Opinion ID: 786204
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Interrogation of Max Soffar and His First Three Written Statements

Text: 38 Over a period of three days following his arrest on the stolen motorcycle charge, while he was in custody and without counsel present, Soffar would sign three written statements, prepared by detectives, in which he implicated himself and Latt Bloomfield in the bowling alley robbery-murders. 39 After booking Soffar for the motorcycle charge, the League City police contacted Detective Bruce Clawson of the Galveston County Sheriff's Organized Crime Unit, for whom Soffar had been an informant. Soffar also knew Clawson from spending time at the Friendswood Police Department and considered Clawson his friend. Because of this supposed friendship, Clawson was summoned to be a friendly face for Soffar and to hold Soffar's hand, in an effort to convince him that he should talk to the Houston detectives. It is clear, however, that although Soffar believed that they were friends, the feeling was not mutual. Discussing his relationship with Soffar, Clawson stated, Max might have considered me a friend but I didn't consider him a friend ... my primary job as a police officer was to get Max to talk. After speaking with Soffar during the morning of August 5, Clawson succeeded in getting Soffar to speak with the Houston detectives. 13 40
41 After Clawson's efforts to get Soffar to continue talking were successful, Detective Schultz interrogated Soffar for an additional two hours. 15 At 3:30 p.m. on August 5, 1980, Soffar signed a written statement prepared by Detective Schultz. The statement was identified as State's Exhibit 108, and while not introduced into evidence by the State, it was used against Soffar during the guilt phase of his capital murder trial. In this first statement, Soffar stated the following. He and Bloomfield went to the bowling alley one night in the first part of July and Soffar entered through a side door and checked the cash drawer. Bloomfield asked him to return the next night with his pistol, but he told Bloomfield he was not going to do it. He did, however, later agree to drive Bloomfield to the bowling alley and wait outside. While he waited in the car outside the front door, he saw Bloomfield move some people around and he heard two shots when Bloomfield was out of his sight. He then saw Bloomfield make some people get on their knees. As he moved the car forward, he heard another shot and then two more shots. He stated that Bloomfield told him that someone pulled a gun on him. They then went to Galveston where Bloomfield robbed a U-Totem convenience store 16 and they bought some drugs. 42 After giving this first written statement, Soffar was transported to Houston police headquarters, where he spent an additional 3 hours with Houston police officers before he was transported to the jail at approximately 7:43 p.m. 43
44 Beginning shortly after 9:00 a.m. the morning of August 6, 1980, Williamson mirandized and interrogated Soffar for approximately 50 minutes in a tape-recorded conversation during which Soffar relayed more details of the same basic scenario, i.e., that he drove to the bowling alley and that Bloomfield did the robbery and shootings alone. 17 At approximately 10:00 a.m., Soffar was taken to a line-up arranged for surviving witness Garner's viewing. Garner failed to positively identify Soffar. 18 Soffar was then mirandized and interrogated again by Williamson and Ladd, for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes before giving his second statement. 19 45 At 2:44 p.m. on August 6, 1980, Soffar signed the second written statement prepared by Ladd. This statement was identified as State's Exhibit 109. As with State's Exhibit 108, the second statement was not introduced into evidence by the State, but was used during the guilt phase of his capital murder trial. In his second statement, Soffar told the same basic story as he had in his first statement, adding the following details. The night before the robbery-murders, it was Soffar who kicked in the glass side door of the bowling alley to commit the burglary. 20 The next day, Bloomfield picked him up at 1:00 p.m. and they hung out together for the afternoon. That evening they drove back to the bowling alley at 9:00 p.m., but since there were a lot of people there, they just parked the car and drank beer until most everyone had left. Again, Soffar stated that he pulled the car up in front of the doors while Bloomfield went inside of an unlocked front door. Bloomfield was approached by two people and then another, and he made these three lie down on the floor right in front of the door. Bloomfield motioned to someone else to come over and then Soffar heard the first shot. He could see the feet of the people on the floor. He then heard another and then several other shots. Bloomfield came running out of the bowling alley with the gun in one hand and the lady's stocking he had put over his face when he entered in the other hand. Bloomfield told him that someone pulled a gun on him so he did what he had to do. Soffar added that they went to buy drugs that night from an individual named Pops, and that several weeks after the robbery-murders Soffar told Pops about the deal at the bowling alley. He asked Pops if he heard about it and that Latt [Bloomfield] and I had done it. 46 At some point after signing his second statement at 2:44 p.m., Soffar was visited by, and he spoke privately with: his mother, Zelda Soffar; his uncle, Carl Lander; and his aunt, Celia Nathan. 21 Ms. Nathan informed Detective Ladd that the family was in agreement that Max should cooperate with the police. At approximately 4:00 p.m., Detectives Williamson and Ladd checked Soffar out of the jail and took him in a patrol car to the crime scene. They pulled into the parking lot, but did not go inside of the bowling alley. At approximately 5:30 p.m., the detectives drove Soffar to an area south of Houston where he identified Lawrence Bryant, a.k.a. Pops, as the person from whom he and Bloomfield had allegedly purchased drugs the night of the robbery-murders. At approximately 7:30 p.m., the detectives then took Soffar to Galveston where Soffar pointed out a convenience store Bloomfield had allegedly robbed. Soffar was checked back into the jail at 10:55 p.m. 22 47 During the time Soffar was riding around with Detectives Williamson and Ladd, the police released Bloomfield from custody, citing a lack of any corroborating evidence to justify charging him in the robbery-murders. 48
49 Beginning at approximately 8:42 a.m. the morning of August 7, 1980, Detectives Tom Ladd 23 and Ted Thomas interrogated Soffar for approximately two and one-half hours. Soffar was also briefly interrogated that morning by Williamson. That afternoon, a felony capital murder complaint was filed against Soffar alleging that he intentionally caused the death of Felsher while in the course of committing or attempting to commit the armed robbery of Sims. 50 Upset because he had learned that Bloomfield had been released and because he thought that he was going to be charged with all three murders alone, Soffar contacted a family member and asked them to have detectives come and see him at the jail. At approximately 7:30 p.m. that evening, Detectives Ladd and Williamson came to see Soffar again. Soffar inquired as to why Bloomfield had been released and the detectives responded that they did not yet have enough evidence on Bloomfield to either hold or charge him. Ladd then began actively interrogating Soffar for another 30 minutes before beginning to take and prepare Soffar's third statement. 51 At 9:25 p.m. on August 7, 1980, Soffar signed the third written statement prepared by Ladd. This statement, identified as State's Exhibit 110, was introduced into evidence by the State, and used against Soffar during the guilt and penalty phases of his capital murder trial. The entire text of Soffar's third statement reads as follows: 24 52 My name is Max Soffar. I have been in jail since Tuesday morning for this bowling alley deal. I gave two previous statements, one to detective Schultz and one to detective Ladd. I didn't tell the whole truth in those statements and want to now so that I don't take this whole thing by myself. 53 One thing that I didn't tell the truth on was that Lat Bloomfield and I did this thing when we first got to the bowling alley, not like I said about being there in the parking lot for awhile. Lat drove in and we were in his brown thunderbird. Lat pulled right to the front door so that the passenger side was next to the bowling alley. I think that there was a couple of cars in the parking lot when Lat pulled to the door. Lat pulled a stocking over his hair so that his hair would be pulled back. I pulled up my t-shirt over my nose and mouth. Lat had his 357 revolver which I think is an R-G model. This gun had about a three inch barrel. He had the gun under his shirt when we walked in a guy asked what we were doing. Lat pulled the revolver and stuck it in this guys face and said, This is a robbery. Lat pulled this guy by the hair and made him get down on his knees and xx walked up. This was two dudes and a girl. Lat told them to get on the floor and if they didn't do what he told them that he would shoot this first guy who was already on the floor. They got down on their knees away from the counter and Lat made them come back closer to the control counter and they did. They were laying from the door so that there was a dude and then a girl and then another dude and then the last dude. The second dude was trying to look up and Lat told him not to be looking and to turn around and lay facing the way all the others were. He then turned around so that they were all facing back towards the snack bar. The second dude kept looking around so Lat fired a warning shot into the floor. The girl screamed and then Lat told her to shut up and she kept screaming. Lat kicked the girl in the back and then the second dude who was the one who kept looking up started to raise up. He was about half way up when Lat shot him in the back of the head. Then Lat just turned around and shot the third dude. This third dude was the first one Lat grabbed and made get on the floor. He shot him the same way as the first one that he shot. Lat threw me the gun and told me to shoot the other two. I hesitated and then he said, Shoot them now. I aimed the gun and the other guy who was still left who was closest to the door and fired one time. I hit him in the back of the head behind the ear. I walked around the other side of them and heasitated [sic] and Lat said, Shoot her. She had her face down and she just looked up at me and I aimed and turned my head and shot her. I think I hit her in the cheek. I had the gun and ran around and looked in the cash register over by where you get the shoes. I got all the bills and a little of the change and then went to the office but the door was locked. I went over to the cash register by the snack bar and took bills out of it too. I put the money in my pockets. I went back by the office and tried to force the door open but I couldn't get it opened. Lat was looking under the counter for a money bag and I think he got 50 or 60 dollars. We walked over by the office and I told him I thought I saw some headlights. I went outside but I didn't see anyone so when I came back in Lat was rumageing [sic] through their pockets and took the wallets out of their pockets. He took the money and I think that he kept the wallets. We looked around to make sure that nobody was looking and we didn't see anybody. I asked him if he wanted to check in the back and he said no. So, we looked in the bathrooms making sure no body was in there. Then we left. I still had the gun. Lat drove and we had the windows down to his car. He made a right on the highway and drove down for a little bit and then turned around and came back past the bowling alley. I asked him why he shot the dudes and he said he shot the dude for raising up and playing hero. He said he made me shoot the other two so that I would be as guilty as him if we got caught. I put the gun under the front seat after I reloaded it and it only had one live bullet in it before reloading. I don't know where the gun is now. The last time I saw the gun was I believe last Saturday night and Lat had it at that time. We went to score some pills and got 24 pills over at the dope house. These were preludins. After the gas and pills I got 95 dollars out of the deal and I think Lat got a lot more. We went to my house and did some preludin and Lat said he was afraid someone had seen his car so he went and took it home. He walked back over to my house that night and we did the rest of the pills. We stayed up all day and went out to the park the next day. I was scared and that is the reason that I did not tell the whole truth before and I feel like shit and feel bad about what happened and ought to take my punishment for it. I think Lat and me both ought to pay for what we did. 25 54 In addition to his written statement, Soffar drew a diagram of the positions of the victims at the time of the shootings. In the diagram, Soffar depicted the four victims lying parallel to one another with their feet aligned along the edge of the control booth. This diagram was not introduced into evidence during Soffar's capital murder trial, but was admitted into evidence by the state habeas court. It is attached to this opinion as Appendix C. 26 55