Opinion ID: 2330570
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: suppression of hospital interviews

Text: Warrior's first argument on appeal is that the trial court erred by admitting into evidence certain statements made by Warrior to law enforcement officers who questioned her while she was a patient in the hospital. Specifically, Warrior contends the third and fourth hospital interviews conducted on May 3, 2005, and May 5, 2005, were custodial interrogations, and her statements should have been suppressed because she was not Mirandized. Warrior acknowledges officers had previously interviewed her at the hospital on April 26, 2005, and April 30, 2005, the first and second interviews, but she does not dispute the admissibility of her statements made during those encounters. Warrior objected to the admission of the statements before and during the trial, arguing she was considered to be a suspect early in the investigation of the case and that, although officers did not arrest Warrior at the hospital, she certainly was not able to leave at the time of the hospital interviews because of her physical condition. Therefore, she argued, the interrogations were custodial. After considering counsel's arguments, the testimony of both Warrior and Detective Lawson, and the transcript of Warrior's indictment proceeding held before a grand jury, the judge, at a pretrial hearing, found that the interviews were not custodial, stating: [T]his brings to mind a quote from a famous detective, Inspector Clouseau, who indicated, `I suspect everyone and I suspect no one,' and I think that was probably the case here, ... is this defendant was never a non-suspect. I guess because she was a spouse and because information that came in early, but she certainly remained possibly only a victim all the way through this investigation, I guess up through her third statement. But the key here is she was never in custody. I think clearly this was not a custodial investigation, even by her own admission. She could have told [Detective Lawson] to leave, in fact, did so and he did leave.