Opinion ID: 2625609
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the Police Conducted Interrogations

Text: We begin our analysis of this issue by briefly reviewing the relevant facts and circumstances. On April 23, Bonilla-Barraza told Detective Bichel that he did not want to talk to him. Yet Detective Bichel asked Bonilla-Barraza twelve further questions about the children. On April 24, Bonilla-Barraza once again said he did not want to tell Detective Bichel what happened. Detective Bichel asked, Is there a reason why? He further asked, With you sitting here, have you come up with any questions for me? Finally, on April 25, Detective Bichel voiced a desire to find out what happened, and stated, I would like to do [sic] is get from you what actually happened. He then asked, Would you like to tell me what happened? Under the totality of the circumstances, we agree with the trial court that Detective Bichel's interviews on April 23, April 24, and April 25 constituted interrogation after Bonilla-Barraza had clearly invoked his right to remain silent. Several circumstances set a relevant backdrop for understanding whether these interviews amounted to interrogation or its functional equivalent. The first two interviews that occurred on April 23 and April 24 took place in the middle of the night, shortly after the death of Bonilla-Barraza's fiancée, with whom he had a child. Bonilla-Barraza was under investigation for the murder of his fiancée. See Wood, 135 P.3d at 751. He does not speak English, and spoke with Detective Bichel through an interpreter. After the first interview, police took photographs of Bonilla-Barraza's body and told him to change into a jail uniform, and they subsequently transported him from the ten-foot by ten-foot interview room to jail. During the first interview, the children could be heard playing from within the interview room. During the third interview, which occurred on April 25, Bonilla-Barraza was dressed in clothing identifying him as a suicide risk. He told Detective Bichel that attorneys he had talked to told him they should be present during questioning, but Detective Bichel responded that it would not make a huge difference whether the attorneys were present. The factual circumstances of the three interviews demonstrate Bonilla-Barraza's harried emotional state in the context of the continued police questioning. See id. Though Detective Bichel's questions on April 23 about Bonilla-Barraza's child and stepchildren were not overt attempts to extract a confession, the questions constituted interrogation, under the totality of the circumstances. Notably, the children were witnesses to events connected with a death in the household, and these express questions about the children might well have elicited incriminating information. While interrogation does not include words or actions of the police which are normally attendant to arrest and custody, Innis, 446 U.S. at 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, Detective Bichel's failure to ask about the children before providing a Miranda advisement, when he initially asked Bonilla-Barraza about personal identifying information, demonstrates that these questions were not part of a procedure normally attendant to arrest and custody. [10] If the police had needed further information about the names, ages, and paternity of the children to provide for their safety, and had not already learned this information when transporting the family to the police station, surely Detective Bichel could have asked such questions before the interrogation commenced. [11] While exigent circumstances might in some cases justify questioning a defendant about family members or children after police have asked a defendant questions normally attendant to arrest and custody and after a defendant has invoked his right to remain silent, such exigent circumstances were not present here. See Beagel v. State, 813 P.2d 699, 706 (Alaska App.1991) (explaining that where police interviewed suspect in her home immediately after alleged crime and she invoked her right to remain silent, subsequent question as to whether suspect had any children was designed to ensure there were no children who needed attention, not to elicit incriminating information). Detective Bichel's question on April 24 about why Bonilla-Barraza did not wish to talk to him is a clear case of interrogation after the suspect had invoked his right to remain silent. Given his background and training, Detective Bichel knew there was a reasonable likelihood that Bonilla-Barraza would provide incriminating information in response to this question. A natural reason for a suspect not to want to talk to an officer is that the suspect does not want to share damaging information. Indeed, Bonilla-Barraza responded with an statement a jury probably would deem to be inculpatory: No, because what happened is bad.... Another clear instance of interrogation occurred in the interview of April 25 when Detective Bichel asked Bonilla-Barraza what happened on the night of the victim's death.