Opinion ID: 4527706
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Pertinent Factual Background1

Text: In July of 2002, human remains were discovered on a property in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. The remains were from a body which had been dismembered and burned in two, 55 gallon barrels. A forensic examination revealed that the cause of the victim’s death was multiple stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the head and torso. The examination further revealed that the victim’s head, hands, and legs were amputated postmortem. At the time of the victim’s death, Appellant lived with her then-husband, James Britton (“James”), in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. On August 24, 2002, the Brittons’ home burned down as a result of arson, and the couple moved to California. In 2003, the victim was identified as Robert Roudebush (“Victim”), a resident of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Around the same time that authorities learned of Victim’s identity, James, who was incarcerated on charges unrelated to the instant matter, notified his probation officer and, later, the Pennsylvania State Police that he had information about a July 2002 murder of a person named Bob. James told the police that Larry Tooley, the Brittons’ next door neighbor in Wilkes-Barre, committed the murder. Nonetheless, the case remained cold. In 2008, Victim’s murder was the subject of an investigating grand jury. During those proceedings, the Brittons testified and again suggested that Larry Tooley had committed Victim’s murder. It, however, does not appear that anyone was charged as 1Our summary of the facts is gleaned from the transcript of Appellant’s suppression hearing, N.T., 7/12/2016, and the opinion that the trial court authored in support of its order denying Appellant’s motion to suppress, Trial Court Opinion, 10/27/2016. [J-40-2019] - 2 a result of the grand jury investigation. Consequently, the murder continued to remain unsolved. On August 14, 2015, Appellant, who was living in San Bernardino County, California, called authorities in Pennsylvania to discuss information that she had regarding a 2002 homicide. More specifically, Appellant informed Monroe County Detective Joseph Coddington that on July 4, 2002, James killed Victim. During the course of their conversation, Appellant stated to the detective that she would prefer to speak to someone in person. Detective Coddington passed this information along to his colleague, Monroe County Detective Wendy Serfass, who then contacted Corporal Shawn Williams of the Pennsylvania State Police.2 Corporal Williams called Appellant in California, and she repeated her story that James killed Victim. Appellant also stated that she dismembered the body at James’ request and further described how the couple disposed of the body by placing the remains in plastic bags, driving them to a property, and burning them in barrels. Corporal Williams’ colleague, Pennsylvania State Police Corporal Thomas McAndrew, then called the County Sherriff’s Department in San Bernardino, California, and eventually spoke to Detective Jon Cahow. Corporal McAndrew provided Detective Cahow with a background of this case and, pursuant to Appellant’s request, asked the detective to interview Appellant in person. Corporal McAndrew and Detective Cahow did not discuss instructions on how the California law enforcement officers should conduct their interview with Appellant. The Pennsylvania State Police followed up later by emailing and mailing various reports and files to the San Bernardino County Sherriff’s Department. 2 Corporal Williams had worked on the case previously. [J-40-2019] - 3 On August 17, 2015, Detective Cahow contacted Appellant by phone, and she agreed to meet with the detective and his partner, San Bernardino County Detective Charles Phillips, at the Morongo Sherriff’s Station in California, where the detectives interviewed Appellant for several hours. Video and audio recordings were made of the interview, which presumably is legal and done as a matter of protocol in California. Further, there is a sign in the Sheriff’s Station where Appellant was interviewed, advising interviewees that video and audio recordings are occurring. As the interview proceeded, Appellant became tired and concerned that her son needed to go to bed to be ready for school the next day, but she agreed to continue the interview with the detectives at her home. There, the detectives recorded their conversation with Appellant by way of a belt recorder, i.e., an audio recording device that the detectives placed on their belts. During the course of these interviews on August 17th, Appellant initially said that she came home on July 4, 2002, and discovered Victim dead in the basement of her home. However, later in the interviews, she recanted this statement, accepted responsibility for participating in the murder, explained in gruesome detail how she dismembered the body, and laid out how the couple disposed of the remains. Appellant also accused James of starting the fire that burned down their house in August of 2002.3 The California detectives returned to Appellant’s home the next day and continued interviewing her. They again captured an audio recording of the conversation on a belt recorder. In addition, Detective Phillips utilized a Sherriff-issued iPad to record a video of Appellant demonstrating on a stuffed animal the manner in 3Pennsylvania State Police Detective Williams later interviewed James, who blamed Appellant for Victim’s murder and for burning down the couple’s home. [J-40-2019] - 4 which James killed Victim. Appellant further admitted that she was present for and actively participated in Victim’s murder. Over the course of the two days of interviews, Detective Cahow periodically updated Pennsylvania State Police Corporal McAndrew concerning Appellant’s statements. At some point during those conversations, Detective Cahow informed Corporal McAndrew that the California detectives were recording their interviews with Appellant. However, the California detectives never affirmatively informed Appellant that they were recording the interviews, although, as noted above, there was a sign in the Morongo Sheriff’s Station advising that audio and video recording was taking place; moreover, Appellant was aware that the California detectives recorded her depiction of the murder on an iPad. Pennsylvania authorities subsequently arranged for Appellant to return to the Commonwealth, where she was arrested and charged with multiple crimes connected to Victim’s murder. The San Bernardino County Sherriff’s Department later provided the recordings of Appellant’s interviews to the Pennsylvania State Police.