated child abuse, and aggravated child neglect, for which he received an effective sentence of life without parole. Defendant contends that: (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his May 3, 2012, statements to law enforcement; (2) the State improperly elicited testimony from a witness regarding Defendant's prior drug usage and the trial court abused its discretion by denying Defendant's request for a mistrial following such testimony; (3) the trial court abused its discretion by admitting photographs of the victim into evidence; and (4) the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions. Following a thorough review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court but remand for entry of amended judgments reflecting proper merger of offenses as outlined below and for the imposition of sentences in Counts 4 and 5.

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

M Jeffrey Whitt and Richard L. Gaines (on appeal), Knoxville, Tennessee, and A. Philip Lomonaco and Bailey Harned (at trial), Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Matthew Thomas Dotson.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Katherine C. Redding, Assistant Attorney General; Russell Johnson, District Attorney General; and Robert Edwards and Alyson H. Kennedy, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

ROBERT L. HOLLOWAY, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, P.J., and TIMOTHY L. EASTER, J. joined.

OPINION

ROBERT L. HOLLOWAY, JR., JUDGE.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

This appeal arises from the starvation death of two-year-old Clifford W. Dotson ("the victim") in Kingston in May 2012. The Roane County Grand Jury subsequently indicted the victim's parents, Defendant and Amanda Ann Dotson ("Mrs. Dotson"), for first degree premeditated murder, first degree felony murder in the perpetration of aggravated child abuse, first degree felony murder in the perpetration of aggravated child neglect, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated child neglect. Mrs. Dotson entered a guilty plea in connection with the case and then testified against Defendant at his 2019 trial.

Motion to Suppress Defendant's Statements

Prior to trial, Defendant filed a motion to suppress statements he made to detectives on May 3, 2012, and May 7, 2012. At a hearing on the motion, Detective Brian Walker with the Roane County Sheriff's Office (RCSO) testified that, a little after 5:00 a.m. on May 3, 2012, he learned that Detective Arthur Wolff was at the hospital with the deceased victim and that Detective Wolff needed him to respond to a residence on Lerchen Road in Kingston. Detective Walker explained that when he arrived at the scene, he spoke to officers there and learned that Defendant, the deceased child's father, was inside the residence. Detective Walker noted that there was "a small child coming in and out of the residence playing."

Regarding his initial interaction with Defendant, Detective Walker stated:

I asked if I could come in and speak to him. [Defendant] said yes. I noticed there was a large box I think that contained a grill or something sitting on the couch. [Defendant] advised me that I think his mother or mother-inlaw . . . g[a]ve him the grill. I think he asked me to sit down. I sat in one of the chairs. He sat on the couch and I just basically asked him to tell me kind of what was going on and how -- you know, how it had come for me to be there and asked him what had happened that evening of that night.

Detective Walker stated that Defendant was "alert" and "coherent" and that Defendant did not appear to be in a panic.

According to Detective Walker, Defendant said that he had been at his parents' house in Jefferson County and had gotten home late. Defendant said that, when he arrived at the residence, he "looked in" on his two children and Mrs. Dotson and that everyone appeared to be asleep. Defendant got a snack and went to the "computer room" to play video games. Defendant said that, after playing video games for a while, he noticed that he had not heard any noises from the victim's room, so he went to the room to check on the victim, "at which point he discovered that [the victim] didn't appear to be breathing." Defendant told Detective Walker that "everything was kind of a blur" and that he "was kind of in shock" when he found the victim unresponsive. Defendant said that he woke up Mrs. Dotson and that "they had an argument over not feeding the child or not taking care of the child." Defendant stated that Mrs. Dotson took the victim to the hospital and that he stayed at home with their six-year-old son, L.D.^[1]

Defendant told Detective Walker that, about a month before, he noticed that the victim was losing weight. He said that, when he asked Mrs. Dotson about it, she said that "she would take care of it." Defendant said, however, that to his knowledge, Mrs. Dotson had not taken the victim to the doctor. Defendant said:

I asked her how he was doing[, ] and she said that she was working on it. She told me she had been feeding him[, ] and he has been eating [from] a bottle. I saw that there were -- I saw when I got home -- when I would get home that dishes and bottles were dirty so I thought that he had been eating and drinking [from] bottles.

Detective Walker testified that, while inside the residence, he heard the washing machine cycle end and that he asked Defendant "who turned the washer on because from the initial call and the time [Detective Walker] got on the scene it had been a while." Defendant initially said that Mrs. Dotson turned on the washing machine, but when Detective Walker pointed out that too much time had passed since she left for the hospital, Defendant stated that he had turned it on because "he was afraid that if DCS came and saw the dirty linens that the other child may be taken into DCS custody." Defendant told Detective Walker that he had been away from the residence a lot, working odd jobs for family members. Defendant advised that he left the residence in the mornings before anyone woke up and that he got home after everyone was asleep.

Detective Walker testified that he reduced Defendant's statement to writing and that Defendant signed the statement at 7:10 a.m. Defendant also consented to a search of the residence. Detective Walker testified that he photographed the residence and collected "blue/green PJs . . ., [a] white crib cover, a blue blanket, small blue blanket with balls on it. Blue small bed cover with cars on it and . . . orange sweat pants." He also collected "some linens, clothing, that kind of stuff out of the washer[.]" Detective Walker said that he was not sure what Defendant was doing while he was searching the residence. He recalled that Defendant went outside several times to smoke and to check on L.D. Detective Walker said that Defendant's parents were outside the residence as well. Detective Walker recalled that, when he arrived at the residence, there were two or three patrol officers at the scene but that no one from the Department of Children's Services (DCS) was there. Detective Walker testified that he never told Defendant that Defendant could not go outside or leave the residence. He stated, "I think the only restrictions I asked is if he needed to come in the house to not come into the other rooms where I was looking because I was walking around and . . . didn't want basically somebody walking in behind me[.]" Detective Walker recalled that he introduced Defendant to Detective Wolff when Detective Wolff arrived at the residence.

On cross-examination, Detective Walker said that the other two or three officers at the residence were "in and out" while he was speaking to Defendant. Detective Walker said that he learned from Detective Wolff that the victim appeared to be malnourished. Detective Walker stated, however, that he had not known the cause of the victim's death when speaking to Defendant and that his investigation was to determine if a crime had been committed.

Detective Walker denied telling Defendant that he could not go outside and talk to his parents. Detective Walker saw Defendant go outside where Defendant was helping take care of L.D. He further stated, "I don't recall ever telling the patrol officers anything to do with [D]efendant as far as leaving or not leaving or anything like that." Detective Walker denied telling Defendant that he had to stay at the residence to speak to the DCS worker. The following exchange then occurred:

Q. And you knew that [Defendant] had to stay there for DCS to interview him?

A. No, at that point, the only thing I was concerned about was the other child's safety and if he was the father, he could go -- I mean, I didn't have any reason to keep him there at that point.

Q. So you're saying that he could have just got up and walked out and said I'll see you guys later, hopped in his truck?

A. Yeah.

Q. Drove away?

A. Yeah, if he wanted to leave, he was free to go.

Q. Did you tell him that?

A. I don't know that I told him that.

Detective Walker recalled that, when searching the residence, he found a bottle in the crib where Defendant said the victim had been sleeping. Detective Walker noticed that the bottle of milk...