Court Opinion

ID: 9560657
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:53:18.882834+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:05.137796
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur but do not agree with the entire analysis in Division 1, particularly as it relates to the statement, “No, I wasn’t driving.”
I agree that the statement preceding it was not the result of custodial interrogation. Even if the statement which the majority has made an issue of was in the nature of a response to a question, as the majority views it, it was merely a repetition or affirmation of what had been volunteered. The court did not err in its ruling that the statements were admissible, at the conclusion of the Jackson-Denno hearing.
But this statement was not put before the jury. Although it was testified to during the pretrial hearing, the state in its case-in-chief merely elicited the following:
“Q: . . . What was the next thing that happened after you told him that you were placing him under arrest for driving under the influence and habitual violator?
“A: Mr. Metheny stated to me that I had nothing on him, that he wasn’t driving the vehicle.”
That is the statement which this Court agrees was volunteered and not a response to any questioning. Defendant, in cross-examining the witness, brought out again that after defendant was placed under arrest, he told the officer that he was not driving the vehicle.
I am authorized to state that Judge Pope joins in this special concurrence.