Brown v. State, 5767
| Citation | 661 P.2d 1024 |
| Decision Date | 01 April 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 5767,5767 |
| Parties | John Thomas BROWN, Sr., Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Sylvia Lee Hackl, Appellate Counsel, Wyoming Public Defender Program, Cheyenne, Gerald M. Gallivan, Director, Wyoming Defender Aid Program, and Jonathan C. Wilson, Student Intern, Wyoming Defender Aid Program, Laramie, for appellant.
A.G. McClintock, Atty. Gen., Gerald A. Stack, Deputy Atty. Gen., Allen C. Johnson, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., and Gay Vanderpoel, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
Before ROONEY, C.J., and RAPER, THOMAS, ROSE and BROWN, JJ.
The primary contention of John Thomas Brown, Sr., which must be resolved in this case is his claim that a request for counsel which he made during an investigative interview conducted by law enforcement officers, who made no arrest, and following which Brown was free to leave, served to initiate his right to counsel as provided in the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States 1 which is applicable to the several states by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Additional issues relating to a violation of Brown's rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States 2, also applicable to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment, and the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain Brown's conviction for a violation of § 6-4-107, W.S.1977 (Cum.Supp.1982) 3, proscribing the crime of manslaughter, also are raised. We conclude that there was no violation of Brown's constitutional rights, and the evidence was sufficient to sustain his conviction. We shall affirm the judgment of conviction entered in the district court.
John Thomas Brown, Sr. (Appellant), states the issues which he asks to be resolved in this case as follows:
No additional statement of the issues has been made by the State of Wyoming. It has attached titles to the several sections of its brief, but the State contents itself with meeting the arguments of Appellant without restating the several issues.
A recitation of the underlying events which led to Appellant's conviction of manslaughter is helpful in understanding the material facts surrounding his several statements to law enforcement officers which are the focus of this appeal. On the morning of December 22, 1981, following an all-night drinking spree, Appellant and seven other members of his family went hunting. The others in the group were Appellant's brother Andrew, Calvin Yellowbear, Appellant's wife, two of Andrew's daughters, Appellant's aunt Nora, and his uncle Frank. The party traveled in two vehicles, a pickup truck belonging to Appellant, and a station wagon owned by his brother Andrew. The adult members of the party continued to consume large amounts of alcoholic beverages while hunting. During the course of the day the group made a number of stops to refuel the two vehicles and to purchase additional supplies of alcoholic beverages. Around sundown of that day, while the party was traveling on Muskrat Road north of Shoshoni and heading toward Riverton, a fight commenced involving Calvin Yellowbear and Andrew Brown, who at that time was driving the pickup truck. Andrew Brown pulled the truck off the road and stopped in order to permit his two daughters, who also were riding in the truck, to escape. Appellant then stopped the station wagon and went to the passenger's side of the pickup truck in order to break up the fight between Andrew and Calvin Yellowbear. There were two loaded rifles, one a .270 caliber, and the other a .22 caliber, in the cab of the pickup truck between the two fighting men. Appellant reached in through the open passenger door and grabbed the .22 rifle. As he attempted to pull it toward him out of the cab the gun discharged, and the bullet struck Yellowbear in the side.
Yellowbear then fell out of the pickup onto the ground. While he was on the ground Andrew Brown attempted to kick him, but he was pushed away by Appellant. Appellant then helped Yellowbear back into the cab. Yellowbear complained to Andrew Brown and Nora Brown of his injury, and he requested that he be taken to a hospital. It is not clear from the record whether Appellant knew of this request, but the record does reflect that Appellant and Nora had to help Yellowbear back into the cab at some later time after he had gotten out of the pickup to use the rest room. Later the station wagon in which part of the party was traveling ran out of gas, and both vehicles then stopped for the night.
During the night Calvin Yellowbear died from his wounds. The following morning Appellant covered Yellowbear's corpse with a blanket and left it in his pickup truck, which then was hidden. Appellant and the rest of the party returned to town to decide what they should do. A two-day drinking party followed, during which time the body was not discovered. No report of the shooting was made until the night of December 24, 1981, when Appellant informed his father and his brother Charles that Yellowbear was dead. During the early morning hours of Christmas Day, 1981, Appellant and the other members of the hunting party were picked up by the Ft. Washakie Police Department, and they were taken into Lander for interview. Following an initial interview, Appellant accompanied the officers onto the Wind River Indian Reservation where he showed them the hiding place of his pickup truck, which contained the body of Calvin Yellowbear.
The initial interview of Appellant by the officers investigating Yellowbear's death was conducted early in the morning on December 25, 1981, beginning at 6:53 a.m. Prior to any questioning of Appellant he was advised of his rights under the constitution in accordance with the mandate of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, 10 A.L.R.3d 974, reh. denied California v. Stewart, 385 U.S. 890, 87 S.Ct. 11, 17 L.Ed.2d 121 (1966). At that time Appellant signed an appropriate document pursuant to which he manifested his waiver of those constitutional rights. In the course of this first interview Appellant advised the officers that Yellowbear had been shot accidentally by Andrew Brown. It was at this juncture that Appellant conducted the officers to the place where he had hidden his pickup truck.
After that Appellant was taken into Riverton, Wyoming, where a second interview began at 9:45 a.m., approximately two hours after the conclusion of the initial interview. Appellant was not readvised of his constitutional rights in accordance with Miranda v. Arizona, supra, at that time, but he did say that he still understood his rights. A transcript of the tape of this interview which was admitted during Appellant's trial, shows the following colloquy between Appellant (JB) and the investigating officer, Sergeant Jack Coppack (JC):
During this interview Appellant revised his earlier statement and said that Calvin Yellowbear had been shot when Yellowbear dropped the rifle and it discharged.
Later in the afternoon of December 25, 1981, a third interview was conducted between the investigating officers and the Appellant. In the course of this third interview Appellant expressed a desire to consult with counsel prior to being questioned further. Because of this action on the part of Appellant statements which were obtained from him during the course of this third interview were suppressed by the district judge following a pretrial hearing. The State of Wyoming has made no attempt to seek review of that portion of the district court's order. The second interview of December 25, 1981, is the object of Appellant's second claim of error in this appeal.
The next contact that Appellant had with the investigating officers was on December 27, 1981, when Appellant furnished a handwritten exculpatory statement in the office of the Fremont County Sheriff at Lander. This statement was given by Appellant after he had been advised of his constitutional rights in accordance with Miranda v. Arizona, supra, and after he had signed another waiver of those rights. On the next day, December 28, 1981, Appellant signed an affidavit in the office of the county and prosecuting attorney for Fremont County in which he stated that the only individual who had a gun in his hands at the time of the shooting was Andrew Brown. Ultimately, this...
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