U.S. v. Sablotny, 93-1094

Decision Date11 April 1994
Docket NumberNo. 93-1094,93-1094
Citation21 F.3d 747
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Patricia R. SABLOTNY, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

James E. Beckman, Office of U.S. Atty., Springfield, IL (argued), for U.S Michael B. Metnick, Peter Wise (argued), Metnick, Barewin, Wise & Cherry, Springfield, IL, for Patricia Sablotny.

Before CUDAHY, FLAUM, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge.

Patricia Sablotny was 62-years old when a jury found her guilty of arson and conspiring to burn the Argonne Tavern in Springfield, Illinois. 18 U.S.C. Secs. 371 and 844(i). The court sentenced Ms. Sablotny to concurrent terms of 46 months' imprisonment on each count. 1 Ms. Sablotny appeals from the judgment of conviction asserting that the trial court wrongfully admitted her confession into evidence and sentenced her incorrectly. We affirm.

The district court conducted a suppression hearing and concluded that Ms. Sablotny's confession was voluntarily made and admissible as evidence of her guilt. Ms. Sablotny raises a somewhat novel argument before this court: she argues that her advanced age rendered her unusually susceptible to coercive treatment. Although only 62, she describes herself as an elderly woman, who was upset and scared at the time of questioning and, therefore, could not effectively resist the pressure of the police to confess. Based on the argument that hers was a single aberrant act, Ms. Sablotny also challenges the trial court's refusal to depart downward from the prescribed sentencing guidelines. See 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(b); U.S.S.G. Sec. 5K2.0 et seq. Cf. U.S.S.G. Ch. 1, Pt. A, Intro. p (d) (single act of aberrant behavior may justify probation). But we do not have jurisdiction to review the district court's discretionary refusal to grant a downward departure from the Sentencing Guidelines. 2 United States v. Gulley, 992 F.2d 108 (7th Cir.1993).

Ms. Sablotny owned and operated the Argonne Tavern in Springfield, Illinois from 1975 to February 1992. On February 16, 1992 the Argonne Tavern was destroyed by fire. A friend notified Ms. Sablotny of the fire and Ms. Sablotny's son drove her to the tavern. During the course of the day, Detective Amos Mitchell of the Springfield Police Department arson investigation squad questioned Ms. Sablotny several times. First, Mitchell questioned Ms. Sablotny in her car in the presence of her two sons. She was cooperative in answering his questions about ownership of the building, about her lease of the bar premises and about the operation of the bar. Ms. Sablotny then left. A few hours later, Mitchell questioned Ms. Sablotny again, this time in the front seat of his police car. She supplied insurance information not available to her during the first meeting and admitted that she and Michael Yucas, who later confessed to committing the arson at Ms. Sablotny's request, had been at the tavern earlier that day. Ms. Sablotny gave Yucas' telephone number to Mitchell. Ms. Sablotny then departed. Yucas was called to the scene and questioned by Mitchell.

Yucas and Mitchell then proceeded to the police station where Yucas made a full confession. Yucas, who worked as a part-time bartender at the Argonne, is the son of Ms. Sablotny's longtime boyfriend. At 4:55 p.m., Yucas signed a waiver of his Miranda rights in the presence of Mitchell and his partner, Investigator Nevitt of the Springfield Fire Department. At 6:08 p.m., Yucas noted the time and signed his written statement. Mitchell and Nevitt then completed the required paperwork and waited for a squad car to take Yucas to the Sangamon County Jail. Nevitt testified that he and Mitchell then returned to the Argonne tavern between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. At the tavern, Mitchell helped Ms. Sablotny remove the money from six game machines, divide it with the machine owners and leave by crossing the cluttered, burned tavern interior.

At the tavern, Mitchell did not tell Ms. Sablotny that he had spoken with Yucas. He asked her if she would come down to the police station so that he could take her statement. Ms. Sablotny acquiesced and asked if she could ride in her son's car. Mitchell agreed. Ms. Sablotny and her son Jerry met Mitchell and Nevitt at the police station. Because it was a Sunday, the outer doors to the police station were locked. Mitchell unlocked the doors, the foursome entered and Mitchell relocked the doors behind him. The four proceeded to Mitchell's office. All interior doors were open and unlocked. Mitchell testified that he then asked Jerry Sablotny if he would mind waiting in the lobby; Jerry agreed to this. Ms. Sablotny did not object. (Jerry testified that they arrived at the station between 7:15 and 7:30 p.m., and that he never entered the office but was instructed to wait in the lobby.) After Jerry left, Mitchell read Ms. Sablotny her constitutional rights. Ms. Sablotny signed a form waiving her Miranda rights at 7:35 p.m.

Mitchell testified that Ms. Sablotny was read her Miranda rights approximately three minutes after their arrival at the police station. In the suppression hearing, Ms. Sablotny testified that she arrived at the station between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m., that she was read her rights after being told of Yucas' confession, not before, and that Mitchell asked her frequent questions before giving her the Miranda warnings. 3 During the course of the interrogation, Ms. Sablotny was told of Yucas' confession implicating her. After this, Ms. Sablotny confessed to participation in the arson and was formally placed under arrest.

A confession is voluntary if, in light of the totality of the circumstances, the confession "was not secured through psychological or physical intimidation but rather was the product of a rational intellect and free will." United States v. McGuire, 957 F.2d 310, 315 (7th Cir.1992) (quoting United States v. Haddon, 927 F.2d 942, 945 (7th Cir.1991)). We have in earlier cases found certain factors relevant to determining voluntariness: the age of the defendant, her education, the nature of the questioning, the use of physical punishment, whether the defendant was read her rights, United States v. Church, 970 F.2d 401, 404 (7th Cir.1992) (citing Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 226, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2047, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1009, 122 L.Ed.2d 157 (1993), the duration of the questioning, United States v. White, 979 F.2d 539, 543 (7th Cir.1992), the defendant's prior experience with police, Holland v. McGinnis, 963 F.2d 1044, 1052 (7th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1053, 122 L.Ed.2d 360 (1993), and whether the defendant was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Haddon, 927 F.2d at 946. Our previous consideration of age as a factor in voluntariness has, however, been limited to those defendants who are unusually susceptible due to their youth. See, e.g., Woods v. Clusen, 794 F.2d 293, 298 (7th Cir.1986) ("great care is necessary to insure the voluntariness of a confession when juveniles are involved"). See also Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 115, 102 S.Ct. 869, 877, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982) (noting that minority "is a time and condition of life when a person may be most susceptible to influence and to psychological damage").

Turning to other factors in the analysis of voluntariness, our first step is to determine whether Ms. Sablotny knowingly waived her Miranda rights prior to confessing. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The district court found that, immediately upon her arrival at the station, Ms. Sablotny was read her Miranda rights and signed a waiver form. Underlying the district court's determination was its finding that Mitchell's version of the events, supported by the testimony of Nevitt and Jerry Sablotny, was more credible than the version advanced by Ms. Sablotny. Absent clear error, we will, of course, rely on the district court's credibility determinations. United States v. Carter, 910 F.2d 1524, 1529 (7th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 978, 111 S.Ct. 1628, 113 L.Ed.2d 724 (1991). The district court's factual findings, based on the testimony of Mitchell, Nevitt and Jerry Sablotny, are not internally inconsistent, and are thus not in clear error. See Anderson v. City of Bessemer, N.C., 470 U.S. 564, 575, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1512, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985) ("[W]hen a trial judge's finding is based on his decision to credit the testimony of one of two or more witnesses ... that finding, if not internally inconsistent, can virtually never be clear error.").

The next step of our analysis is to determine whether a special standard of vulnerability is applicable to the elderly. In Woods, 794 F.2d at 297-98, we applied a standard, more sensitive than that applied to adults, in our determination of whether in the "totality of the circumstances" the confession of a sixteen and a half year-old was voluntary. There we held that the deceptive tactics employed, which we have held subsequently not to amount to coercion when applied to adults, defeated the voluntariness of the juvenile's confession. For example, the interrogators displayed graphic pictures of the murder scene, required the defendant to wear jailhouse clothes, falsely represented that the police had enough evidence to convict without a confession and misled the defendant with a fatherly manner and suggestions that things would "be better" or "go easier" if he confessed. Woods, 794 F.2d at 295. Compare Holland, 963 F.2d at 1051-52 (misrepresenting the strength of the evidence against an adult defendant is not inherently coercive); United States v. Mizyed, 927 F.2d 979, 982 (7th Cir.) (promise to make things easier on adult defendant if he confessed not invalidating), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 937, 111 S.Ct. 2065, 114 L.Ed.2d 470 (1991); United States v. Harris, 914 F.2d 927, 933 (7th Cir.1990) (police soliciting...

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