Bonnie H., In re

• Decision Date: 16 July 1997
• Docket Number: No. D025382,D025382
• Citation: 65 Cal.Rptr.2d 513,56 Cal.App.4th 563
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: , 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5712, 97 Daily Journal D.A.R. 9163 In re BONNIE H., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law. The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. BONNIE H., Defendant and Appellant.

Page 513

65 Cal.Rptr.2d 513

56 Cal.App.4th 563, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5712,

97 Daily Journal D.A.R. 9163

In re BONNIE H., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. BONNIE H., Defendant and Appellant.

No. D025382.

Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 1, California.

July 16, 1997.

Review Denied Oct. 22, 1997.

[56 Cal.App.4th 566] David L. Kelly, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, Sacramento, for Defendant and Appellant.

Daniel E. Lungren, Attorney General, George Williamson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Robert M. Foster and Holley A. Hoffman, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

HUFFMAN, Associate Justice.

In this bizarre murder case resembling an episode out of "The Streets of San Francisco," we hold there is no public policy reason a good-faith break in a minor's custody should not dissipate the prophylactic rule of Edwards v. Arizona (1981) 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378, as expanded by Arizona v. Roberson (1988) 486 U.S. 675, 108 S.Ct. 2093, 100 L.Ed.2d 704 and Minnick v. Mississippi (1990) 498 U.S. 146, 111 S.Ct. 486, 112 L.Ed.2d 489, that once a suspect asserts his or her Fifth Amendment right to counsel during custodial interrogation, the current questioning and any further questioning initiated by the police about the current or any other offense must cease until counsel is present (see McNeil v. Wisconsin (1991) 501 U.S. 171, 176-177, 111 S.Ct. 2204, 2207-2209, 115 L.Ed.2d 158).

The police first questioned the minor, Bonnie H., age 16, about the suicide/murder of Trisha Sullivan on May 12, 1995. When Bonnie, who gave her name as "Mystical Misscotte" ¹ and age as 19, requested an attorney in response to being read her Miranda ² rights, questioning stopped. Although initially arrested for the crime, Bonnie was released without pending charges a few days later.

On June 26, 1995, Bonnie was rearrested for the same crime at her mother's home in San Diego and taken to juvenile hall. When In December 1995, a juvenile court judge in San Francisco denied Bonnie's motion to suppress her statements made at the second custodial interview conducted in San Diego. After a contested jurisdictional hearing, he found the allegations of the petition to be true and declared the murder to be in the first degree. The case was transferred to San Diego Juvenile Court for disposition. The juvenile judge here adjudged Bonnie a ward of the court and committed her to the California Youth Authority for a maximum period of 25 years to life.

questioned [56 Cal.App.4th 567] this time, after proper Miranda warnings, Bonnie waived her rights to remain silent and to have the assistance of counsel, making numerous statements incriminating herself in Sullivan's death in San Francisco. On June 30, 1995, the San Francisco County District Attorney filed a Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 petition charging Bonnie with Sullivan's murder (Pen.Code, § 187).

Bonnie appeals, contending the juvenile court judge erred in denying her motion to suppress her admissions obtained by police during a custodial interrogation after she had earlier invoked her right to counsel in violation of the Edwards, Roberson, Minnick rule and in finding she validly waived her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination under the totality of the circumstances in this case.

We find Bonnie "knowingly and voluntarily" waived her rights against self-incrimination after full Miranda warnings at the second custodial interrogation, that there was a good-faith break in custody between this police-initiated custodial session and the first custodial interrogation where Bonnie invoked her right to counsel, and that such break effectively removed the Edwards, Roberson, Minnick bar against the use of her statements at the jurisdictional hearing. We therefore conclude the juvenile court properly denied Bonnie's suppression motion and affirm the judgment.

BACKGROUND

Bonnie does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the juvenile court's true finding she murdered Sullivan. Rather, the facts pertinent to our discussion of her appellate issues come from the extensive Evidence Code section 402 hearing conducted at the time of the jurisdictional hearing to determine the admissibility of her statements made at the June 26, 1995 custodial interrogation in San Diego.

Supportive Evidence:

In support of the motion to suppress her statements, Bonnie testified she and a friend, Martin Androus, were awakened by police at 10:30 a.m. on May 12, 1995, at the "Dolores Street Squat," a burned-out church in San Francisco. The police took both her and Martin, handcuffed and in separate cars, to the Mission Police Station. Upon arriving there, Bonnie was separately questioned about Sullivan's death at the church earlier that morning by San Francisco Police Inspector Alex Fagan, who did not advise her of her rights. The interview was tape recorded.

Bonnie was then escorted to an interview room at the homicide detail where Fagan advised her of her rights to remain silent and to an attorney. Although she asked for an attorney, Fagan continued to question her about Sullivan's death. After spending four days in jail, Bonnie was released.

On June 26, 1995, Bonnie was living with her sister in San Diego. At 5:30 a.m. on that date her mother had come to take her to her house to wait for the cable repairman. Her mother later telephoned her there to tell Bonnie the police were on their way to talk to her.

Within three minutes the police knocked on her mother's door. When Bonnie answered, she saw a "bunch of people" at the door in "jump suits and boots and guns," with "flashlights and stuff," and was scared. The people identified themselves as the FBI and told her they had a warrant for her arrest because she had killed someone. Bonnie was scared, upset and confused and told the six police officers, who arrived in three or four cars, her real name and age, denying her name was "Misscotte."

After the officers showed her the warrant, they took off her jewelry and handcuffed her. When they took her out to an unmarked car, other officers were bringing her sister in handcuffs to the mother's house. Bonnie started to cry. She talked to her sister who was then uncuffed and gave her a hug. When Bonnie was put in the front seat of the car, her mother arrived at the scene. Bonnie asked the officer to please wait so she could say good-bye and talk to her mother. The officer rolled down the window and Bonnie told her mother, "Good-bye, I love you."

Bonnie said she was terrified, confused and crying when she was taken to juvenile hall. She was first taken to a processing tank, strip searched and given juvenile hall clothes in exchange for her own clothing, jewelry and toe ring. Bonnie estimated she was taken into custody at about 7:30 a.m., was in the tank for a few hours, and was taken to a unit at about 1 p.m. She did not see a telephone in the processing tank and did not attempt to use the pay telephone at the maximum security unit as she did not know if she would be allowed to do so. The person processing her in did not discuss whether she could use a telephone.

Bonnie said that shortly after being taken to the unit, she was placed in an interview room where a fat, White, balding, old (45 to 50 years old) probation officer visited her. After introducing himself he gave her a Miranda card to read, which she signed and dated after she circled "No" as to whether she would be willing to talk with him. Because she "never know[s] what day it is," she merely copied the date the probation officer had put on the card. Before he left the room upset and disappointed, she asked him if she could call her mother because she was confused, scared, wanted some advice as to what to do and to let her know where she was. The probation officer told her phone calls were something earned with a number of points rather than given.

Bonnie was then taken to another interview room where Fagan was waiting for her. She sat facing Fagan and a window to the hallway. While they were engaging in "small talk," Bonnie saw her mother and sister walk by the interview room. They waved and smiled at her and she jumped up out of her seat and tried to get out the door, yelling, "Hey, that's my mom and my sister. Can I go talk to them?" Fagan told her to sit and calm down, that she could talk with them after they were done. Fagan then started the interview.

When he read her the Miranda rights, Bonnie felt uncertain and intimidated. She knew she had a right to an attorney, but thought it would be a waste of time because she had asked for one in San Francisco and was not given one. She told Fagan that yes, she would talk to him, "[b]ecause I just don't know." She guessed it was because she was scared and intimidated and did not feel she had the right to say no.

On cross-examination, Bonnie clarified she was questioned at the Mission Street Station by Fagan without the advisal of rights about Sullivan's death for an hour and at "homicide" for barely a minute. She denied she ever indicated she had anything to do with Sullivan's death. She told Fagan her name was Mystical Misscotte, but denied that name in San Diego. In San Francisco, she was not "Bonnie," she was 19 years old, and she "never meant to be a juvenile in San Francisco." She knew the information she gave the police was false. Bonnie claimed she asked for an attorney before talking with Fagan in San Francisco and that the officers kept questioning her after she asked for an attorney.

Bonnie also said she talked with a police officer during the transport to homicide about turning the radio to some music, but not about the law. She denied she was on drugs or any medication that morning. She was tired from sleeplessness from hitchhiking from New Mexico to San Francisco in three days with only two to three hours...