IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE

AT NASHVILLE

Assigned on Briefs at Knoxville June 23, 2020

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. CURTIS REED HOSENDOVE

 

Appeal from the Criminal Court for Davidson County

No. 2019-B-1002 Angelita Blackshear Dalton, Judge

No. M2019-01610-CCA-R3-CD

The Defendant, Curtis Reed Hosendove, pleaded guilty as a Range II, multiple offender to

making a false report, a Class D felony. See T.C.A. § 39-16-502 (2018). Pursuant to a

plea agreement, the Defendant received a four-year sentence, and the trial court was to 

determine the manner of service. The trial court ordered the Defendant to serve his 

sentence in confinement. On appeal, the Defendant contends that the court committed 

reversible error by receiving evidence in the form victim impact statements. Although we 

conclude that the victim impact statements were irrelevant to the Defendant’s conviction 

for making false report, the error was harmless. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. 

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

ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JAMES 

CURWOOD WITT, JR., and D. KELLY THOMAS,JR., JJ., joined.

Jay Umerley (on appeal) and Mark Peckham (at sentencing), Nashville, Tennessee, for the 

appellant, Curtis Reed Hosendove.

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; Ruth Anne Thompson, Senior 

Assistant Attorney General; Glenn R. Funk, District Attorney General; and Kyle Anderson, 

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

OPINION

This cases arises from a May 26, 2018 motor vehicle crash, in which the Defendant’s 

vehicle struck a motorcycle being driven by Royce Porter, who died four days after the 

crash as a result of his injuries. The police investigation showed that the Defendant failed 

to yield and caused the crash. Although the Defendant was not indicted with criminal 

offenses related to the traffic crash and to Mr. Porter’s death, the Defendant was indicted 

for driving while his license was revoked and two counts of making a false report to the 

07/17/2020
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police in connection with the crash. The Defendant pleaded guilty to one count of making 

a false report, and the remaining counts in the indictment were dismissed pursuant to the 

plea agreement. The guilty plea transcript is not included in the appellate record. 

At the August 30, 2019 sentencing hearing, the presentence report was received as 

an exhibit. The report reflects that the thirty-five-year-old Defendant had previous 

convictions for two counts of driving while his license was revoked, unlawful possession

of drug paraphernalia, two counts of evading arrest, possession of cocaine, assault, 

unlawful possession of a weapon, and felony theft. The report likewise reflects that after 

the indictment was returned in the present case, the Defendant was arrested and later 

convicted of driving under the influence, criminal trespass, misdemeanor drug possession, 

false imprisonment, and reckless endangerment. Six days before the present offense, the 

Defendant was arrested and later convicted of domestic assault, for which he received 

probation. The Defendant’s probation for domestic assault was revoked at a revocation 

hearing held immediately before the sentencing hearing in the present case on the grounds 

that the Defendant had been arrested and convicted of misdemeanor drug possession and 

driving under the influence. The Defendant was likewise serving a sentence on probation 

at the time he committed domestic assault. 

The presentence report reflects that law enforcement had suspected the Defendant 

was a member of Gangster Disciples and that the Defendant reported having been a 

previous member of the gang. The report reflects that the Defendant completed the tenth 

grade, that he left school for “disciplinary reasons,” and that he attempted unsuccessfully 

to obtain his GED. The Defendant reported first drinking alcohol, using marijuana, and 

using cocaine at age eighteen, and he reported last using each in June 2019. The Defendant 

reported first taking “pills” at age eighteen, taking them twice per week, and last taking 

them in June 2019. The Defendant denied having been treated for substance abuse. He 

reported previous mental health diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and manic 

depression. He reported excellent physical health. The Defendant had two sons, who were 

ages five and seventeen. The Defendant reported employment from 2014 to 2019. The 

Strong-R assessment reflects that the Defendant had a high score for violence. 

Regarding the circumstances of the offense, the presentence report reflects that on 

May 26, 2018, at 12:36 p.m., officers responded to the scene of the crash. Mr. Porter’s 

motorcycle sustained “heavy left side center damage,” and Mr. Porter was transported to 

the hospital and died four days later. The Defendant’s Chevrolet sustained right-side, frontend damage. The investigating officers determined that the motorcycle traveled 

northbound in the right turn lane, and the Defendant’s vehicle traveled in the left turn lane. 

The Defendant’s vehicle struck the motorcycle when the motorcycle was in the 

motorcycle’s lane of travel. On July 3, 2018, the crash investigator spoke with the 

Defendant and the passenger inside the Defendant’s vehicle, and the passenger reported 

having never seen the motorcycle before the crash. The Defendant told the investigator 

that “as he made his turn, the motorcycle drove around a stopped . . . city bus and he never 

saw [the motorcycle] before the crash.” The investigator attempted to obtain video 
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surveillance from the Metropolitan Transit Authority from the scene, but on July 12, 2018, 

he learned that a city bus was not at the intersection at the time of the crash and that, as a 

result, no video recording was available. However, video surveillance from a camera 

located at a nearby Kroger’s showed that a city bus was not stopped loading and unloading 

passengers at the time of the crash. The recording showed that the motorcycle drove at a 

“normal” speed when the Defendant’s vehicle “turned into” the motorcycle’s lane of travel, 

causing the crash. On July 12, 2018, the investigator spoke to the Defendant, who again 

described the “incident with the city bus.” The investigator spoke to a witness, James 

Gable, who stated that he drove his vehicle behind the motorcycle at twenty-five miles per 

hour and that he did not see a city bus at the time of the crash. The investigator determined 

that the Defendant failed to yield to the motorcycle, failed to exercise due care, and caused 

the crash resulting in Mr. Porter’s death. 

Certified copies of the Defendant’s previous convictions, along with criminal 

history information from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and the Tennessee 

Department of Safety, were received as exhibits. The records reflect, in relevant part, that 

on May 20, 2018, the Defendant committed domestic assault resulting in bodily injury and 

that he pleaded guilty and received probation on March 20, 2019. The Defendant’s 

probation was revoked based upon two misdemeanor drug-related convictions stemming 

from a July 7, 2019 arrest. Likewise, the Defendant received probation for the false 

imprisonment and reckless endangerment convictions, and his probation was revoked 

twice. 

Jeanette Porter, Mr. Porter’s daughter-in-law, read a prepared statement to the trial 

court. Upon learning of the crash, she and her husband went to the hospital and found Mr. 

Porter asking if she and her husband were okay, although Mr. Porter had difficulty 

breathing because of a broken spine and ribs. She said that this was one of their last 

conversations. She described Mr. Porter as someone who loved his family and gave to 

others. She said she could not articulate the impact of losing Mr. Porter because of the 

“selfish choices that others make.” She said that everyone thought Mr. Porter would 

survive his injuries. She said, “He didn’t [survive] and that was by a choice someone made. 

It was negligence.” 

Randy Porter, Mr. Porter’s son, read a prepared statement to the trial court. He 

stated that “a very negligent individual took” his father and best friend. He described his 

close relationship with his father and the impact of his father’s death. He learned after the 

crash that his father had frequently donated to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and to other

charitable organizations. Mr. Porter said that the crash was not caused by “a law respecting 

driver [who] made a mistake.” He described his father’s “perfect driving record” and said 

the Defendant “made a willful choice.” Mr. Porter noted that the Defendant’s driving 

privileges had been revoked, that the Defendant should not have been driving on the day 

of the crash, and that his father would have been alive if the Defendant had not been driving

and had not failed to yield. 
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The Defendant testified that he was not intoxicated at the time of the traffic crash 

and that he attempted to merge left in order to turn left at the intersection. He said that he 

was traveling to his cousin’s home. The Defendant said that he did not see anyone in the 

“last lane.” The Defendant said that Mr. Porter was speeding and “blindsided” the 

Defendant. He said that he saw

the people who was letting me turn left they stopped and then the next, the 

left, in next lane they stopped, so then it leaves me just a bicycle lane so as I 

turn left [Mr. Porter] hits me. 

Now, I do, will admit as I seen him he tried to speed up and beat me to turning 

left, but he, it was no success, when he really, with all due respect I feel like 

he probably just should have [gone] behind me instead of going in front of 

me. That is really what happened and I understand that you don’t want to 

hear that but that is what happened.

The Defendant testified that the traffic crash was an accident and that he wished it 

had been him who was injured. He said that he stood with and talked to Mr. Porter at the 

scene. The Defendant recalled Mr. Porter said that “everything was okay.” The Defendant 

said that he “felt bad” about the crash, that he prayed daily about it, and that he had children 

to support. 

The trial court ordered the Defendant to serve his sentence in confinement. The 

court found that confinement was necessary to protect society by restraining the Defendant, 

who had a long history of criminal conduct. The court was concerned that after the 

Defendant was released on bond in this case, he continued to “pick up cases,” including a 

conviction for driving under the influence. The court, likewise, found that confinement 

was necessary to avoid depreciating the seriousness of the offense and to provide an 

effective deterrence to others likely to commit similar offenses. The court found that the 

circumstances involved making a false report about an offense in which Mr. Porter died. 

The court reviewed the facts of the offense as stated in the presentence report, finding that 

the Defendant’s dishonesty about the crash that resulted in a death was unacceptable and 

was “directly” related to the seriousness of the offense. The court stated that lying to a 

police officer who is investigating a traffic crash was an “extremely serious” offense. 

The trial court found that measures less restrictive than confinement had frequently 

or recently been applied unsuccessfully to the Defendant. The court found, based upon the 

presentence report and the exhibits, that the Defendant had violated probation “countless” 

times. The court stated that in some instances the Defendant had violated his probation, 

had been reinstated to probation, and had violated probation again. The court found that 

the Defendant had a history of violating probation. 
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The trial court ordered the Defendant to serve his four-year sentence consecutively 

to the sentence imposed in the domestic assault case. This appeal followed. 

As a preliminary matter, we note that although the guilty plea transcript is not 

included in the appellate record, the record is sufficient for a meaningful review of the issue

presented. See State v. Caudle, 388 S.W.3d 273, 2779 (Tenn. 2012) (holding that when a 

guilty plea transcript is not present in the appellate record, this court should “determine on 

a case-by-case basis whether the record is sufficient for a meaningful review under the 

standard adopted in [State v. Bise, 380 S.W.3d 682 (Tenn. 2012)]”). The testimony and 

the exhibits received as evidence at the sentencing hearing provided sufficient factual 

evidence surrounding the offense. 

The Defendant contends that the trial court erred by receiving evidence in the form 

of victim impact statements from Mr. Porter’s son and daughter-in-law because the 

evidence was not relevant to the conviction offense of making a false report. He requests 

that this case be remanded to the trial court for a new sentencing hearing. The State 

responds that the court did not abuse its discretion by receiving and considering the 

evidence. 

Before the victim impact evidence was presented to the trial court, the Defendant 

objected to Mr. Porter’s son and daughter-in-law reading their prepared victim impact 

statements in connection with Mr. Porter’s death. The defense argued that the conviction 

offense was making a false report to police officers investigating the traffic crash and that, 

as a result, victim impact evidence was inappropriate. The defense argued that testimony 

from the police officers investigating the crash regarding the lost “man hours or the effect 

on the investigation” was relevant to sentencing. The prosecutor stated that the Defendant 

lied about how the traffic crash occurred, and the court determined that the victim impact 

statements were “appropriate” evidence for the court’s consideration.

At the conclusion of the victim impact evidence, the defense requested that the trial

court “set aside the statement[s].” The defense expressed sympathy for Mr. Porter’s family 

but argued that the evidence was not probative of the conviction offense of making a false 

report. The defense argued that although the evidence would have been relevant to 

convictions for driving while a license was revoked, failure to yield resulting in a death, 

and reckless or negligent homicide, the Defendant had not been convicted of these offenses. 

The prosecutor responded that it had the responsibility to present evidence of the “incident 

itself.” The prosecutor stated, “It’s not a charge that comes just out of the blue, it comes 

from a specific incident with specific people and that is what the State tried to put in front 

of the Court.” The trial court stated that it did not consider “evidence in a vacuum,” that 

the “circumstances surrounding” the Defendant’s making a false statement involved a 

traffic crash resulting in a death, and that the victim impact evidence related to the death 

and to the Defendant’s conduct “as it relates to the conviction offense.” The court denied 

the motion. 
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Evidence is relevant and generally admissible when it has “any tendency to make 

the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more 

probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Tenn. R. Evid. 401, 402. 

Questions regarding the admissibility and relevance of evidence generally lie within the 

discretion of the trial court, and the appellate courts will not “interfere with the exercise of 

that discretion unless a clear abuse appears on the face of the record.” State v. Franklin, 

308 S.W.3d 799, 809 (Tenn. 2010) (citing State v. Lewis, 235 S.W.3d 136, 141 (Tenn. 

2007)). A trial court abuses its discretion when it applies an incorrect legal standard or 

reaches a conclusion that is “illogical or unreasonable and causes an injustice to the party 

complaining.” State v. Ruiz, 204 S.W.3d 772, 778 (Tenn. 2006).

The offense of making a false report is an offense against the administration of 

justice. See T.C.A. §§ 39-16-101 (2018), 39-16-502. It is a crime, in relevant part, “for 

any person to [i]nitiate a report or statement to a law enforcement officer concerning an 

offense or incident within the officer’s concern knowing that . . . [t]he information relating 

to the offense reported is false[.]” Id. § 39-16-502(a)(1)(C). A statement is defined as “any 

representation of fact.” Id. § 39-16-501(2) (2018). The statute “encompasses not only 

reports volunteered or initiated by individuals to law enforcement . . . , but also false 

statements made in response to ‘a legitimate inquiry’ by a law enforcement officer.” State 

v. Walter Lee Hicks, Jr., No. M2013-01410-CCA-R3-CD, 2014 WL 2902277, at *7 n.3 

(Tenn. Crim. App. June 26, 2014), perm. app. denied (Tenn. Oct. 22, 2014).

The record reflects that the Defendant was indicted for driving while his license was 

suspended and two counts of making a false report in connection with how the traffic crash 

occurred. The Defendant pleaded guilty to one count of making a false report, and the 

remaining counts of the indictment were dismissed. Although the trial court stated that it 

did not consider “evidence in a vacuum,” the court found that the Defendant’s making a 

false statement involved a motor vehicle crash resulting in a death and that the victim 

impact statements related to the conviction offense. However, the record does not reflect 

that Mr. Porter was a victim of the conviction offense of making a false report. Mr. Porter’s 

injuries did not result from the Defendant’s false statement to the fatal crash investigator. 

See T.C.A. §§ 40-38-203(1) (2018), 40-38-203(2) (2018), 40-38-103(a)(2) (2018), 40-35-

209(b) (2018); see also State v. Ring, 56 S.W.3d 577 (Tenn. Crim. App. 2001). Mr. Porter 

suffered harm as a result of the Defendant’s failure to yield based upon the crash 

investigator’s conclusions, which the parties do not dispute. The evidence shows that the 

Defendant made the false report more than one month after the crash and after Mr. Porter’s 

death. The only basis for the Defendant’s false report conviction was that he falsely told 

the crash investigator that he did not see the motorcycle because “the motorcycle drove 

around a city bus,” which the Defendant said had been stopped along the street. The 

Defendant was not charged with criminal wrongdoing in connection with causing the crash 

or causing Mr. Porter’s death. The Defendant’s criminal conduct in this case was limited 

to his false statement to the investigating officer about the presence of a city bus as a
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contributing factor in the crash. Mr. Porter’s death from a motor vehicle crash is tragic. 

However, the victim impact statements were not relevant to the conviction offense. As a 

result, we conclude that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting and considering 

the victim impact statements in determining the manner of service of the Defendant’s 

sentence for making a false report. 

However, we likewise conclude that the error was harmless because the record 

supports the trial court’s ordering the Defendant to serve his four-year sentence in 

confinement based upon his long history of criminal conduct and upon his failed attempts 

at probation in other cases. See T.C.A. § 40-35-103(1)(A), (C) (2018). The record reflects 

that the Defendant has previous convictions for two counts of driving while his license was 

revoked, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, two counts of evading arrest, 

possession of cocaine, assault, unlawful possession of a weapon, and felony theft. After 

the indictment was returned in the present case, the Defendant committed and was later 

convicted of driving under the influence, criminal trespass, misdemeanor drug possession, 

false imprisonment, and reckless endangerment. 

Likewise, the record reflects that six days before the traffic crash, the Defendant 

was charged with domestic assault resulting in bodily injury and later received probation 

in March 2019. We note that the Defendant was serving a sentence on probation at the 

time he committed domestic assault. The Defendant violated the conditions of his 

probation for domestic assault by further engaging in criminal conduct in July 2019, which 

resulted in additional drug- and alcohol-related convictions, and his probation was revoked

before the sentencing hearing in this case. Furthermore, after the Defendant was indicted 

in this case, he was convicted of false imprisonment and reckless endangerment, received 

probation, and violated the conditions of his release twice. 

The record supports that trial court’s determinations that confinement is necessary 

to protect society by restraining the Defendant who has a long history of criminal conduct 

and that confinement is necessary because measures less restrictive than confinement have

frequently and recently been applied unsuccessfully to the Defendant. See id. The 

Defendant failed to establish that he was a favorable candidate for an alternative sentence. 

As a result, the Defendant is not entitled to relief. 

In consideration of the foregoing and the record as a whole, the judgment of the trial 

court is affirmed. 

____________________________________

ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY, JR., JUDGE