Opinion ID: 1377787
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Failure to Suppress Confession

Text: Defendant was arrested in Arizona in the early morning hours of November 24, 1978, on teletyped all points bulletins regarding the warrants for his arrest sent by Merced officials. Arizona officers immediately notified the Merced County Sheriff's office and Deputy John Harris went to Kingman, Arizona, the same day, arriving between 10 p.m. and midnight. Harris interviewed defendant and taped his 20- to 25-minute statement describing the offenses. Before doing so he advised defendant of his rights pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, supra, 384 U.S. 436. Defendant acknowledged his understanding of those rights and agreed to talk to Deputy Harris. Also present were Detective Hauser and two Mojave County officers. Harris had been told by one of those officers, Sergeant Burt, that prior to Harris's arrival they had taped an earlier conversation. Defendant's trial counsel objected to admission of evidence of the taped statement made to Harris without proper foundation and evidence of voluntariness of the Miranda waiver, i.e., evidence that defendant was not suffering from lack of sleep, drug withdrawal or influence, and on grounds that the edited version (to which the court had listened) was not sufficiently clear. After hearing the tape counsel withdrew the Miranda waiver objection. (15) Defendant now claims that counsel's failure to seek suppression of the confession on grounds that it was the product of an earlier interrogation conducted by Arizona officers without Miranda advice and waivers reflects incompetence. Again, the record on appeal does not support the predicate assumption. The testimony of Deputy Harris that an Arizona officer told Harris that an earlier conversation had been taped does not support defendant's theory that the interview with Harris was part of a continuous interrogation process, that defendant was interrogated by the Arizona officers, or that if such interrogation took place there had been no Miranda advice and waivers. Westover v. United States (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974], in which a confession followed lengthy interrogations by officers of different jurisdictions is, contrary to defendant's claim, distinguishable in this regard. Inasmuch as the record confirms that counsel was aware of the possible Miranda -based objection and interposed one such objection, there is no room for an inference that counsel was not aware of the applicable law. [13]