Opinion ID: 2569354
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 61

Heading: Whether the defendant's statements were involuntary and should have been suppressed.

Text: Following his arrest, Harlan was interrogated for about eight-and-one-half hours at the Thornton Police Station. Granting Harlan's motion to suppress in part, the trial court suppressed statements that Harlan made (1) before he waived his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966); and (2) after he invoked his right to counsel. The incriminating statements that the trial court admitted into evidence occurred in the first four hours of the interrogation. Harlan asserts that these statements were involuntary and therefore not admissible against him. See People v. McIntyre, 789 P.2d 1108, 1110 (Colo.1990). However, a defendant's inculpatory statement is involuntary only if coercive governmental conduct played a significant role in inducing the statement. People v. Gennings, 808 P.2d 839, 843 (Colo.1991); see also Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 163-67, 107 S.Ct. 515, 93 L.Ed.2d 473 (1986). Our review of the videotape of those portions of the interrogation that occurred before Harlan invoked his right to counsel, convinces us that the trial court correctly found that the inculpatory statements admitted into evidence were not the product of police coercion, and were, therefore, voluntary in the constitutional sense.