State of Tennessee v. Eric Austin Byrd

Defendant, Eric Austin Byrd, appeals his Knox County Criminal Court convictions for
driving under the influence (DUI), failure to maintain lane, and failure to exercise due care,
for which he received an effective sentence of eleven months, twenty-nine days, with all
but 180 days suspended to supervised probation. Defendant asserts that (1) the trial court
erred by limiting Defendant’s cross-examination of Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP)
Sergeant Ricky Powers regarding his training and understanding of field sobriety tests
(FSTs); and (2) the trial court erred during sentencing by improperly considering the Knox
County District Attorney’s Facebook post as evidence of general deterrence and by
considering his pending first degree murder charge in Loudon County. Following a
thorough review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.