Opinion ID: 2265280
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Admissibility of Defendant's Statement to the Police

Text: The defendant argues that the statement given by Ellis to the police should not have been admitted by the trial justice since it was obtained as a result of wrongful detention in violation of the Fourth Amendment. See, e.g., Taylor v. Alabama, 457 U.S. 687, 102 S.Ct. 2664, 73 L.Ed.2d 314 (1982); Dunaway v. New York, 422 U.S. 200, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979); Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975); Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). The lynchpin of defendant's argument is that when the police arrested and handcuffed Ellis, they did not have probable cause to believe that he had committed any cognizable offense. The Superior Court justice who heard the motion to suppress this statement found that at the moment of arrest the police had seen a vial of crack cocaine in defendant's hand. On this basis he held that the police had probable cause to arrest and that thereafter the statement made after Miranda warnings was admissible. The defendant argues that the police did not see the vial of cocaine until after he had been handcuffed. Therefore, he suggests that the arrest preceded the finding of the cocaine and cannot rest upon this discovery for its validity. For purposes of our decision in this case, we shall accept defendant's argument. However, we are of the opinion that the police had probable cause to arrest defendant without reference to his possession of crack cocaine. We have defined probable cause as knowledge of those facts and circumstances along with reasonable trustworthy information that would cause a prudent officer to believe that the suspect had committed a crime. State v. Pacheco, 481 A.2d 1009, 1021-22 (R.I. 1984); In re John N., 463 A.2d 174, 178 (R.I. 1983); State v. Welch, 441 A.2d 539, 541 (R.I. 1982): We had also stated in In re Armand, 454 A.2d 1216, 1218 (R.I. 1983): [A] general principle applicable here is that the mosaic of facts and circumstances must be viewed cumulatively `as through the eyes of a reasonable and cautious police officer on the scene, guided by his or her experience and training.'    Moreover, in our review we must examine the completed mosaic in terms of what the police knew, what they heard, and what they observed as trained officers. We also stated in Armand that our function on review of a determination of probable cause is to make an independent examination of the record to determine whether factors existed that established probable cause for an arrest. Id. We accept the facts as found by the trial justice unless they are clearly wrong or unless he or she has overlooked or misconceived material evidence. Id. In the case at bar, assuming that the trial justice misconceived the officer's testimony concerning the time that the vial of crack cocaine was discovered and assuming that the seizure of defendant took place a split second before, we must exercise our independent judgment to determine whether the police had probable cause to arrest defendant without reference to the vial of cocaine. In the exercise of our independent judgment, we believe that the officers did have such probable cause. In State v. Brennan, 526 A.2d 483, 485 (R.I. 1987), we quoted Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 232, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2329, 76 L.Ed.2d 527, 544 (1983), for the proposition that probable cause is a fluid concept  turning on the assessment of probabilities in particular factual contexts. We went on to state that we independently examined the record to determine whether the `mosaic of facts and circumstances' on which the arresting officer relied in arresting the defendant  viewed cumulatively through the eyes of a reasonable, cautious police officer guided by his or her experience and training  established probable cause. Brennan, 526 A.2d at 485. The mosaic may reflect the collective knowledge of the police department, as long as the arresting officer relied on that knowledge. Id. In the instant case, Detective McKenna and his colleagues on the Providence police department knew with certainty that a brutal crime of homicide had been committed. They knew that the homicide had been implemented by a shotgun blast. They further knew that one David Ellis possessed two shotguns in the apartment that he shared with one Carolyn Skinner. They further knew that Ellis had stabbed Patrick a relatively short time prior to Patrick's death. They knew that Patrick had been instrumental in the filing of charges against Ellis for the crime of assault with intent to murder. They may have known that Patrick had dropped the charges later. The officers were made aware just prior to their entry that Ellis was in the apartment and possessed two shotguns with pistol grips. We believe that this knowledge and information together with rational inferences that could be drawn therefrom created probable cause to believe that Ellis had shot Patrick with a shotgun. It is true that when the officers went to Carolyn's apartment they had intended only to interrogate her. The kaleidoscopic progression of events gave rise to information that Ellis was inside along with Carolyn and her daughter. The officers acted instinctively. When the officers saw Ellis lying on the bed with his hand beneath the pillow, they had reason to believe that he might well be armed and dangerous. When, after repeated commands, he withdrew his hand from beneath the pillow, the officers immediately handcuffed him. The question of whether the officers had subjectively formulated in their own minds the mosaic of facts giving rise to probable cause may well be blurred by their immediate finding of a vial of crack cocaine that provided an alternative ground for a custodial arrest. We have often said that there is a great difference between probable cause and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Read, 416 A.2d 684, 689 (R.I. 1980); State v. Joseph, 114 R.I. 596, 601, 337 A.2d 523, 526 (1975); State v. Nerney, 110 R.I. 364, 365, 292 A.2d 882, 883 (1972). Perhaps no case is more illustrative of the distinction between probable cause and proof beyond a reasonable doubt than Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949), in which the Supreme Court of the United States found probable cause based upon inferences drawn from the very limited facts of a heavily loaded automobile heading from a source of liquor in Joplin, Missouri, toward Vinita, Oklahoma. In the case at bar the officers obviously relied upon what they knew and the inferences they had drawn when they handcuffed Ellis. The validity of the arrest should not be based upon whether the officers articulated the rationale with precision as they performed the arrest. See New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649, 104 S.Ct. 2626, 81 L.Ed.2d 550 (1984); United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218, 94 S.Ct. 467, 38 L.Ed.2d 427 (1973) (the subjective motivation of an officer does not determine the validity of his action). We find that there were ample grounds to support Ellis's arrest at the time he was handcuffed, without reference to the vial of crack cocaine. Relying upon facts and information within the officers' knowledge and from which reasonable inferences might be drawn to create probable cause for a reasonable officer to believe that Ellis had shot Patrick, the motion justice committed no error in declining to suppress defendant's statement made at the police station hours subsequent to his arrest. We sustain the motion justice's ruling even though we do so on grounds different from those upon which he relied. See In re Joseph J., 465 A.2d 150 (R.I. 1983), and cases cited therein.