Case ID: so2d_517/html/0730-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM. GUNTHER, Judge,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

STATE of Florida, Appellant, v. John Wesley DAVIS, Jr., Appellee.
    No. 87-0381.
    District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
    Dec. 16, 1987.
    Rehearing Denied Jan. 13, 1988.
    Robert A. Butterworth, Jr., Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Barry Weisman, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, for appellant.
    Richard L. Jorandby, Public Defender, and Anthony Calvello, Asst. Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
   PER CURIAM.

AFFIRMED.

HERSEY, C.J., and DELL, J., concur.

GUNTHER, J., dissents with opinion.

GUNTHER, Judge,

dissenting.

I respectfully dissent. The trial court ruled that the following statement by the police officer was the functional equivalent of interrogation:

After a few minutes I made a comment to him, he kept turning around and kind of looking up at me and to break the silence I said something like I think there is probably a lot that you could tell me, Wesley, or that I could ask you. We are not going to discuss anything about this case at all since, you know, you said you needed to talk to somebody and that was all I had said.

Accordingly, the trial court granted the defendant’s motion to suppress statements he subsequently made to the authorities.

In my view, the statement, even in the context of the record, was not the functional equivalent of interrogation. Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980); Garcia v. State, 492 So.2d 360 (Fla.), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 107 S.Ct. 680, 93 L.Ed.2d 730 (1986).