State v. Saffles

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. RAYMOND BRANDON SAFFLES

No. E2020-01116-CCA-R3-CD

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, Knoxville

September 8, 2021

Session May 26, 2021

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Monroe County No. 19-370 Sandra N. C. Donaghy, Judge

The Defendant, Raymond Brandon Saffles, was charged by criminal information with one count of arson, and he entered a guilty plea to this charge the same day. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-14-301. The trial court, after accepting his plea agreement, sentenced the Defendant to six years suspended this sentence, and then ordered the Defendant to serve 364 days in jail before serving six years on supervised probation. The trial court also ordered that the Defendant have no contact with the victim or her property and that restitution would be determined at a later hearing. Following this hearing, the trial court entered a restitution order requiring the Defendant to pay restitution in the amount of $99, 017.78 with a payment schedule of $50 per month for the length of his probationary sentence, which the trial court determined to be six years. On appeal, the Defendant argues (1) the trial court erred ordering him to pay nearly $100 000 in restitution and to pay $50 per month over the term of his probation; and (2) no amount of restitution is appropriate because his Social Security benefits are exempt from court-ordered collection under 42 U.S.C. § 407(a) and that even if his benefits are not exempt, he does not have the ability to pay any amount toward restitution. We reverse the judgment of the trial court as to restitution and remand this case for entry of a corrected judgment of conviction and probation order and for a new restitution hearing consistent with this opinion.

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

C. Richard Hughes, Jr., District Public Defender; M. Todd Ridley (on appeal) and Tammy Harris-Crayne (at guilty plea and restitution hearing), Assistant Public Defenders, for the Defendant-Appellant, Raymond Brandon Saffles.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Garrett D. Ward, Assistant Attorney General; Stephen D. Crump, District Attorney General; and Clay Collins and Dorothy Cherry, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee.

Camille R. McMullen, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Robert W. Wedemeyer and J. Ross Dyer, JJ., joined.

OPINION

CAMILLE R. MCMULLEN, JUDGE

Guilty Plea Hearing. The Defendant was charged by criminal information with one count of arson on December 11, 2019, and he entered a guilty plea to this charge on the same date. Pursuant to his plea agreement, the Defendant was to receive a sentence of "6 yrs susp[ended] after 364 days in Monroe County Jail," the Defendant was to have no contact with the victim, Belinda Hawkins, or her property, and the Defendant's restitution would "be determined."

At the December 11, 2019 plea submission hearing, defense counsel informed the trial court that the Defendant had "some learning disorders" and "other diagnoses." She noted that the Defendant had recently completed a mental evaluation in an unrelated aggravated assault case in General Sessions that was ultimately dismissed, where the Defendant had been found "competent and sane." Defense counsel said that the Defendant had been scheduled for another competency evaluation in the present case but it had not been done because the other evaluation had been recently completed. The trial court responded that it would try to explain everything in a way that the Defendant could understand and specifically asked the Defendant to let the court know if he had any questions.

The trial court informed the Defendant of his rights, his charge, and the punishment he was facing. It noted that the Defendant had already served three months and that he had "about nine months more to do in the jail less any good behavior credits[.]" When the trial court recognized that the Defendant had "no job and no income," the Defendant said that he used to receive a disability check but those checks had stopped coming when he went to jail. The State then provided a factual basis for the plea, stating that on September 12, 2019, the Monroe County Sheriff's Department had responded to a structure fire of a barn that was engulfed in flames; that Belinda Hawkins, the barn's owner, had told law enforcement that she believed the fire had been started by her tenant, the Defendant, who was upset about being evicted; and that the Defendant, when brought in for questioning, had confessed to setting the barn on fire. The Defendant said he wished to enter a guilty plea to the arson offense, and the trial court ultimately accepted his guilty plea, finding that the Defendant was "legally competent to enter this plea" and that he had "freely and voluntarily" entered it.

The court announced that it was going to "accept th[e] sentencing structure" set out in the plea agreement and that it was sentencing the Defendant "to the Tennessee Department of Correction[], the penitentiary, for a six-year sentence," but that it was "going to order" that he serve "364 days . . . in the jail, less [his] pretrial jail credit and any good time credits" and then would "allow [him] to serve six years on probation" The court also told the Defendant that while on probation, he had to pay the court costs of the action and could have "absolutely no contact with Ms. Hawkins or her property." The trial court informed the Defendant that his next court date was February 14, 2020, during which the court would determine the issue of restitution.

On December 11, 2019, a judgment of conviction was entered, showing that the Defendant had entered a guilty plea to arson, that he would receive a sentence of six years, that he would serve 364 days of incarceration in the Tennessee Department of Correction before serving six years on supervised probation, that he would have no contact with Belinda Hawkins or her property, and that "[r]estitution [would] be determined by the Court on February 14, 2020." Also on December 11, 2019, a probation order was entered, stating that although the Defendant had been convicted of the offense of arson and had been sentenced to serve "a term of 6 years in the Tennessee Department of Correction," the sentence was suspended and the Defendant was placed on supervised probation for a period of 6 years. One of the conditions of the Defendant's probation was that he "pay all imposed fines, court costs, and restitution" ordered by the trial court.

Restitution Hearing. At the August 17, 2020 restitution hearing, Belinda Hawkins testified that her sixty-year-old "historic, solid oak, two-story tobacco barn" was "completely destroyed" by the fire set by the Defendant. Ms. Hawkins stated that her insurance company appraised the cost of replacing the barn structure with "subpar materials" to be around $100, 000. She also estimated the value of the barn's contents to be around $100, 000, for a total of approximately $200, 000. She said that because her insurance had paid approximately 40% of this $200, 000 total value, she was asking for $120, 000 in restitution.

Ms. Hawkins said that although her insurance company determined the "replacement cost value" of the barn structure to be $93, 187.78, she had only received an insurance payment of $12, 270.00 to cover the barn structure. Documentation from Ms. Hawkins's insurance company, which supported the aforementioned appraisal amount and insurance payment for the barn structure, was admitted into evidence. Ms. Hawkins also said that while her insurance company valued the contents of her barn to be $88, 100, she had only received an insurance payment of around $40, 000, although she had an opportunity to receive an additional $30, 000 from her insurance company as she replaced some of the destroyed items over time. No documentation was admitted into evidence concerning the appraised value of the contents of the barn, the money paid by insurance for the barn's contents, or the possibility of receiving additional insurance money for the replacement of items destroyed.

Raffaele Stellato, Ms. Hawkins fiancé, was accepted as an expert in construction. He testified that Ms. Hawkins' barn had been constructed of solid oak, which was expensive to replace. He also said that a new metal roof had been put on the barn recently and that one side of the barn had been rebuilt the year before the fire. Mr. Stellato estimated that to rebuild the barn out of oak materials would cost between $115, 000 and $125, 000.

Wanda Faye Saffles, the Defendant's grandmother, testified that the Defendant was autistic, had bipolar disorder, suffered from "15 different kinds of seizures," and had an anger disorder. She stated that she had adopted the Defendant when he was two years old and had been his primary caretaker ever since. Because of his medical conditions, the Defendant had received Social Security benefits from the age of two years old. Ms. Saffles said she was told the Defendant received these benefits because "he would never be able to hold down a job and because of the seizures and the other problems that he has." She stated that the Defendant had never been employed.

Ms. Saffles explained that the Defendant's Social Security benefits were his only source of income and that the Defendant did not receive food stamps. When asked how much money the Defendant received in Social Security benefits each month, Ms. Saffles replied, "It was cut down to $450 then . . . they were talking about in September the 1^st [sic] it would be cut down to [$]350." She said these Social Security benefits were paid directly to her as the protective payee for the Defendant.

Ms....