Opinion ID: 835638
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendant's Statements to Bowman on February 24, 1999

Text: Defendant also challenges the admissibility of statements that he made to Bowman on February 24, 1999. Defendant was arrested in Florida on February 20, 1999, on a parole violation warrant. Bowman flew to Florida a few days after that arrest in order to collect body fluid samples from defendant's person. When he met with defendant, Bowman did not question him about the murder but, instead, merely explained to him that a detainer would be filed in connection with Fraser's death and that, although the detainer stated that defendant was charged with murder, it was possible that the charge would be upgraded to aggravated murder. As Bowman executed the warrant, defendant told him that he (Bowman) had made a mistake in February 1998, by letting defendant go, and he asked Bowman if he had gotten in trouble for doing so. Bowman told defendant that he could not speak to defendant about those matters. Bowman acknowledged that he had not given defendant Miranda warnings during that meeting. The trial court clearly found Bowman's testimony to be credible and, according to that testimony, defendant's statements were made freely, voluntarily, and spontaneously, and were not the result of questioning by Bowman. Defendant suggests, however, that, even if Bowman did not overtly question defendant, his actions were the functional equivalent of interrogation. It is true that interrogation need not always involve overt questioning, but may instead be accomplished by other words or actions by police that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. See, e.g., Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 300-01, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980) (for purposes of determining whether police violated a criminal defendant's right to counsel or right to remain silent under Fifth and Sixth Amendments, interrogation includes words or actions that police know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response). However, defendant does not explain how that principle applies to his February 24, 1999, interaction with Bowman, and we cannot divine from the record anything that Bowman did or said that could be deemed a functional equivalent of interrogation. We therefore reject defendant's contention that admission of the statements violated his constitutional rights to counsel and to remain silent. [9]