Opinion ID: 1948185
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Police Interrogation

Text: Boobar concedes that he was advised of his rights as required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and does not argue that those rights were not knowingly waived. In order to be admissible, however, a statement must be voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Curtis, 552 A.2d 530, 532 (Me.1988); State v. Larrivee, 479 A.2d 347, 349 (Me.1984); Me. Const. art. I, § 6. A statement is voluntary if `it results from the free choice of a rational mind, if it is not the product of coercive police conduct, and if under all of the circumstances, its admission would be fundamentally fair.' Curtis, 552 A.2d at 532 (quoting State v. Mikulewicz, 462 A.2d 497, 501 (Me.1983)). In order to be voluntary, a statement must be the result of a defendant's exercise of his or her own free will and rational intellect. State v. Caouette, 446 A.2d 1120, 1123 (Me.1982). We review a trial court's determination on voluntariness for clear error, and we will not overturn a finding of voluntariness beyond a reasonable doubt if the evidence rationally supports that determination. Larrivee, 479 A.2d at 349. The State bears the burden of establishing voluntariness beyond a reasonable doubt, but the trial court should look to the totality of the circumstances in making its determination as to the admissibility of an accused's statement to police. State v. Smith, 615 A.2d 1162, 1163 (Me.1992). Boobar maintains that his exhaustion and emotional state during the interrogation (the statement was obtained late at night, at a police station, over a four-hour period), his ignorance of the fact that he was the prime suspect (the police did not inform him that he was a suspect in a homicide, telling him that the case involved a missing person), and the tactics used by the detectives (they used good cop-bad cop interviewing techniques and were not fully candid about the nature of their investigation at first, indicating only that they were seeking information about a missing person, disclosing later that they were investigating Pelkey's murder and that Boobar was a suspect) required the trial court to conclude that in the totality of the circumstances his statement was not voluntary. We disagree. There were three breaks during the interview, and opportunities for Boobar to drink coffee and make bathroom visits. The detectives advised Boobar that he could stop if he were too tired to continue the interview; Boobar assured them he was not too fatigued. Notwithstanding Boobar's fatigue, he was calm and lucid, State v. Carisio, 552 A.2d 23, 25 (Me. 1988), and any confrontational aspects of the interrogation did not render his statement involuntary. State v. Candage, 549 A.2d 355, 359-60 (Me.1988); see also State v. Scheuler, 488 A.2d 481, 484 (Me.1985). Moreover, in the absence of evidence suggesting that the police were abusive or hostile, the fact that the interrogation lasted several hours does not mean that the statements were involuntary. See State v. Gosselin, 594 A.2d 1102, 1105 (Me.1991). On this record, the trial court's finding that Boobar's statement was voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt was not clearly erroneous. See State v. Barczak, 562 A.2d 140, 145 (Me.1989).