Opinion ID: 1618117
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the statements appellant made prior to receiving his miranda rights were admissible at trial.

Text: Appellant's first argument is that the statements he made at the hospital regarding the knife he brandished were inadmissible at trial because they were made before receiving the Miranda warnings. Appellant attacks the admission of his statement because it implies that he had armed himself with a dangerous weapon at Witcher's house, raising his potential crime from second-degree burglary to first-degree burglary. KRS 511.020. No objection was made at trial, so the issue is unpreserved. We find no error. Appellant's possession of the steak knife at the hospital created a safety risk to hospital staff, patients, police officers, and himself. An exception to the Miranda warning requirement exists when public safety is at risk. New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649, 104 S.Ct. 2626, 81 L.Ed.2d 550 (1984). There are situation[s] where concern for public safety must be paramount to adherence to the literal language of the prophylactic rules enunciated in Miranda. Id. at 653, 104 S.Ct. 2626. Hence, police officers in potentially dangerous situations can ask questions that are necessary to establish safety but may not ask questions that are designed to elicit testimonial evidence from the suspect. Id. at 658-59, 104 S.Ct. 2626. Once Appellant flashed the knife, Sergeant Cooke had a duty to quickly disarm him and ascertain how he obtained it, lest he acquire another. Sergeant Cooke's question was not intended to prompt a confession or provide incriminating evidence but was simply the officer's attempt immediately to diffuse a dangerous situation. While it may have been preferable for the police officers to provide the Miranda warnings prior to taking Appellant to the hospital, his belligerent and combative nature made such warnings difficult, if not impossible, to provide. Appellant's argument, however, fails at a more fundamental level. The rationale of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), which has not changed throughout the factual variations of its progeny, is that an accused person in police custody is inherently under pressure, subtle or overt, to speak to police when he ought to keep silent. Miranda refers to the compulsion [to speak] inherent in custodial surroundings ..., Id. at 458, 86 S.Ct. 1602, and holds that a warning [of the right to remain silent] is an absolute prerequisite in overcoming the inherent pressure of the interrogation atmosphere. Id. at 468, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Here, Appellant was technically in police custody in the hospital x-ray room; but he was not in an inherently oppressive interrogation atmosphere. In fact, he had temporarily taken control and command of the situation by force at the point of the knife; and it was during his control of the x-ray room that the officer excitedly asked what Carver was doing with the knife. The fact that his answer was not directly responsive to the question shows that Appellant was not succumbing to the inherent pressure of police custody. He was, instead, in open defiance of it. Requiring police officers to issue a Miranda warning to the suspect holding them at knifepoint or gunpoint does nothing to further the Miranda decision's goal of protecting and preserving Fifth Amendment Rights. Hence, admitting Appellant's statements at the hospital regarding the knife was not error. Appellant contends that without the statement, the evidence is insufficient to establish that he was armed at the scene of the burglary and, therefore, insufficient to sustain the first-degree burglary charge. Yet, adequate evidence existed to prove that Appellant had the knife when he left the house. (Interestingly, he concedes in his argument that the fifty-year sentence is excessive that the knife was in his pocket while at the residence.) Deloe testified at trial that the knife belonged to a set of knives she owned. Additionally, the police officers testified that Appellant could not have armed himself while he was in custody during the time he was handcuffed.