STATE OF TENNESSEE v. TERRENCE SANDERS - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. TERRENCE SANDERS

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Nov 19, 2025

Court: TN Court of Criminal Appeals

Attorneys 1: Tony N. Brayton, Public Defender-Appellate Division, Memphis, Tennessee (on appeal) and Scott Woodall, Public Defender, Memphis, Tennessee, (at hearing), for the appellant, Terrence Sanders.

Attorneys 2: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Lacy E. Wilbur, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Steven J. Mulroy, District Attorney General; and Karin Morris, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): CAMPBELL

The Defendant, Terrence Sanders, appeals the revocation of his probation and reinstatement of his original sentence in confinement, arguing that there was insufficient proof that his new arrest for domestic assault constituted a non-technical violation of his probation and that the trial court erred by failing to make appropriate findings in support of its decisions. We agree that the trial court failed to make adequate findings in support of its decisions to revoke the Defendant’s probation and order execution of the original judgment. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand for the trial court to make additional findings, in accordance with State v. Dagnan, 641 S.W.3d 751, 753 (Tenn. 2022), regarding whether the State proved a non-technical violation of probation by a preponderance of the evidence and, if so, the appropriate consequence to be imposed.

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