STATE OF TENNESSEE v. AMANDA JEAN PHILLIPS

Syllabus

The Defendant, Amanda Jean Phillips, was convicted by a Scott County jury of aggravatedassault with a deadly weapon, a Class C felony; two counts of especially aggravatedkidnapping, a Class A felony; two counts of aggravated child neglect of a child eight yearsof age or less, a Class A felony; and carjacking, a Class B felony. The trial court sentencedthe Defendant to four years for the aggravated assault conviction, twenty years for each ofthe especially aggravated kidnapping convictions, twenty years for each of the aggravatedchild neglect convictions, and ten years for the carjacking conviction. Finding theDefendant to be a dangerous offender, the trial court ordered partial consecutive sentencesfor an effective total sentence of thirty years at 100% service in the Tennessee Departmentof Correction. On appeal, the Defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence insupport of her aggravated child neglect convictions and argues that the trial court erred bynot considering a mandatory mitigating factor in imposing her especially aggravatedkidnapping sentences and by classifying her as a dangerous offender under the consecutivesentencing statute. We conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support the Defendant'sconvictions for aggravated child neglect and that the trial court did not err in its applicationof enhancement and mitigating factors but failed to make adequate findings in support ofconsecutive sentencing under the dangerous offender criterion of the consecutivesentencing statute. However, upon de novo review, we conclude that the record supportsthe imposition of consecutive sentences based on the Defendant's having committed theoffenses while she was on probation. Accordingly, we affirm the Defendant's convictionsand the sentences imposed by the trial court.