U.S. v. Carter

• Decision Date: 31 August 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-5406,88-5406
• Citation: 884 F.2d 368
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. Terry Gene CARTER, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 368

884 F.2d 368

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. Terry Gene CARTER, Appellee.

No. 88-5406.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted May 9, 1989.

Decided Aug. 31, 1989.

John Ulrich, Sioux Falls, S.D., for appellant.

William Fuller, Sioux Falls, S.D., for appellee.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge, and BEAM, Circuit Judge.

HENLEY, Senior Circuit Judge.

The United States appeals from an order of the district court ¹ suppressing physical evidence and incriminating statements obtained from defendant/appellee Terry Gene Carter, who stands accused of possessing stolen mail in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1708.

During the course of an investigation into the disappearance of various pieces of mail, postal inspectors placed several marked bills and a bearer check in the mail trays at First City Bank of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The inspectors interviewed Russell Corner, a mailroom clerk, after discovering that he had endorsed three stolen bearer checks. Corner stated that he had received the checks from Carter, another mailroom employee of the bank, and had cashed them at Carter's request. At approximately 4:00 p.m. the same day, Carter was summoned to the office of the bank president, where he was interviewed by the inspectors for approximately an hour and a half. The bank's security manager also was present.

After the interview had proceeded for approximately fifty-five minutes, the inspectors told Carter that they were investigating the disappearance of Canadian money and asked if they could look into his wallet. Carter complied with this request, and the agents discovered $63.00 in cash and a bearer check. These were the marked items that the inspectors had placed in the mail trays. After explaining this to Carter, the agents obtained from him various incriminating statements. The inspectors then warned Carter of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Carter acknowledged that he understood those rights and signed a waiver form; he then wrote out a handwritten statement admitting his guilt. Carter was not arrested, and was allowed to go home after the interview.

Carter moved the district court to suppress his statements and the bait money as having been improperly obtained before he was given Miranda warnings. The district court granted the motion and suppressed the statements and the physical evidence. The court found that the interrogation occurred in a custodial setting and that Miranda warnings therefore should have been given. The court further found that the totality of the circumstances indicated that defendant's consent to the search of his wallet was not freely and voluntarily given inasmuch as it occurred in a coercive atmosphere, no Miranda warnings were given, the inspectors made a misrepresentation to Carter to induce his consent, and Carter was not informed that he was not required to produce his wallet. The United States appeals from the district court's orders.

We agree with Carter's contention that Miranda warnings should have been given earlier in the questioning than they were. The warnings must be given before interrogation begins when a suspect is taken into custody or otherwise significantly deprived of his freedom of action. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444, 467, 86 S.Ct. at 1624; Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 429, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 3144-45, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984). In determining whether a suspect is "in custody," the "relevant inquiry is how a reasonable man in the suspect's position would have understood his situation." Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 442, 104 S.Ct. at 3151. The test is not merely whether Carter believed he was free to leave; rather, we must determine whether he reasonably believed that his "freedom of action [was] curtailed to a 'degree associated with formal arrest.' " Id. at 440, 104 S.Ct. at 3150 (quoting California v. Beheler, 463 U.S. 1121, 1125, 103 S.Ct. 3517, 3520, 77 L.Ed.2d 1275 (1983) (per curiam)); United States v. Streifel, 781 F.2d 953, 961 (1st Cir.1986); W.R. LaFave & J.H. Israel, 1 Criminal Procedure Sec. 6.6, at 75 (Supp.1989). Our conclusion concerning custody must arise from an examination of the totality of the circumstances. United States v. Lanier, 838 F.2d 281, 285 (8th Cir.1988) (per curiam). We review the district court's determination on this issue under the "clearly erroneous" test, and "must affirm unless the decision of the district court is unsupported by substantial evidence, based on an erroneous interpretation of applicable law, or, in light of the entire record, we are left with a firm and definite conviction that a mistake has been made." United States v. Jorgensen, 871 F.2d 725, 728 (8th Cir.1989) (clearly erroneous standard applies to motions to suppress; custody issue reviewed along with other issues).

The government first argues that the district court improperly considered testimony by one of the inspectors that the investigation had focused on Carter, citing United States v. Wallraff, 705 F.2d 980 (8th Cir.1983). In that case we stated, "the fact that the investigation ... may be said to have focused on the defendant is insufficient to render an interrogation custodial, and 'does not weigh heavily in that analysis.' " Id. at 991 (citation omitted) (quoting United States v. Jimenez, 602 F.2d 139, 145 (7th Cir.1979)). The rationale for this statement is that the investigation's focus proceeds from the officer's subjective intentions, and thus has little bearing on the suspect's reasonable belief about his situation except to the extent that the suspect is aware of the evidence against him and is aware that the investigation has in fact focused on him. Jimenez, 602 F.2d at 145-46. Here, there is little if anything in the record to suggest that Carter knew of the evidence against him or that he was the focus of the investigation, although the length, place, and manner of the interrogation might have given him some indication. See id. at 145 (focus must be considered in light of other relevant circumstances).

However, we do not find, as the government contends, that the district court's decision "placed considerable weight" on the focus of the investigation. The court mentioned focus in its analysis of the custody question only once, stating, "The purpose of the interview was not simply investigatory because the detectives, through previous interviews of others, had focused their investigation toward Carter." ² The judge made no particular finding that this had an effect on Carter's understanding of his situation. Since focus alone is insufficient to establish a custodial situation, officers could obviously focus an investigation on a suspect without taking him into custody or significantly restraining his freedom of movement. Therefore, the district court's statement may be read as merely negating a "simply investigatory" interview without concluding that that fact alone influenced or contributed to Carter's belief about his situation. It would then be incumbent on the court to proceed to a consideration of factors having more of a direct bearing on the suspect's subjective understanding, which is precisely what the district court did here. Accordingly, we do not find that the district court's mention of focus impermissibly skewed its analysis of the totality of the circumstances. We also reject the government's alternative argument that the evidence did not show that the investigation was focused on Carter, as one of the inspectors clearly testified that it had, although, as already noted, this has little if any bearing on the ultimate outcome.

The government next draws our attention to cases in which questioning at a suspect's place of employment was held to be noncustodial. E.g., United States v. Venerable, 807 F.2d 745, 747 (8th Cir.1986); United States v. Rorex, 737 F.2d 753, 756 (8th Cir.1984); United States v. Dockery, 736 F.2d 1232, 1234 (8th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 862, 105 S.Ct. 197, 83 L.Ed.2d 129 (1984). We have discussed the relative significance of the place in which an interrogation occurs in the following terms:

The place where an interrogation takes place does not conclusively establish the presence or absence of custody. A deprivation of freedom may take place at one's home as well as at the police station. Orozco v. Texas, 394 U.S. 324, 89 S.Ct. 1095, 22 L.Ed.2d 311 (1969). By the same token, an interrogation at the police station may be noncustodial. Oregon v. Mathiason, 429 U.S. 492, 97 S.Ct. 711, 50 L.Ed.2d 714 (1977); Iverson v. North Dakota, 480 F.2d 414, 423 n. 10 (8th Cir. [ ), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1044, 94 S.Ct. 549, 38 L.Ed.2d 335 (1973) ]. Determining if there has been a deprivation of freedom entails something more than simply identifying the place of interrogation.

United States v. Jones, 630 F.2d 613, 615 (8th Cir.1980). Thus, in acknowledging that custodial situations occur not only in the police station, we cited with approval a case from the Fifth Circuit finding a custodial setting at the suspect's place of business in South Dakota v. Long, 465 F.2d 65, 69 (8th Cir.1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1130, 93 S.Ct. 951, 35 L.Ed.2d 263 (1973) (citing United States v. Phelps, 443 F.2d 246, 247 (5th Cir.1971)). See also United States v. Beraun-Panez, 812 F.2d 578, 582, as amended, 830 F.2d 127, 127-28 (9th Cir.1987) (questioning of suspect near where he was herding cattle held custodial); United States v. Mahar, 801 F.2d 1477, 1500 (6th Cir.1986) (suspect questioned at place of employment held to be in custody); 1 LaFave & Israel, supra Sec. 6.6, at 496 ("questioning has been held to be noncustodial where it occurred at ... a place of employment ... however, it must be emphasized that the circumstances of the particular case need to be carefully assessed").

Each of the cases that the government relies upon with regard to the employment setting contains significant circumstances...