Opinion ID: 1106169
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: the appellant's wife was coerced by law enforcement officers to provide privileged information on her husband in disregard for his spousal privilege.

Text: When the defense sought to suppress the gun and the watch, the lower court conducted a lengthy suppression hearing at which testimony was taken from Officers Donald English, Larry Antoine, Walter Wolf and James Wong, all from Louisiana; and from Delbert Seay, Sheriff Ronnie Peterson, and Glen Strong, all Mississippi law enforcement officers; and from the Schwankharts, Sylvia Stewart, Candace Ladner, and Jeffrey Ladner, the appellant. Candace Ladner, wife of the appellant, told the police that Ladner kept a gun at the home of her parents, the Schwankharts. She telephoned her parents and told them the police wanted to come and get the gun. The police went to the Schwankhart's home where the gun had been set out by the door. Candace Ladner also went to her parent's house and, while there, telephoned her sister, Sylvia Stewart, who lived next door to the Schwankharts to come over and bring the watch she had purchased from Ladner. The police spent a long period at the Schwankhart's home, talking with them, Candace Ladner, and Sylvia Stewart. The Schwankharts and Stewart gave testimony which indicated that the atmosphere in the Schwankhart home was anything but coercive. The trial judge found that no coercion was used against Candace Ladner and that there was no violation of spousal privilege. This Court cannot say that finding was manifestly wrong. Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1317, 1328 (Miss. 1987), (citing Frost v. State, 483 So.2d 1345, 1350 (Miss. 1986)), cert. denied, 487 U.S. 1210, 108 S.Ct. 2858, 101 L.Ed.2d 895 (1988). We have been cited to no case in which this Court has extended the spousal privilege to require suppression of physical evidence which has been obtained by law enforcement officers as a result of their conversations with a spouse. We do not find in this case a violation either of the statute concerning spousal competency, Miss. Code Ann. § 13-1-5 (Supp. 1990), or the evidence rule concerning the husband-wife privilege, M.R.E. 504. Rule 504 gives a defendant the privilege of prohibiting his or her spouse from testifying as to any confidential communication between the spouses. Neither an out-of-court statement nor trial testimony of his wife was admitted against Ladner. The location of the gun and the watch do not fall within any protected class of communication; there was knowledge by persons other than the husband and wife of the whereabouts of the items. The Schwankharts had possession and control of the gun at the time it was turned over to the police and Sylvia Stewart had possession and control of the watch at the time she turned it over to the police. Candace Ladner was present when the watch was sold to Sylvia and she had talked with her parents about Ladner's keeping a gun at their house. The issue is resolved against the appellant.