Nature of the Case
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Facts
D and Molly Coffman, both twelve years of age and students at West Carroll Middle School, spoke on the telephone and decided to kill their homeroom teacher, Janice Geiger. Coffman would bring rat poison to school the following day so that it could be placed in Geiger's drink. The girls also agreed that they would thereafter steal Geiger's car and drive to the Smoky Mountains. D then contacted Dean Foutch, a local high school student, informed him of the plan and asked him to drive Geiger's car. Foutch refused this request. Coffman placed a packet of rat poison in her purse and boarded the school bus. During the bus ride, Coffman told another student, Christy Hernandez, of the plan; Coffman showed her the packet of rat poison. Upon their arrival at school, Hernandez informed her homeroom teacher, Sherry Cockrill, of the plan. Cockrill then relayed this information to the principal of the school, Claudia Argo. Geiger entered her classroom and observed D and Coffman leaning over her desk; and when the girls noticed her, they giggled and ran back to their seats. At that time, Geiger saw a purse lying next to her coffee cup on top of the desk. Shortly thereafter Argo called Coffman to the principal's office. Rat poison was found in Coffman's purse, and it was turned over to a Sheriff's Department investigator. Both D and Coffman gave written statements to the investigator concerning their plan to poison Geiger and steal her car. D and Coffman were found to be delinquent by the Carroll County Juvenile Court, and both appealed from that ruling. A jury found that the girls attempted to commit second-degree murder. The trial court affirmed the juvenile court's order and sentenced the girls to the Department of Youth Development for an indefinite period. D appealed from this judgment to the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the judgment of the trial court. This appeal resulted.
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