Opinion ID: 2977126
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Davie’s Confession

Text: At 8:30 a.m. on the day of the VCA murders, the Warren Municipal Court chief bailiff, Carl Miller, received a phone call from Dwayne “Styx” Thomas, an informant who identified Davie as the individual responsible for the crimes. Miller and the Warren Police Captain, Timothy Downs, proceeded to the address Styx had given them, where they arrested Davie and advised him of his Miranda rights. Davie acknowledged his understanding of the rights, but he refused to sign a waiver of those rights. No. 03-4293 Davie v. Mitchell Page 18
Upon arriving at the police station at approximately 9:05 a.m., Captain Downs placed Davie in an interrogation room and asked Lt. Carl Blevins to question him. Blevins and Detective Morris Hill entered the interrogation room and re-read Davie his Miranda rights. The officers showed him a written form presenting those rights. Davie initialed the form on each line, indicating he understood his rights, but, again, refused to sign the waiver. At that point, the officers performed an atomic absorption test on Davie’s hands, but they did not question him further. Davie neither requested an attorney nor invoked his right to remain silent.
At 9:59 a.m., Downs and Blevins re-entered the interrogation room, informed Davie that they would be recording the interview, and read Davie his Miranda rights again. For a third time, Davie indicated that he understood his rights. This time, however, he informed the officers that he did not want to make a statement: Blevins: Do you not wish to make a statement or anything at this time. Davie: Doesn’t matter to me. Blevins: I heard you refuse. Davie: I didn’t refuse[;] you said I didn’t have to if I didn’t want to. Blevins: Do you wish to make a statement yes or no. Davie: No statement. Blevins: You wish not to make a statement. Davie: Right. Blevins. Okay that’s fine . . . this interview is now completed . . . . (Joint Appendix (“JA”) 2018-20, partial transcript of taped interview with Davie at 9:59 on June 27, 1991.) At that point, the officers ended the interview and transported Davie to a jail cell. Davie never asked to speak to an attorney. Shortly after the officers had finished the second interrogation, Detective Sines called the Trumbull County Prosecutor, Dennis Watkins, to ask him for his legal advice on how the officers could proceed in questioning Davie, if at all. The prosecutor advised Sines that “as long as Davie did not refuse to speak and did not demand an attorney, the officers could talk to him, provided that Davie acknowledged that he understood his rights.” Davie, 686 N.E.2d at 256.
Given Watkins’s advice, at approximately 12:15 p.m., Detective Sines and Detective Sergeant Gary Vingle requested that Davie be brought from his jail cell for interrogation. Davie agreed to talk to the officers and was escorted to the interrogation room. There, the officers readvised him of his Miranda rights and told him that the interview would be recorded. Davie again initialed each sentence of the constitutional rights form except for the waiver of rights and indicated that he understood. As before, Davie did not request a lawyer and willingly spoke to the detectives. No. 03-4293 Davie v. Mitchell Page 19 The following exchange then occurred: Sines: Do you want to sign your name here that you understand that? Davie: Well I’m not signing the waiver of rights. I didn’t sign it earlier. Sines: Okay, okay. You can take it, go ahead. He didn’t sign it. Vingle: Would you be willing to answer some of our questions if we ask you some, you know you [sic]? Davie: Yes. (JA 2021.) As the officers proceeded with the interview, Davie told them that although he did not remember being around the VCA that morning, he remembered having his gun with him. He then described the gun and informed them that he always carried one. When, at about 12:35 p.m., Davie told the officers he could not remember anything else about the incident and no longer wished to speak with them, the officers terminated the interview and Davie was returned to his jail cell.
At 2:00 p.m. that same afternoon, Sergeant Massucci went to the cell to take photographs of Davie. Davie asked Massucci if he could make a phone call, and Massucci granted his request. Davie called his girlfriend, Sonya Barnes, who apparently told him that she and Davie were being discussed in the local media. When Davie went back to his cell, he told Massucci that he wanted to talk to Vingle to discuss what was being released to the media and to determine what information Styx had given the police that morning. Davie was subsequently brought from his cell to the interrogation room where Vingle and Sines re-advised him of his Miranda rights. For a third time, Davie initialed a constitutional rights form provided by the officers, indicating that he understood his rights, and signed the form. Although Davie once again refused to sign the waiver, he explicitly stated that he agreed to talk to the officers, and he did not ask to speak to an attorney. Vingle: Do you want to acknowledge this that you have been given your rights again? Do you understand this one too, do you want to initial that one? Davie: It don’t matter, do it. Sines: Any particular reason why, you just don’t want to initial that part? Davie: Right. Sines: Are you still willing to talk to us? Davie: Right. Sines: Okay. Vingle: Okay, this has been building up? Davie: I don’t know, I just flipped out this morning. Vingle: Tell us what happened, tell us. No. 03-4293 Davie v. Mitchell Page 20 Davie: I mean, it’s evident what happened. Sines: We have an idea what happened but we would like to hear from you what happened, just to verify what we got. Davie: I went down to the VCA and shot ‘em up. (JA at 866-67.) Davie then asked the officers to type up his statement because he did not want to have to confess again. Once the tape was transcribed, Davie signed or initialed each page of the transcript. On a motion to suppress filed by Davie’s appointed counsel, the trial court found Davie’s 2:00 p.m. confession to be admissible. The court reasoned that despite Davie’s failure to initial the waiver-of-rights portion of the form, he had impliedly waived his right to remain silent during both the 12:15 p.m. and the 2:00 p.m. interrogations, and that Davie had initiated the 2:00 p.m. interrogation that ultimately led to his confession. Davie, 686 N.E.2d at 256-57.