Opinion ID: 1855302
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: whether the trial court committed reversible error in denying mr. humphrey's motion to suppress oral statements made by himself to patrick reid.

Text: ¶ 23. Humphrey filed a motion in limine to exclude oral statements which he allegedly made concerning the murder of Mrs. Phillips to Patrick Reid, an inmate and sometime cellmate around December, 1996. Reid reported these alleged statements to law enforcement officials on December 27 and 30, 1996. Humphrey objected at trial that any statements that he may have made which were obtained by Reid would violate his rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as Article 3, Section 26 of the Mississippi Code. A hearing was held on this issue by the trial court, the motion was overruled, and the testimony admitted. ¶ 24. At the hearing Randy Doss of the DeSoto County Sheriff's Department testified that he received a communication from a jailer that Patrick Reid wished to speak to him. Reid told Detective Doss that Omar Humphrey had spoken to him about a homicide in Senatobia in Tate County. Detective Doss relayed this information to the Senatobia police department. The Senatobia police department sent investigators to the jail to speak to Reid. Pursuant to their conversations with Reid, the officers met with personnel from the district attorney's office, and it was agreed that a wire would be placed on Reid. Lieutenant Perez also took down an oral statement concerning the death of Mrs. Phillips from Reid which was read back to him and then signed. ¶ 25. Nothing in the record indicates that Reid was an agent of the State. Reid was not in any way involved or implicated in the crimes charged against Humphrey. It was Reid who approached the State with the information, he was not solicited by the State to act as an informant against Humphrey. Reid had in the past provided incriminating statements as an informer in another matter, but this is not relevant to the current case. Humphrey cites McNeal v. State, 551 So.2d 151 (Miss.1989) which questioned the reliability of jailhouse snitches where information against fellow inmates is exchanged for reduced sentences. There is nothing in the record to indicate that Reid somehow cut a deal with law enforcement. In fact the decision to tender a plea offer to Reid was made and communicated to him before he tendered any information regarding Humphrey. ¶ 26. Unlike in Page v. State, 495 So.2d 436 (Miss.1986), Reid was not a co-defendant, and there is no evidence in the record of surreptitious solicitation by the State. Reid did engage Humphrey in conversation about the crime, and Humphrey did incriminate himself, if Reid's testimony is to be believed, which the jury apparently did. Because the record fails to establish that Patrick Reid was acting as an agent of the State, Humphrey waived any Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and Sixth Amendment rights to counsel under the U.S. Constitution and under Article 3, Section 26 of the Mississippi Constitution, when he voluntarily talked to Reid about his crimes. This assignment of error is without merit.