Opinion ID: 2625941
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did the trial court err in denying Defendant's motion to suppress statements he made to L.C. on or after August 31, 1997?

Text: ¶ 26 Before trial, Defendant moved to suppress statements he made to L.C. while the two were housed together at the Madison Street Jail. The court ultimately denied the motion, a ruling that Defendant challenges as error on appeal. Because this issue may arise on retrial, we address it as follows.
¶ 27 During Defendant's stay at Madison Street Jail following his May 17 arrest for assault on the police officers at the time of his arrest, he talked with L.C., another detainee in the same housing block. On May 23, 1997, Defendant was taken to the Arizona Department of Corrections, but was returned to the Madison Street Jail on July 12, 1997. On July 22, Defendant was released on his own recognizance. ¶ 28 Before Defendant was released on July 22, Phoenix Police Detective Daily interviewed him regarding Ted Lindberry's disappearance. Before commencing questioning, Detective Daily read Defendant his Miranda rights. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Defendant initially answered questions, but then stopped answering and invoked his right to remain silent. [5] ¶ 29 A week later, on July 29, 1997, Detective Daily interviewed L.C. as a follow-up to a call L.C. had made to the silent witness program from jail. The interview concerned incriminating statements Defendant had reportedly made regarding Ted Lindberry's death while Defendant and L.C. were incarcerated together in May 1997. L.C. was interviewed again on July 31 because of a faulty recording of the July 29 interview. Defendant was out of jail from July 22, 1997, through August of that year, but was arrested again on August 31 in connection with the aggravated assault charge and returned to Madison Street Jail. [6] Soon thereafter, L.C. again contacted Detective Daily, who interviewed him on September 29 and October 1, 1997 regarding additional statements Defendant had purportedly made. ¶ 30 At the suppression hearing, L.C. testified that he had been incarcerated with Defendant in May of 1997 and that Defendant had revealed information about a murder he had committed. L.C. contacted the police and asked Detective Daily to talk to the prosecutor on his case. The Detective agreed to do so. After learning additional information during Defendant's subsequent incarceration for the assault charge, L.C. called Detective Daily again. ¶ 31 L.C. testified that during the July 29 and 31 interviews he provided most of the information he had learned from Defendant, but after Defendant was re-arrested he learned specific details of how the victim was beaten, that a key broke off in Lindberry's door, and that Lindberry's credit card was used at a hotel. Some of L.C.'s later conversations with Defendant took place while both were allegedly drunk from home-made prison wine. L.C. stated that, while Defendant initiated the conversation, he encouraged it and did not act at the direction of the police, who had told him that he could not serve as a police agent. In November, 1997, the State rewarded L.C. for his information by dismissing an allegation of a prior conviction at sentencing in exchange for his testimony at Defendant's trial.
¶ 32 Defendant conceded the admissibility of any statements he made to L.C. before July 22, the day he was read his Miranda rights and questioned by Detective Daily, but he moved to suppress any statements made after he was re-arrested on August 31. The trial court granted the motion and suppressed statements Defendant made to L.C. after August 31, 1997, on the ground that L.C. was acting as an agent for the State. The court also found, however, that Defendant's statements were voluntarily made and that there was no evidence that [Defendant's statements] were in any way the result of any coercion, threats, pressure, promises, et cetera. ¶ 33 Before L.C. testified at trial, he was instructed that he could testify only about conversations he had with Defendant before August 31, 1997. During L.C.'s testimony, Defendant objected and moved for a mistrial, claiming that L.C. testified to statements Defendant made after August 31, 1997, in violation of the court's instructions. The trial court denied the motion, stating that Defendant could cross-examine L.C. about when he heard the various statements. ¶ 34 During cross-examination of L.C., the State stipulated that L.C. testified regarding some matters not included in the July 29 and 31 interviews. On re-direct, L.C. claimed he had known that information but held it back during the first two interviews. ¶ 35 The trial court considered additional arguments and briefing on whether Defendant's Fifth Amendment Miranda rights were violated. On September 2, 1999, relying on Illinois v. Perkins, 496 U.S. 292, 110 S.Ct. 2394, 110 L.Ed.2d 243 (1990), the trial court reversed its previous ruling and held that admitting into evidence Defendant's conversations with to L.C. occurring after August 31, 1997, did not violate Defendant's Fifth Amendment rights. The court found that, as in Perkins, admission into evidence of jailhouse admissions made by an uncharged defendant to [an informant] did not violate his applicable Fifth Amendment Miranda rights. [7] The court reaffirmed its finding that there was no evidence that [Defendant's statements to L.C.] were induced by or the result of any coercion, threats, pressure or promises of any sort, direct or indirect[,] by [L.C.]. ¶ 36 The trial court also found that, at the time of Defendant's incarceration for the assault, his Sixth Amendment right to counsel was not violated because Defendant had not been charged with any crimes relating to the disappearance of Ted Lindberry and therefore Defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel had not attached. See Maine v. Moulton, 474 U.S. 159, 180, 106 S.Ct. 477, 489, 88 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985) (stating that to exclude evidence pertaining to charges as to which the Sixth Amendment right to counsel had not attached at the time the evidence was obtained, simply because other charges were pending at that time, would unnecessarily frustrate the public's interest in the investigation of criminal activities); State v. Hitch, 160 Ariz. 297, 299-301, 772 P.2d 1150, 1152-54 (App.1989).
¶ 37 Defendant maintains that any statements made to L.C., an agent of the State, after July 22, 1997, should not have been admitted because Defendant invoked his Miranda rights during the July 22 interview regarding Lindberry's disappearance. This court reviews a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress evidence for abuse of discretion. State v. Jones, 203 Ariz. 1, 5, ¶ 8, 49 P.3d 273, 277 (2002).
¶ 38 Defendant argues first that the State must show that he voluntarily waived his rights and, second, citing Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981), that the State was prohibited from reinitiating contact with him to obtain a statement. Edwards held that once a person invokes the Fifth Amendment right to counsel, the police cannot ask further questions until that person is provided counsel. Id. at 484-85, 101 S.Ct. at 1885. Edwards is inapplicable in this case, however, because the transcript of Defendant's July 22, 1997 interview with Detective Daily clearly shows that Defendant invoked only his right to remain silent, not his right to counsel. [8] See Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 104 n. 10, 96 S.Ct. 321, 326 n. 10, 46 L.Ed.2d 313 (1975). In Miranda, the Court distinguished between the procedural safeguards triggered by a request to remain silent and a request for an attorney and directed that `the interrogation must cease until an attorney is present' only `[i]f the individual states that he wants an attorney.' Id. (quoting Miranda, 384 U.S. at 474, 86 S.Ct. at 1628). Because Defendant never requested an attorney, the State could have reinitiated questioning and Defendant's statements would have been admissible as long as the State could show that he knowingly and voluntarily waived his rights. ¶ 39 Inmate L.C. did not read Defendant his Miranda rights before their jail cell conversation, nor was Defendant aware that L.C. might have been an agent of the State. But the Supreme Court has held that  Miranda warnings are not required when the suspect is unaware that he is speaking to a law enforcement officer and gives a voluntary statement. Perkins, 496 U.S. at 294, 110 S.Ct. at 2394. For example, in United States v. Stubbs, the court held that Miranda warnings are not required when the cellmate is not actually an undercover law enforcement agent but instead isat besta confidential informant. 944 F.2d 828, 831-32 (11th Cir.1991) (footnote omitted). Nor are Miranda warnings necessary when a jail visitor acts as an agent of the State. See Alexander v. Connecticut, 917 F.2d 747, 750-51 (2d Cir.1990). The Supreme Court has reasoned that the concerns underlying Miranda are not implicated in such circumstances because [t]he essential ingredients of a `police-dominated atmosphere' and compulsion are not present when an incarcerated person speaks freely to someone whom he believes to be a fellow inmate. Perkins, 496 U.S. at 296, 110 S.Ct. at 2397. The same is true in this case. Defendant chose to speak to fellow inmate L.C. Thus there has been no violation of Defendant's right to remain silent. ¶ 40 Defendant argues that Perkins is distinguishable because, unlike the defendant in Perkins, he had previously invoked his Miranda rights. [9] Defendant relies on Justice Brennan's statement in concurrence in Perkins that [i]f respondent had invoked either [his right to remain silent or his right to counsel], the inquiry would focus on whether he subsequently waived the particular right. 496 U.S. at 300 n., 110 S.Ct. at 2399 n.  (Brennan, J., concurring). Courts that have addressed similar arguments, however, have applied Perkins even if a suspect had previously invoked both the right to remain silent and the right to counsel. See Stubbs, 944 F.2d at 832 n. 3; Alexander, 917 F.2d at 751; People v. Guilmette, 1 Cal.App.4th 1534, 2 Cal.Rptr.2d 750, 753-54 (1991). Critical to the analysis is the Supreme Court's reasoning that, absent a custodial interrogation, there cannot be a violation of a defendant's Fifth Amendment Miranda rights and thus there would be no occasion to determine whether there had been a valid waiver of those rights. Edwards, 451 U.S. at 486, 101 S.Ct. at 1885. Here, Defendant's conversations with L.C. were not custodial police interrogations. Consequently, this court need not determine whether Defendant validly waived his rights before speaking to L.C. because Defendant's Miranda rights were not implicated. See id. [10] ¶ 41 Defendant also argues that his statements to L.C. were not voluntary because some of the conversations took place while drinking home-made prison wine. But the trial court found, and the record supports, that there was no evidence that [Defendant's statements to L.C.] were induced by or the result of any coercion, threats, pressure or promises of any sort, direct or indirect[,] from [L.C.]. The trial court did not err in admitting into evidence all of L.C.'s testimony about his conversations with Defendant.