Opinion ID: 1779869
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the Police Illegally Arrested Culp at his Home

Text: ¶ 12. Culp relies on Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 104 S.Ct. 2091, 80 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984), in support of his illegal arrest argument. His reliance is misplaced, however, because Welsh is clearly distinguishable on its facts. Police officers entered Welsh's home, without a warrant or consent, and found him lying naked in his bed. They placed him under arrest for driving while under the influence of an intoxicant. The Supreme Court held that a nighttime entry into Welch's home to arrest him for a civil traffic offense was clearly prohibited by the special protection afforded the individual in his home by the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 754, 104 S.Ct. 2091. ¶ 13. We have found that arrest means the taking into custody of another person by an officer . . . for the purpose of holding him to answer an alleged or suspected crime. Blue v. State, 674 So.2d 1184, 1202 (Miss.1996). Someone who voluntarily accompanies the police to another location for questioning has not been arrested. Id. We have also held that the test for determining when a person is in custody is whether a reasonable person would feel that they were going to jail and not just being temporarily detained. Godbold v. State, 731 So.2d 1184, 1187 (Miss.1999). Ultimately this means whether a reasonable person felt they had the freedom to refuse police demands. Id. The United States Supreme Court has held that one does not have to be affirmatively told that they had the right to refuse for their actions to be voluntary. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 234, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2051, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973). This Court has held that the voluntariness of an accused's consent is based on the totality of the circumstances including among other things: the location of the encounter, any overt coercion, the display of weapons, experience of the defendant with the criminal justice system, and the defendant's age. Jones v. State ex rel. Miss. Dep't of Pub. Saf'y, 607 So.2d 23, 27 (Miss.1991). ¶ 14. Culp's assertion that he was arrested at his home is not borne out by the record, which clearly indicates that the officers were there to speak to him because he and Lowe were the last people seen with the victims. The officers did not arrest Culp at that time, and in fact, told Culp's mother that they merely wanted to question him. [4] Culp agreed to accompany the officers to the police station. ¶ 15. When the officers asked Culp to go with them to the police station, they were doing so to further a general investigation and not to hold Culp to answer for a specific crime. It was not until later that the evidence against Culp indicated his involvement in the assault of one victim and the assault and rape of the other. At all times Culp remained free to refuse to go with the officers. Although they did not tell Culp that he had the right to refuse, under Schneckloth they were not obligated to do so. Further, the fact that the two officers were armed does not make Culp's consent involuntary. They did not display their weapons or indicate that they were present at Culp's home for the purpose of arresting him, or that force would be used against him. Officer Harrison merely asked Culp to come to the police station to answer questions regarding his relationship with the victims. In Jones, we clearly illustrated that the presence of armed police does not itself make consent involuntary, but is rather part of the totality of the circumstances to be considered. Jones, 607 So.2d at 27. Also, Culp had experience with police investigations, because he had previously been indicted for another crime.