Opinion ID: 319181
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: 'putative or virtual' defendant

Text: 32 As noted in United States v. Mandujano, supra at n. 3, the district court issued a joint opinion in this case and the Mandujano case because it found that the two cases embodied a virtually identical set of circumstances. The remarks and findings of fact by the district court quoted extensively in the Mandujano opinion apply with equal force to the circumstances of appellee Rangel's interrogation. As in Mandujano, we construe the discussion by the trial court to be a finding that the government had focused upon Rangel as someone whom the government had knowledge of having committed a crime, as a person whom the government had planned to indict as it had one eye on prosecution, and against whom it was gathering incriminating evidence. Also, the district court found that when Rangel was brought into the grand jury room, the government then knew that an affirmative answer to questions put to him would amount to a confession of guilt of trafficking in heroin. 33 Consequently, for the reasons stated in our Manduijano decision, we agree with the finding by the district court that this appellee was a virtual or putative defendant, was in custody under the Miranda decision, and therefore should have been given all Miranda warnings. 34