STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JANSEN L. SMITH - Articles

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STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JANSEN L. SMITH

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Apr 17, 2026

Court: TN Court of Appeals

Attorneys 1: Theodore A. Engel III, District Public Defender, for the appellant, Jansen L. Smith.

Attorneys 2: Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Lavy E. Wilber, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Courtney C. Lynch, District Attorney General; and Randy Clark, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge(s): MCMULLEN

Following the denial of his motion to suppress, the Defendant was convicted by a Sequatchie County Jury of driving under the influence (DUI), first offense, a Class A misdemeanor. See Tenn. Code. Ann. § 55-10-401. He received a sentence of eleven months and twenty-nine days of supervised probation after service of twenty days in jail on weekends. In this appeal, the Defendant argues the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress and admitting evidence obtained from an unlawful detention. The Defendant contends his arrest was without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and unsupported by probable cause in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 7 of the Tennessee Constitution. Because the subsequent detention of the Defendant exceeded the duration of a Terry-type investigatory stop in violation of the Fourth Amendment, we conclude that any evidence seized as a result should have been suppressed as “fruit of the poisonous tree.” Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471 (1963). Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court, vacate the Defendant’s conviction, and dismiss the charge in this case.

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