Opinion ID: 2598652
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admissions by Defendant.

Text: {5} During his first trial, Defendant made incriminating remarks during the course of several conversations with Larry Otero, a prisoner at the Bernalillo County Detention Center where Defendant was being held for the trial. Mr. Otero notified authorities about Defendant's remarks, and the statements were later admitted during Defendant's second trial through the testimony of Mr. Otero. Before the second trial, Defendant attempted to have the statements excluded on the basis that the testimony violated his right to counsel because Mr. Otero was a government agent. This claim was apparently based on the fact that Mr. Otero had been a confidential informant for the narcotics division of Albuquerque Police Department at an earlier time. At the conclusion of an evidentiary hearing on Defendant's motion, the trial court denied the motion, concluding that Mr. Otero was not acting as a confidential informant and was not an agent of the State when he spoke with Defendant. {6} The Sixth Amendment is implicated if the government has elicited statements from an accused after the right to counsel has attached. Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 205-06, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246 (1964). To establish a Sixth Amendment violation, the following requirements must be met: (1) the right to counsel had attached at the time of the alleged infringement; (2) the informant was acting as a government agent; and (3) the informant deliberately elicited the incriminating statement from the defendant. Matteo v. Superintendent, 171 F.3d 877, 892 (3rd Cir.1999). However, the Sixth Amendment is not violated wheneverby luck or happenstancethe State obtains incriminating statements from the accused after the right to counsel has attached. Maine v. Moulton, 474 U.S. 159, 176, 106 S.Ct. 477, 88 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). {7} It is undisputed that Defendant's right to counsel had attached; at the time he met Mr. Otero, Defendant was on trial for the victim's murder. See Moulton, 474 U.S. at 170, 106 S.Ct. 477 (stating that the right to counsel attaches when adversarial judicial proceedings have been initiated). The question to be resolved is whether Mr. Otero was acting at the behest of the State when Defendant made the incriminating statements. As Defendant himself acknowledges, there is no evidence in the record that detectives made arrangements with Mr. Otero beforehand to elicit information from Defendant or that he was deliberately placed in the cell next to Defendant. The record shows that Mr. Otero testified at length during the trial and was cross-examined by Defendant about the possible existence of any arrangements and Mr. Otero's motive for testifying. The undisputed testimony at trial was contrary to Defendant's claims. We therefore affirm the trial court's rejection of this claim; the court did not abuse its discretion in finding that Mr. Otero was not a government agent and in admitting his testimony.