Opinion ID: 2222316
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the pre-trial ruling:

Text: We first consider appellant's challenge to the pre-trial denial of his motion to suppress. Appellant's motion asked the court to find his statement to be the product of coercion, because of his prolonged incommunicado detention, his fatigue and nervousness, and his deep emotional state, and also because of the failure to advise him of his Miranda rights or to advise him that he was being investigated. At the hearing, there was no evidence of mental or physical condition, and appellant admitted advisement of his rights and, an hour after his arrest, advisement of his crime. However, the witnesses presented other evidence relevant to voluntariness. Indiana requires the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the confession was voluntary. Burton v. State (1973), Ind., 292 N.E.2d 790. (Contrast the preponderance standard in the Federal courts. Lego v. Twomey [1972], 404 U.S. 477, 92 S.Ct. 619, 30 L.Ed.2d 618.) The record of the pre-trial hearing discloses that an adequate advisement of rights were given appellant as required by Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 384 U.S. 436, 88 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, and that he signed a written waiver at 9:10 a.m., November 11th. The statement which appellant seeks to suppress followed immediately. In cases such as this, wherein the adequacy of the advisement of rights is not in dispute, and the defendant's statement immediately follows a formal waiver of rights, the general claim that the statement was not voluntarily made and therefore inadmissible, carries with it the issue of whether or not the waiver was voluntarily and intelligently made. All of appellant's arguments would serve equally well to demonstrate that the State failed in its burden to show the waiver was voluntary and intelligent, as they would to demonstrate the State's failure to show that the confession was voluntary. As we said in Nacoff v. State (1971), 256 Ind. 97, 267 N.E.2d 165: A heavy burden rests on the [State] to demonstrate that the appellant intelligently and voluntarily waived his right to remain silent and to consult with appointed counsel. Miranda v. Arizona, supra . The legal standard to be applied in determining whether an accused, who has been properly advised of his rights and has signed a waiver, has voluntarily waived his rights is the same as that used in the pre- Miranda coerced confession cases. The question is whether, looking at all the circumstances, the confession was free and voluntary, and not induced by any violence, threats, promises, or other improper influence. 256 Ind. at 100-01, 267 N.E.2d at 167. Similarly, in Brady v. U.S. (1970), 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747, the Supreme Court stated with regard to the guilty plea: Waivers of constitutional rights not only must be voluntary but must be knowing, intelligent acts done with sufficient awareness of the relevant circumstances and likely consequences. 397 U.S. at 748, 90 S.Ct. at 1469. If the waiver was not voluntarily and intelligently given, there was no voluntary and intelligent relinguishment of the rights to remain silent and to have counsel present during questioning, and, in that event, the statement would not be admissible. If the waiver is shown to have been voluntary and intelligent, any statement given to the police immediately following such waiver could not but be voluntary. In the present case, we will review the trial court's determination of voluntariness with regard to the totality of the circumstances. We will consider the evidence which supports the decision of the trier of fact in the case of contested evidence, and any uncontested evidence presented by the appellant. Haynes v. Washington (1963), 373 U.S. 503, 83 S.Ct. 1336, 10 L.Ed.2d 513; Culombe v. Connecticut (1961), 367 U.S. 568, 81 S.Ct. 1860, 6 L.Ed.2d 1037; Gallegos v. Nebraska (1951), 342 U.S. 55, 72 S.Ct. 141, 96 L.Ed. 86. Appellant was arrested in LaPorte about 6:45 p.m., November 9, 1972, approximately fifteen hours after the homicide. The LaPorte police held appellant at their station for about an hour, until the South Bend police arrived. After ten minutes, they took appellant and an accomplice, Terry Jones, to South Bend, via appellant's LaPorte apartment. Pursuant to a search warrant, they searched the apartment and found a shotgun and shells. They arrived in South Bend about 9:00 p.m. Appellant was held in the St. Joseph County Jail for about twenty-four hours before he announced his unprompted decision to make a statement to F.B.I. Agent Quigley, whom he had known before his arrest. This period was comprised of Thursday night and all day Friday. Sometime Friday evening, appellant asked Officer Carr, who was in charge of the jail from 6:00 p.m., November 10th to 6:00 a.m., November 11th, to arrange a meeting with South Bend Detective Gerschoffer and F.B.I. Agent Quigley so that he could talk to them. When Carr phoned and learned that Gerschoffer was not available, appellant said that he would talk to someone else, as long as Quigley was present. Carr made arrangements for a meeting on Saturday morning. That morning, appellant was advised of his rights and gave the statement the admissibility of which appellant contested at a pre-trial hearing, at trial, and now contests on appeal. In support of his motion to suppress the confession, appellant described the conditions of his confinement. He said that he was in a one-man holding cell with no toilet tissue, soap or blankets. Carr stated that there was toilet tissue. Appellant testified to harassment by officers and citizens. In LaPorte, rookies going to a class upstairs in the police station pointed appellant out as the killer. In South Bend, both officers and citizens woke him up talking about him as a killer, when there was no evidence. Because people were always coming in and talking about looking at the maddog shotgun killer, he slept only an hour on the nights of November 9th and 10th. One officer woke him up to see his teeth. Officer Carr testified that, at least on the night of November 10th-11th, he had heard no officer speak to appellant and that he would have heard any conversation, as long as he was sitting at the booking desk where he was stationed. However, he also stated that appellant's cell was only seven or eight feet from the booking desk and that police officers and their prisoners would come to the booking desk and walk down the hall past appellant's cell all during the night. Appellant testified that South Bend officers intimidated him. When his counsel pressed him for details, he said that he was told that they would take his younger brother and sister from his parents if he did not talk. Other evidence of threats was an officer's waking him to ask him how far he would jump if the officer shot him with a shotgun. Also, officers, after advising him of his rights, told him that they would bust his head if he did not talk. On cross-examination, the prosecutor asked appellant, who had told him of the threat to his parents. Appellant testified that his parents had told him. But, when the prosecutor noted that appellant had testified earlier that he did not talk with his parents until a Sunday two or three weeks after his arrest, appellant then testified that Gerschoffer had told him of the threat on November 10th. On the subject of the advisement of his rights, appellant testified that he was advised on November 9th in LaPorte by Captain Benninghoff of the South Bend Police Department. He testified that no one in LaPorte talked to him about the crime. Captain Benninghoff testified that he asked appellant if he had been advised of his rights when Benninghoff arrived in LaPorte. Appellant said that he had been advised, and Benninghoff readvised him. Appellant testified also that, in South Bend, when Detective Molnar asked him for a statement on November 9th, Molnar advised him of his rights. Finally, appellant testified that he had read and signed the waiver of rights form on the morning of November 11th before he made the statement. With regard to his waiver of his right to an attorney before his decision to make a statement on November 10th, appellant stated that he had requested and been denied an attorney in both LaPorte and South Bend on November 9th. He testified that he did not request an attorney at any time after the 9th. In LaPorte, appellant testified, he had requested Pat Smith, who was his parents' attorney (and, at the time of this pre-trial hearing, the attorney for Terry Jones). From his testimony, it was unclear whether he asked the police to call Smith (he stated that they never called him) or he asked to call Smith himself (he stated that he was not allowed to call Smith). In South Bend, appellant testified, he had told Detective Molnar that he wanted an attorney. Appellant said that he was told, though not by Molnar, that he would have to get the captain to approve a phone call. He also said that he was told he could contact only the detective bureau or the State's attorney. In rebuttal, Captain Benninghoff testified that he and Molnar picked appellant up in LaPorte. When Benninghoff arrived in LaPorte, appellant was talking with LaPorte Police Officer Christian. Appellant was saying that he was not going to admit anything, because there might be an error at trial and he could beat it that way. Benninghoff asked him if he had been informed of his rights and informed him again of his rights, including the right to an attorney. Appellant replied that he had been informed and knew all about that. At this point, it would have been natural for appellant to tell Benninghoff that he had asked to call attorney Pat Smith during the hour since his arrest and that his request had been denied. His failure to do so casts doubt on his testimony concerning his request in LaPorte. Further, appellant was in LaPorte for only an hour, and appellant testified that the officers did not talk to him except to tell him that he had killed someone. No officers from LaPorte testified at the hearing. Benninghoff and Molnar drove appellant and Terry Jones to South Bend. Benninghoff told appellant and Jones not to talk during the trip. Both Benninghoff and Molnar testified that appellant never requested an attorney in their presence. On the basis of the testimony, the St. Joseph Court could have found that appellant's testimony about his two requests on November 9th was not credible. Appellant's own testimony and that of the State's witnesses put into question appellant's request in LaPorte and contradicted his assertions concerning his request in Sourt Bend. Appellant testified that the only reason he made the statement was because he had been told that his younger brother and sister would be taken from his parents if he did not cooperate. However, the prosecutor impeached appellant in part in regard to this alleged threat, and appellant then admitted that he had made the statement also because he knew that his accomplices had made statements which placed all the blame on him. On cross-examination, appellant admitted that he did not make the security of his family the condition for his statement, but rather insisted on the presence of Agent Quigley. Also, appellant knew that the officers had found a shotgun in his apartment. At this pre-trial hearing, neither appellant nor any witness for the State introduced any evidence concerning appellant's mental health or his mental state during the twenty-four hours between his arrest and his decision to make a statement. Based on appellant's testimony and the testimony of the State's witnesses, the court did not err in finding, beyond a reasonable doubt, that appellant's waiver of rights and subsequent statement were made voluntarily. At the time appellant announced his desire to make a statement, he knew that his accomplices had made incriminating statements. Lisenba v. California (1941), 314 U.S. 219, 62 S.Ct. 280, 86 L.Ed. 166; Thompson v. State (1971), 256 Ind. 48, 267 N.E.2d 49. He had accompanied the police to his home where they found the shotgun and shells. He knew that he had been arrested for the robbery-homicide at the service station. He asked to talk about the crime in the presence of Agent Quigley, whom he had known personally before his arrest. Stein v. New York (1953), 346 U.S. 156, 73 S.Ct. 1077, 97 L.Ed. 1522. In his statement, he narrated the circumstances of the crime in detail, rather than merely answering leading questions. Contrast Spano v. New York (1959), 360 U.S. 315, 79 S.Ct. 1202, 3 L.Ed.2d 1265. Three times he stated that his finger was behind the trigger, so that the gun must have gone off accidentally. It is reasonable to believe that appellant intended that his statement agree with those of his accomplices, but include this exculpatory explanation. Lisenba v. California, supra, 314 U.S. at 233-34, 62 S.Ct. 280. Appellant was orally advised of his Miranda rights and signed the waiver form after reading it. Contrast Dickerson v. State (1972), 257 Ind. 562, 276 N.E.2d 845. With consideration for all the circumstances, we affirm the finding of the court made at the pre-trial stage that appellant knowingly and intelligently waived his rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present and that he made his statement voluntarily.