Opinion ID: 1091512
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: the court erred in failing to suppress the alleged confessions of the defendant.

Text: West's argument is that he was denied sleep by the Georgia authorities from the time he was taken into custody until he made the statements and that he does not recall making them. The court found that the statements were voluntarily made and that West was alert. The court noted that West was not contesting the truthfulness of the statements but only the voluntariness of his statements. The trial court in this case was called on to make a factual determination, and this Court will not overturn a finding of fact made by a trial judge unless clearly erroneous. Neal v. State, 451 So.2d 743 (Miss. 1984); cf. Ratliff v. State, 317 So.2d 403 (Miss. 1975); Hall v. State, 427 So.2d 957 (Miss. 1983). All the officers present at the time the statements were taken testified at trial and apart from appellant's testimony there was no indication that the confessions were not voluntarily made. The State followed the procedure that requires that all persons present at the taking of a confession must testify when its free and voluntary character is in question. Kelly v. State, 414 So.2d 446 (Miss. 1982); McLeod v. State, 317 So.2d 389 (Miss. 1975); Nabors v. State, 293 So.2d 336 (Miss. 1974); Stevens v. State, 228 So.2d 888 (Miss. 1969); Scott v. State, 382 So.2d 1091 (Miss. 1980). The finding of the trial judge was not erroneous. For the reasons stated above this case is reversed and remanded for a new trial. REVERSED AND REMANDED FOR A NEW TRIAL. PATTERSON, C.J., ROY NOBLE LEE, P.J., and HAWKINS, DAN M. LEE, PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN and ANDERSON, JJ., concur.