State of Tennessee v. Kimberly Reynolds, E2016-01934-CCA-R3-CD

Kimberly Reynolds, a former nurse at Bristol Regional Medical Center, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of property ≥ $1,000 and six counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud; plea provided concurrent three-year terms for fraud counts and a consecutive three-year term for theft (effective six years), with mode of service to be determined by the trial court.
After that plea, Reynolds pled guilty in a separate case to additional offenses producing a consecutive two-year sentence, yielding an eight-year total effective sentence.
The presentence report and testimony established Reynolds diverted controlled substances from the hospital dispensing system on roughly 483 occasions, injected herself during ER shifts, and admitted addiction to Dilaudid; hospital sought $1,094.73 restitution and reported deceptive behavior toward coworkers.
At sentencing Reynolds acknowledged addiction and mental-health treatment history, but admitted to lying to probation officers and coworkers, and to continuing deceptive conduct after the offenses.
The trial court sentenced Reynolds to three years incarceration for the theft count and placed the fraud convictions on a three-year community corrections sentence to run consecutively; the court explained confinement was necessary given the frequency of diversion, patient risk, and Reynolds’ lack of candor and prior unsuccessful deception.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Reynolds was entitled to an alternative (non-incarcerative) sentence for the theft conviction	State: trial court properly exercised discretion to order confinement	Reynolds: addiction, limited criminal history, mental-health issues, and ineligibility risks support community corrections or alternative sentence	Court affirmed: no abuse of discretion; confinement appropriate to avoid depreciating offense seriousness and due to lack of rehabilitation potential

State v. Bise, 380 S.W.3d 682 (Tenn. 2012) (standard of review: abuse of discretion with presumption of reasonableness for within-range sentences)
State v. Caudle, 388 S.W.3d 273 (Tenn. 2012) (same standard applies to alternative-sentencing questions)
State v. Carter, 254 S.W.3d 335 (Tenn. 2008) (abolished automatic entitlement to alternative sentencing under prior statutory language)
State v. Boston, 938 S.W.2d 435 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1996) (court should consider defendant’s rehabilitative potential when deciding alternative sentencing)
State v. Ball, 973 S.W.2d 288 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1998) (eligibility for community corrections does not create an entitlement to that sentence)
State v. Arnett, 49 S.W.3d 250 (Tenn. 2001) (appellant bears burden to show sentence is improper)