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State v. Stem12/29/2000
The appellant, Amelia Kay Stem, entered a plea of nolo contendere in the Lawrence County Circuit Court to one count of second degree murder. The trial court sentenced the appellant to twenty-five years incarceration in the Tennessee Department of Correction. The appellant raises the following issue(s) for our review: whether the trial court erred in sentencing the appellant by incorrectly applying enhancement factors, by failing to apply mitigating factors, and by neglecting to make specific findings of fact on the record. Upon review of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court is Affirmed.
Norma McGee Ogle, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Thomas T. Woodall, and Robert W. Wedemeyer, JJ., joined.
OPINION
I. Factual Background
On the afternoon of October 12, 1998, the appellant, Amelia Kay Stem, met with co-defendants, Jeremy Kyle Massey and Nathan Mork Miller, and told them that the victim, her husband, Jeffery Stem, had kicked her out of the house. At that time, the appellant was two months shy of her eighteenth birthday and had been married to the victim for two years. The victim had previously been abusive toward the appellant. The three concocted a plan to murder the victim. The appellant was to go home, act normally, and entice the victim to go to bed with her. The appellant was to leave the back door of the residence unlocked so that Miller and Massey could enter the house. After the victim went to bed, the two men planned to enter the house, surprise the victim, and kill him. Miller and Massey went to Wal-Mart and obtained masks and gloves to wear during the murder.
As planned, the appellant left the back door of the residence unlocked. However, the victim, who was in bed, heard noises as the two men entered the house. The victim grabbed a stick that he kept nearby for protection and began fighting with Miller and Massey. Miller and Massey both had knives and they repeatedly stabbed the victim. The two men also stomped the victim on the head and neck. Miller stated that he stuck his knife into the victim and twisted it. The appellant stood in the hallway and watched the murder. Additionally, the appellant's two-month-old child was in his crib in the bedroom of the residence during the murder.
After the murder, the appellant removed a ring from the victim's finger and also took a telephone from the house to create the appearance that the victim had been killed during a robbery. Next, the appellant took her two-month-old son from his crib and accompanied Miller and Massey to a pond behind Massey's father's house where they washed the blood from their bodies. Miller and Massey burned their bloody clothing. The trio then returned to the scene of the crime to retrieve Miller's mask. The appellant helped Miller to retrieve the mask and also got her purse and keys. The trio left the appellant's residence and went to an automatic teller machine where the appellant withdrew $200 and gave the money to Massey and Miller. The appellant and Massey dropped Miller off at Jackson Street. The appellant, her baby, and Massey proceeded to a motel room where they spent the rest of the night. They planned for the appellant to go home in the morning, "discover" the body, and then call the police.
At 8:00 a.m. on October 13, 1998, the appellant returned home. She called 911 and claimed to have just discovered her husband's body, lifeless and covered in blood, on the living room floor. The police proceeded to the location to investigate. Shortly thereafter, the police took the appellant to the police stat
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