Opinion ID: 1454668
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statement Prior to Miranda Warnings

Text: This particular argument covers statements made by the defendant prior to receiving his Miranda rights. The defense argues that William was in custody or significantly deprived of his freedom during the time in question. The trial court concluded that William was not in custody until after Richard's body was found and William was Mirandized. The trial court held: The missing person investigation involving defendant started at approximately 10:20 a.m. on July 14, 1988, and ended at approximately 6:50 p.m. on the same day when Richard's body was found in the Kansas River . . . Until Richard's body was found, the police were without knowledge that a crime had been committed and the investigation was not criminal in nature. Prior to the discovery of Richard's body, nothing was said or done by the police, either in their manner of approach or in the tone or extent of their questioning, which would have indicated that they would not have [heeded a request by] defendant to leave. The defendant was not in custody and [the] Miranda warning was not necessary. In State v. Fritschen, 247 Kan. 592, 600-03, 802 P.2d 558 (1990), this court determined that the proper analysis of whether a person is in custody is an objective analysis that ignores subjective beliefs, personality, and mental capacity of the defendant. The proper analysis is how a reasonable person in the suspect's position would have understood the situation. Then, if a reasonable person would have felt that he was in custody, any statements given before the suspect was advised of his or her Miranda rights must be excluded. William was first contacted by law enforcement officers at approximately 10:30 a.m. and spent the remainder of the day with the police. At no point during the day, until they read him his Miranda rights, did the police make any act or statement to William which would have led a reasonable person to believe he was not free to leave. The police asked William's help in locating a missing boy that William had been fishing with two evenings prior. There was no evidence the boy was dead or the victim of foul play, although foul play was suspected. The questions asked by the police were, for the most part, questions that attempted to elicit information about where the boy might have gone. For instance, the police asked William to show him where the boy frequently fished and swam. The police asked William to show the route Richard supposedly used to walk home. None of this would have made a reasonable person believe William was in custody, although the police did become obviously more suspicious as the day wore on. It is also relevant that at no point did the police tell William that he was in custody or that he was not free to leave, nor was William handcuffed or physically restrained. At one point the police let William go into a convenience store unescorted. The mere fact that William was questioned at the police station is not determinative either. This is a natural place for the law enforcement officers to stop to gather more information and review what has happened. During the afternoon, law enforcement personnel did learn about John William's mental history as well as his having been the subject of a murder investigation in Texas prior to his 18th birthday. In that case, a 12-year-old boy had been murdered. But, the fact that William may have become the focus of the investigation is not determinative under the reasonable person standard. Our scope of review is not to retry issues of fact. We examine the record to ascertain whether the evidence, when examined in a light most favorable to the party who prevailed in the trial court, supports the trial court's findings of fact. Here, the trial court ruled that William was not in custody until after the body was found, and the record contains substantial competent evidence to support that conclusion.