Fults? appeal denied: Ordered to serve 45-year sentence with no parole
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The appellant, Steven Craig Fults, 41, was denied relief by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals recently and ordered to continue service of his 45-year sentence, a sentence being served at 100 percent without chance of parole. He remains an inmate at the Southeastern Tennessee Regional Correctional Facility, where his sentence is not set to expire until 2048.
The 45-year sentence was handed down for Fults? conviction in 2004 on five counts of rape, 12 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and seven counts of statutory rape. The counts each involved improper contact with the 16-year-old boy Fults befriended while coaching soccer at Barfield Elementary in Rutherford County.
The major issues in Fults? appeal was the length of his sentence given his lack of prior criminal record and the verdicts in his case given the evidence heard by jurors. Fults first disputed his conviction on grounds the charge of rape was not proved by the evidence. Prosecutors relied on the claim Fults threatened to publicly reveal the teenage victim was gay if he did not continue carrying on the illegal affair as a means of coercion. The rape counts were the longest terms, each carrying up to 12 years in prison. The appellate court did not agree with Fults, allowing the convictions to stand.
As for sentencing, Fults? defense maintained consecutive sentencing should not have been allowed in his case. While admitting some of the charges were double jeopardy, meaning more than one charge for the same crime, the court said they would not affect the overall length of sentence.
The decision means the Fults sentence will remain at 45 years barring acceptance of the case by the State Supreme Court, if the further appeal is made and accepted.