Court Opinion

ID: 9635601
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:55:45.453767+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:51:35.743918
License: Public Domain

WICKERSHAM, Judge,
dissenting:
I would affirm the order of the trial court, Honorable George C. Eppinger, President Judge.
I agree with Judge Eppinger’s discussion and conclusion in his opinion filed below, particularly the following:
We perceive three separate time frames in which various incidents occurred on May 2, 1981, which must be considered in the context of the suppression petition and the applicable law. These times frames are:
(1) From the time of the arrival of the deputy game protectors and Cpl. Joyce at the accident scene.
(2) The time when the deputy game protectors learned or should have learned that Randy Scott Mellott was, in fact, a juvenile.
*406(3) The time period which the juvenile’s father was present with the juvenile in the company of the game warden and other deputy game protectors.
When the deputies and Cpl. Joyce arrived at the scene, they were confronted with a dead body and a crowd of people. Their position was analogous to that of the police officer who arrives at the scene of a traffic accident or a crime. One of the deputies addressed the crowd with the question of who had done the shooting, and two individuals pointed to Randy Mellott. To ensure the accuracy of the identification and to avoid any possible interferences or the insertion of irrelevant matters by members of the crowd, the deputy game protector and the juvenile moved away from the other people and into the woods where Deputy Souders sought to confirm the accuracy of the identification. In response to the deputy’s question the juvenile affirmed the fact that he had fired the shot because he thought it was a turkey. At this point the deputy sought identification of the juvenile; learned his name; and in response to his request for his hunting license learned that the license was with his vest and gun down by the creek. The juvenile pointed in the direction where his gun and vest were located. After Deputy Souders read the juvenile his rights, he requested the juvenile and Deputy Bergstresser to go pick up the vest and gun so that the license could be examined. The deputy and the juvenile retrieved the vest, gun and an empty shell case and returned to Deputy Souders. The juvenile’s hunting license was not in his vest and the deputy was told that the juvenile’s father had it. It was at this point in time that Cpl. Joyce advised the deputy game protectors that he had learned that Randy Mellott was a juvenile, and no further questions should be asked until he was in the presence of one of his parents.
In our judgment the questions asked by Deputy Souders during this time frame were equivalent to the questions asked in the preliminary stages of an accident investigation when the investigating officer is simply *407attempting to ascertain the basic facts, including the identification of the parties and the whereabouts of the instrumentalities involved; and he had arrived at no conclusion as to whether any violation of the law has occurred. The inquiry whether he fired the shot is analogous to the question whether a party was driving ‘that car’. The request for the hunting license is precisely identical to the request for a driver’s operator’s license and registration card. The juvenile volunteered that his gun was with the vest which he apparently believed had the license attached to it, and he pointed out the direction to the place where he had left vest and gun.
We do not feel that the questions asked by Deputy Game Protector Souders constituted an improper violation of the constitutional rights of the juvenile during this time frame because they were all in the nature of a preliminary investigation of a hunting accident. We feel it was proper for Deputy Bergstresser to take the gun and vest into his possession because they were lying out in the woods and could readily have been stolen by any member of the crowd, and because they might constitute necessary evidence in the ongoing investigation.
Lower ct. op. at 8-11.
I agree. I would affirm.