IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE

AT JACKSON

Assigned on Briefs November 6, 2018

JAY R. HASSMAN v. STATE OF TENNESSEE

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Madison County

No. 16-199 Roy B. Morgan, Jr., Judge

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No. W2018-00784-CCA-R3-PC

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Defendant, Jay R. Hassman, pled guilty to unspecified charges in August of 2016 in 

exchange for a four-year sentence to be served on probation. The trial court subsequently 

revoked Defendant’s probation after a hearing and ordered Defendant to serve his 

original sentence. Defendant filed a “Motion for New Revocation Hearing” in which he 

argued that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at the revocation hearing. The 

trial court denied relief on the basis that the motion was untimely as a motion for 

reduction of sentence under Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 35 and that the 

motion could not be construed as a petition for post-conviction relief. After a review of 

the scant record, we affirm the judgment of the trial court pursuant to Rule 20 of the

Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed

Pursuant to Rule 20, Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals

TIMOTHY L. EASTER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which D. KELLY THOMAS,

JR., and J. ROSS DYER, JJ., joined.

Jay Hassman, Hartsville, Tennessee, Pro Se.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Ronald L. Coleman, Assistant 

Attorney General; Jerry Woodall, District Attorney General; and Rolf Hazlehurst, 

Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

According to the documents in the technical record, it appears that Defendant pled 

guilty in August of 2016 to an unspecified charge or charges in exchange for a 

probationary sentence of four years. Prior to the completion of probation, a warrant was 

issued alleging Defendant violated the terms of his probation. From what we can gather, 

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the trial court determined Defendant violated the terms of his probation and ordered him 

to serve his original sentence. Defendant then asked the trial court for a new revocation 

hearing, arguing that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at the hearing during 

which his probation was revoked. The trial court denied the motion, and it is from this 

denial that Defendant appeals. Interestingly, none of the documents memorializing the 

conviction, the guilty plea, the terms of Defendant’s probation, or the revocation of his 

probation are included in the record on appeal. In fact, the entire technical record in this 

case spans a total of eleven pages, four of which are comprised of documents filed by 

Defendant in this Court related to the appeal. The record does not contain the guilty plea 

transcript, the original judgment or judgments of conviction, the violation of probation 

warrant, or the order revoking Defendant’s probation, all of which would be necessary 

for any meaningful review in this Court.

After filing the notice of appeal, Defendant asked this Court on two separate 

occasions for an extension of time to file transcripts of the revocation hearing. On July 

16, 2018, this Court denied Defendant’s request, noting that the trial court had already 

denied Defendant’s request for preparation of the transcripts of the revocation hearing on 

two separate occasions.1 This Court informed Defendant that he could “at a later time” 

request to supplement the record, if and when it became necessary to do so. Defendant 

filed a motion asking this Court to reconsider its decision. This Court denied relief on the 

basis that Defendant failed to provide the court “with any pertinent information that 

would warrant an amendment or modification” of its previous order. Defendant has not 

pursued supplementation of the record in this Court again.

Despite the fact that Defendant is a pro se litigant, there are specific requirements 

regarding the record on appeal. See Tenn. R. App. P. 24. An appellant bears the burden 

of preparing an adequate record for appellate review. State v. Ballard, 855 S.W.2d 557,

560 (Tenn. 1993). “Where the record is incomplete and does not contain . . . portions of 

the record upon which the party relies, an appellate court is precluded from considering 

the issue.” Id. at 560-61. In the absence of an adequate record, this Court must presume 

that the trial court’s ruling is correct. State v. Richardson, 875 S.W.2d 671, 674 (Tenn.

Crim. App. 1993).

In our view, the absence of the underlying judgment(s) alone contravenes those 

rules. Despite the numerous deficiencies in the record that we have pointed out in 

addition to the absence of the judgment(s), we conclude that the record before us supports 

the trial court’s denial of Defendant’s motion for a new revocation hearing, which it 

treated as a Rule 35 motion for reduction of sentence. Tennessee Rule of Criminal 

 

1

It is not clear why the trial court denied these requests. The order issued by this Court 

contemplated that the trial court denied the requests because the transcripts were “not necessary to resolve 

this appeal.”
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Procedure 35 allows a trial court to “reduce a sentence upon motion filed within 120 days 

after the date the sentence is imposed or probation is revoked.” Tenn. R. Crim. P. 35(a). 

Per the plain language of the rule, “[n]o extensions shall be allowed” and “[n]o other 

actions toll the running of this time limitation.” Tenn. R. Crim. P. 35(a). According to 

the trial court’s order denying the motion for a new revocation hearing, Defendant pled 

guilty on August 2, 2016. His probation was revoked on October 30, 2017. The motion 

for new revocation hearing was filed on March 15, 2018, 136 days later. Even if we were 

to take the date from the motion itself based on the prison mail rule, the motion was 

placed in the mail on March 12, 2018, and would have been deemed filed 133 days after 

the revocation of probation.2See Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 28, § 2(G); see also Tenn. R. Crim. P. 

49(d)(1). The trial court properly determined that the motion was untimely. 

We also note that, even if we were to treat Defendant’s motion as a petition for 

post-conviction relief from his original guilty plea, it is not timely. A petition for postconviction relief must be filed within one year of the date of the final action of the 

highest state appellate court to which an appeal is taken. See T.C.A. § 40-30-102(a).

Defendant pled guilty on August 2, 2016. He did not appeal his guilty plea, and the 

judgment became final thirty days later on September 2, 2016. He had one year from that 

date to file a petition for post-conviction relief. His motion was not filed until 2018, well 

beyond the limitations period. Therefore, the statute of limitations barred its 

consideration. T.C.A. § 40-30-102(a). Moreover, “the Tennessee Post-Conviction 

Procedures Act does not permit the filing of a petition under its provisions to attack 

collaterally the validity of a proceeding to revoke the suspension of sentence and/or 

probation.” Young v. State, 101 S.W.3d 430, 432 (Tenn. 2002). Thus, Defendant’s claim 

of ineffective assistance of counsel at the probation revocation hearing is not a cognizable 

claim for post-conviction relief.

Rule 20 of the Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee provides that 

if a judgment is rendered by the trial court without a jury, the judgment is not a 

determination of guilt, the evidence does not preponderate against the finding of the trial 

court, and no error of law requiring a reversal of the judgment is apparent on the record, 

then the judgment of the trial court may be affirmed by memorandum opinion when the 

opinion would have no precedential value. We determine that this case meets the criteria 

of Rule 20. Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed pursuant to Rule 20 

of the Rules of the Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee.

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TIMOTHY L. EASTER, JUDGE

 

2 Defendant argues for the first time on appeal that the document was actually placed in the mail 

on March 5, 2018. Even if this were true, the motion would have still been untimely as it would have 

been filed 126 days after the revocation.