Opinion ID: 1595830
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Statements by John Smith

Text: Smith next asserts that the trial court erred when it refused to suppress statements by his brother, John, which related to comments made by Smith with regard to the sexual battery and murder of the victim. According to Smith, John obtained these statements while he was acting as an agent of the FBI and the SCSO. We disagree. This Court has stated that [a] trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress comes to us clothed with a presumption of correctness and, as the reviewing court, we must interpret the evidence and reasonable inferences and deductions derived therefrom in a manner most favorable to sustaining the trial court's ruling. Connor v. State, 803 So.2d 598, 605 (Fla.2001) (quoting Murray v. State, 692 So.2d 157, 159 (Fla.1997)). Nevertheless, mixed questions of law and fact that ultimately determine constitutional rights should be reviewed by appellate courts using a two-step approach, deferring to the trial court on questions of historical fact but conducting a de novo review of the constitutional issue. Id. (citing United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321, 336 n. 10, 118 S.Ct. 2028, 141 L.Ed.2d 314 (1998)). We have previously addressed the state-agent concept and the constitutional issues presented by the use of state agents: In Massiah [v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246 (1964)], the United States Supreme Court announced for the first time that the Sixth Amendment prohibits law enforcement officers from interrogating a defendant after his or her indictment and in the absence of counsel. Consequently, statements deliberately elicited from a defendant after the right to counsel has attached and in the absence of a valid waiver are rendered inadmissible and cannot be used against the defendant at trial. 377 U.S. at 206[, 84 S.Ct. 1199]. Nevertheless, incriminatory statements by a defendant will not be excluded merely because the statements are made after judicial proceedings have been initiated and in the absence of a valid waiver. Rather, law enforcement officials must do something that infringes upon the defendant's Sixth Amendment right. While the deliberately elicited standard is clearly satisfied when the police directly interrogate or question a defendant in some fashion, it also may be satisfied by less direct types of questioning. See State v. Wooley, 482 So.2d 595, 596 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986). Usually, determining whether the deliberately elicited standard has been met becomes an issue in cases ... where incriminatory statements from a defendant were obtained through persons other than the police who allegedly acted as police informants or surrogates. Rolling v. State, 695 So.2d 278, 290 (Fla. 1997) (footnote omitted). We held in Rolling that a violation of a defendant's right to counsel turns on whether the confession was obtained through the active efforts of law enforcement or whether it came to them passively. Id. at 291 (emphasis supplied). For example, in Malone v. State, 390 So.2d 338, 339 (Fla.1980), an inmate and a detective established a plan whereby the inmate would be transferred to another jail. The inmate would then visit the defendant in civilian clothes and tell the defendant that he had been released, and that the inmate would attempt to retain an attorney for the defendant. See id. We held that the trial court erred when it failed to suppress the defendant's statements to the inmate indicating that the defendant had killed the victim and providing directions as to where the body was located. See id. In so holding, we concluded that the statements were  directly elicited by the State's stratagem deliberately designed to elicit an incriminating statement from [the defendant]. Id. (emphasis supplied); cf. Dufour v. State, 495 So.2d 154, 159 (Fla.1986) (inmate was not a state agent where the inmate approached the authorities on his own initiative and, after speaking with authorities, the inmate was neither encouraged nor discouraged from obtaining further information). We conclude that the record supports the determination by the trial court that John Smith was not acting as an agent of the State. First, both statements that John provided to FBI agents are transcribed in the record. Not once in either of these statements do the agents ask John to speak to his brother to determine whether Carlie was alive. While the agents on one occasion asked John, Have you ever thought about going to see him and asking if he did this, the agents did not further pursue this line of inquiry. It was John who volunteered that the only way to persuade Smith to talk would be to engage in trickery. However, in response to this statement by John, the agents did not request that he trick Smith in an effort to locate Carlie. The agents encouraged John to contact them further only if he had forgotten something. Further, after the morning meeting with Smith and his mother, when John informed the FBI agent that Smith came close, but he didn't say anything, the agent did not question John further with regard to that statement. Second, there is no indication that law enforcement arranged the morning meeting between John, Smith, and their mother. During the hearing on the motion to suppress, an FBI agent testified that after John provided his first statement, he subsequently called and demanded to see his brother. The agent followed the chain of command and eventually informed John that it was not possible to arrange a meeting with Smith that night because Smith had requested an attorney. SCSO personnel confirmed that the FBI agent was informed that a visit was not possible that night and could only be arranged through the public defender. It was the public defender who eventually requested the visitation between John, his mother, and Smith. Thus, the record reflects that law enforcement did not affirmatively arrange the meeting between John and his brother. Instead, law enforcement initially blocked John from seeing Smith and required that he arrange a meeting through the public defender. Finally, John's actions refute any contention that he was working as a State agent. John misled law enforcement with regard to the morning meeting with his mother and Smith. John then traveled with his mother to the church where Smith informed him that the victim's body was located, and searched for the body. It appears that John may have been seeking some personal benefit for himself or his family, but not as a state agent. On February 19, 2004, when Smith advised John that it was a bad idea for John to search for the body, John replied, You're probably right, but he [sic] could have sold it for big, big bucks. Your kids could have went to college. Finally, when Smith provided John with a note written in code that explained what happened to the victim's belongings, John did not decipher the code for the State or relinquish the note voluntarily. The State was required to enlist the services of a cryptanalyst to decipher the message. Based on these record facts, and the absence of any facts to support the agency theory, we conclude that the trial court properly denied suppression of John's statements.