Opinion ID: 1057596
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Elements of Tampering with Evidence

Text: Tennessee's criminal code provides as follows: Tampering with or fabricating evidence.(a) It is unlawful for any person, knowing that an investigation or official proceeding is pending or in progress, to: (1) Alter, destroy, or conceal any record, document or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in the investigation or official proceeding[.] Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-16-503(a)(1) (2006). Thus, the felony offense of tampering with evidence consists of three elements: (1) an ongoing investigation about which the accused knows, (2) the accused alters, destroys, or conceals some record, document or thing, and (3) the accused tampers with the record, document or thing in order to impair its use as evidence in the investigation. Here, Defendant maintains that the evidence was insufficient in two respects. First, Defendant contends that the evidence did not establish his knowledge of an investigation that was pending or in progress. Second, Defendant argues that the evidence did not establish the identity of the precise thing that defendant altered, concealed, or destroyed, or even that he altered, concealed, or destroyed any thing at all.