Opinion ID: 1584057
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: The Fourth Time Frame: Hayward's Statement at the Police Station

Text: Once at the station, Officer Mace took Hayward's handcuffs off, but secured him by an ankle bracelet to a table in an interview room, where he was advised of his Miranda rights. Thereafter, Hayward agreed to discuss the incident and gave the officers several versions of how his hand was injured. While we agree with Hayward that he was clearly detained when he made these statements, we find that the statements were properly admitted into evidence because they were made after he had been advised of his Miranda rights and after he indicated that he wished to proceed with the questioning. [9]
Finally, we reject Hayward's contention that the police did not have probable cause to detain or arrest him, had they actually chosen to do so at the rooming house. In Walker v. State, 707 So.2d 300 (Fla.1997), we explained: Probable cause for arrest exists where an officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the suspect has committed a felony. The standard of conclusiveness and probability is less than that required to support a conviction. Blanco v. State, 452 So.2d 520, 523 (Fla.1984). The question of probable cause is viewed from the perspective of a police officer with specialized training and takes into account the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. Schmitt v. State, 563 So.2d 1095, 1098 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990). Id. at 312. Utilizing these criteria here, we conclude that the police had probable cause to detain Hayward for further questioning. By the time the police encountered Hayward at the rooming house, they had already interviewed McDowell, who described the assailant as being a black man with what appeared to be a bleeding left hand, who fled the scene in the general direction of Smith's rooming house. McDowell's statements, including the description of the different sounds of the gun shots, along with Destefano's statement to the officer that he shot at his assailant, provided reasonable grounds to believe that Destefano's assailant had in fact been shot. [10] Smith's rooming house was only a few blocks away from the crime scene, and police found a blood trail leading in that general direction. Only two days after the shooting, the police were notified that a person at the rooming house had a possible gunshot wound to the hand and had been asking residents to sew it up. When the police saw Hayward's wound, they observed that it looked like a gunshot wound. Finally, when Hayward's story drastically changed during the encounter, it became clear that he had lied about the cause of the injury to his hand. Based on the totality of the circumstances, the police had reasonable grounds, and therefore probable cause, to conclude that a felony had been committed and that Hayward had committed it. Thus, relief is denied on this claim.