State of Tennessee v. Michael Nyok Lueth

The Defendant, Michael Nyok Lueth, was convicted as charged by a Davidson County
Criminal Court jury of driving under the influence (DUI), sixth offense (Count 1); DUI per
se, sixth offense (Count 2); and driving on a revoked license (Count 3). The trial court
sentenced the Defendant as a Range II, multiple offender to concurrent six-year sentences
for the DUI convictions, merged the DUI convictions, and imposed a concurrent sentence
of eleven months and twenty-nine days imprisonment for the conviction for driving on a
revoked license. On appeal, the Defendant argues: (1) the trial court erred in telling
prospective jurors that an interpreter had been provided for the Defendant “out of an
abundance of caution”; (2) the trial court erred in providing a special instruction to the jury
that it was not allowed to consider the Defendant’s lack of fluency in English when
assessing the evidence in the case; (3) the trial court erred in denying defense counsel’s
motion for a mistrial after the prosecutor, relying on the trial court’s proposed special
instruction, stated during its rebuttal closing argument that the jury could not allow the
Defendant’s failure to speak English fluently to affect how the jury viewed the evidence;
and (4) he was improperly sentenced as a second offender for his conviction for driving on
a revoked license. After review, we affirm the Defendant’s convictions but remand the
case for entry of a corrected judgment form in Count 3 reflecting that the conviction offense
is driving on a revoked license, first offense, a Class B misdemeanor, and that the
Defendant’s sentence is six months, served concurrently with the sentence in Count 1.