A Cumberland County jury deliberated two hours before finding Christoper James Reeves of White County guilty of reckless endangerment, reckless driving and leaving the scene of a property damage crash.
He was ordered taken into custody and will be held for an April 1 sentencing hearing.
Reeves was indicted in April 2024 with reckless endangerment, evading arrest, leaving the scene and driving on a revoked license stemming from a June 18, 2023, incident on Hwy. 70 W. (Sparta Hwy.).
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Bateman and Allison Null and Reeves was defended by Crossville attorney Matthew McClanahan.
The jury Monday found Reeves guilty of the lesser-included offense of reckless driving as opposed to the indicted charge of evading arrest. The jury assessed a total of $3,550 in fines.
State prosecutors called three witnesses to testify. Crossville/Cumberland County E-911 Director T.J. Williams was the first witness, followed by motorist and witness Stacy Bice. Cumberland County Sheriff’s Deputy Morgan Alvarez was the third witness.
Reeves invoked his constitutional right to not testify and McClanahan relied on opening and closing statements to the jury, opting not to call any witnesses.
Through Williams’ testimony, the state played an audio tape of a 911 call from Bice’s husband, Michael, who reported the couple’s 2016 Jeep Wagoner had been forced against a guardrail by a white vehicle pulling a utility trailer. As the white vehicle passed, the utility trailer struck the Jeep, Bice reported.
“He come plumb over in our lane,” Bice told the E-911 dispatcher. “… I thought he was going to hit us head-on.”
Stacy Bice testified she and her husband had just completed their job of cleaning the Pleasant Hill Community Church and were approaching the dumpsters near the Crossville Municipal Airport in the rain when they encountered a white vehicle “topping a hill” in their lane of travel.
“He came straight toward me,” Stacy Bice told the jury. “I didn’t know what to do.” She added later in her testimony, “I was scared I was going to lose my life.”
She added she was forced into the guard rail. Another motorist stopped to check on the couple and retrieved a license plate from the scene which was later given to Alvarez.
The deputy testified she was in the area of Glade Creek Rd. and Arthur Seagraves Rd. when she received a report of a hit-and-run crash and description of a white pickup pulling a utility trailer traveling toward her location.
When approaching Browntown Rd. And the Sparta Hwy. intersection, Alvarez told testified she spotted a white vehicle pulling a trailer matching the description given and activated blue lights and she turned her patrol car around.
She turned on her emergency siren as she observed the vehicle travel through a parking lot, cross over into on-coming traffic on a double-yellow line and with motorists having to swerve to avoid a collision.
The deputy found the vehicle stopped on Selby Lane and took the driver and only person in the vehicle, identified as Reeves, into custody.
The license plate found at the hit-and-run scene, Alvarez testified, was registered to the car Reeves was driving.
McClanahan during cross examination of the witnesses asked if the driver of the white vehicle intended to crash into other vehicles and both eye witnesses said no. He also questioned if the weather conditions caused the utility trailer to “fish-tail” giving the appearance of reckless driving.
Bateman reminded the jury witnesses said Reeves was driving on the shoulder and crossing a double-yellow line to pass vehicles and had recklessly driven through a business parking lot.
McClanahan countered the jury should consider “things not said to tell the story.” He asked the jury why other victims of the erradict driving were not present to testify and asked why no eyewitnesses placed his client behind the wheel of the white vehicle.
After the verdict was read, McKenzie leaned toward releasing Reeves on his original bond until informed by Null that Reeves has one felony conviction in White County and ten misdemeanor convictions.
With that news, McKenzie ordered bond revoked, and Reeves was taken into custody in the courtroom.
Reeves is facing one to two years in prison on the Class E felony of reckless endangerment and 11 months and 29 days on the other convictions.
It will be determined at the sentencing hearing how the sentences will be served, whether sentences will be consecutive or concurrent, whether sentence will be split confinement of days to serve followed by supervised probation, or whether Reeves will qualify for supervised probation.