## Facts

- Tracie Reeves and Molly Coffman, both 12-year-old middle school students, agreed by telephone to kill their homeroom teacher, Janice Geiger, by poisoning Geiger’s drink with rat poison at school.
- The plan included stealing Geiger’s car afterward and traveling to the Smoky Mountains.
- Reeves contacted a high school student to ask him to drive Geiger’s car, but he refused.
- On the planned day, Coffman brought a packet of rat poison to school in her purse and showed it to another student on the bus while describing the plan.
- The other student reported the plan to a teacher, who informed the school principal.
- When Geiger entered the classroom, she saw Reeves and Coffman leaning over her desk; they giggled and ran back to their seats, leaving a purse next to Geiger’s coffee cup on the desk.
- The principal summoned Coffman to the office and found rat poison in her purse; the poison was turned over to law enforcement.
- Reeves and Coffman gave written statements describing the plan to poison Geiger and steal her car.
- No poison was placed in Geiger’s drink, and Geiger suffered no physical harm.

## Issues

1. Whether the students’ conduct constituted a “substantial step” toward second-degree murder under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-12-101(a)(3), rather than mere preparation, sufficient to support an adjudication for criminal attempt.

## Decision

- The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed the judgment upholding Reeves’s delinquency adjudication based on attempted second-degree murder.
- The court held that Tennessee’s revised attempt statute employs a “substantial step” standard influenced by the Model Penal Code.
- The court concluded the evidence permitted a rational jury to find that Reeves’s conduct, viewed as part of a corroborative course of action with Coffman, constituted a substantial step toward killing Geiger.
- A separate opinion agreed with the stated standard but would have found the evidence insufficient to establish a substantial step beyond a reasonable doubt on these facts.

## Legal Principles

- Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-12-101(a)(3), criminal attempt requires intent to complete a course of action or cause a result that would constitute the offense, plus conduct that constitutes a substantial step toward commission.
- The statutory “substantial step” inquiry focuses on whether the defendant’s conduct, considered as a whole, strongly corroborates the actor’s criminal intent, rather than on a rigid line between preparation and the final act.
- Conduct resembling Model Penal Code examples—such as possessing materials to be used in the crime at or near the contemplated location, where the possession serves no lawful purpose under the circumstances—may qualify as a substantial step.
- Whether conduct amounts to a substantial step is generally for the jury when there is evidence of intent and corroborative acts; a court should not deem the conduct legally insufficient if a reasonable jury could find attempt under the statute.

## Conclusion

The court held that a detailed plan to poison a teacher, coupled with obtaining and bringing rat poison to school and placing it near the intended victim’s drink in the classroom, could constitute a substantial step toward second-degree murder under Tennessee’s attempt statute, even though the poison was never administered and no injury occurred.


State v. Reeves, 916 S.W.2d 909 (Tenn. 1996)