Opinion ID: 1208887
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Formal statement

Text: Around 4:00 pm, Heiser, Williams, and Montgomery went upstairs from the roll call room to a police interview room in order to give a videotaped statement. Heiser testified at the suppression hearing that Montgomery did not have any trouble navigating his way upstairs, nor did he look drunk, sleepy, or in any other way impaired during this time. As the interview began, Heiser placed an ATF Advice of Rights form in front of Montgomery. Montgomery immediately noticed that the ATF form was different from the form he had signed earlier that day in his interview with Riddle. To show the basic similarity of the forms, Williams left the room to retrieve an East St. Louis Police Department advice of rights form. The videotape in the interview room continued to roll when Williams left. Heiser asked Montgomery to give him his address and a few other personal details. Montgomery asked Heiser if Bell and Holmes, the other two passengers in the car, also had to give statements. Heiser, evidently thinking that Montgomery had asked whether the two had given statements, not if they had to give statements, replied that they did. Montgomery continued to express his puzzlement about why his case had to go federal, asking Heiser, Can't you just help me? Heiser told Montgomery in response, I'm helping you more than you know. Heiser testified at the suppression hearing that he meant to say that he was helping Montgomery by bringing charges against him. If Montgomery took advantage of the substance abuse treatment and vocational training available to him in prison, he would be able to turn his life around; Heiser did not offer this more fulsome explanation to Montgomery, however. Montgomery again asked Heiser why the case couldn't just be a state case, and Heiser told him, It is what it is and it can't be unraveled. Taking a different tack, the interview video then showed Heiser telling Montgomery, Think positive. You're looking at every negative thing about this. Heiser clarified this statement during his testimony at the suppression hearing as well, stating that he meant that Montgomery should be glad that neither he nor anyone else was hurt, despite the fact that he had a gun in his possession during a traffic stop by a police officer. Montgomery again told Heiser, I don't want a federal case, and Heiser this time told him, The state could be worse. Heiser testified at the suppression hearing that in his experience as an investigator, state penalties for unlawful possession of a firearm could be worse than federal penalties. Then, in reference to the prison sentence that Montgomery faced in the federal system, Heiser added, [w]ell, if you get time, you're not going to get 10 years. Heiser made this statement based on his knowledge of Montgomery's criminal history, but as with the statement in the roll call room, he apparently did not know that Montgomery would qualify as an Armed Career Criminal and that Montgomery instead faced a mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years. Immediately following this comment, Williams returned with the East St. Louis advice of rights form. Williams told Montgomery to initial each line of the form if he understood the accompanying right. Williams advised Montgomery that he had the right to remain silent. Montgomery then asked the officers if he had to talk to them if he initialed the form. Williams told him that he had to initial the form to indicate that he understood his rights whether he wanted to talk to them or not, and that initialing the form did not mean that he had to talk to the investigators. After signing the form, Montgomery asked if he was doing something to incriminate himself. Heiser then produced the advice of rights form again and directed Montgomery to the portion of the form telling him that anything he said to the police could be used against him in court. Montgomery then asked the investigators whether he could speak to a lawyer if he chose not to say anything. They responded that he could. Montgomery then asked whether things would be worse if he chose to talk to a lawyer. The investigators responded that they could not say what it would do, and that giving a statement would just give him an opportunity to tell his side of the story. [1] Montgomery then agreed to go ahead, and gave a statement of approximately thirty minutes. He told the investigators that he and the other occupants of the car had been drinking and smoking marijuana prior to the traffic stop, and that his fingerprints were on the weapon dropped at the scene because the other passengers had given him the gun to get rid of, and that he threw it out the window. Heiser and Williams both testified at the suppression hearing that Montgomery did not appear to be drunk or under the influence of drugs at the time of their interview, nor did he appear to be tired, sleepy, or otherwise impaired. The district court's ruling on Montgomery's suppression motion found that he was coherent during the course of the interview and was not intoxicated or under the influence of drugs when he was advised of his Miranda rights. The district court denied Montgomery's motion to suppress his statement on October 31, 2007, holding that Montgomery's statement to law enforcement officers was voluntary and made after a knowing and voluntary waiver of his Miranda rights. Montgomery then pled guilty to the charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, reserving the right to appeal the suppression of his statement. The district court sentenced Montgomery to 188 months' imprisonment, five years' supervised release, and ordered him to pay a fine and special assessment. This appeal followed.