Bryant v. State

• Decision Date: 13 September 1993
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Parties: Dale Edward BRYANT, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 93-247.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 215

862 S.W.2d 215

314 Ark. 130

Dale Edward BRYANT, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 93-247.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Sept. 13, 1993.

Richard R. Parker, Harrison, for appellant.

J. Brent Standridge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.

DUDLEY, Justice.

Appellant was charged with capital murder. He filed motions to suppress the five incriminating statements he had made to the police. The trial court denied the motions. The result was that the statements could be introduced into evidence at trial. Appellant then entered a plea of guilty to the charge of capital murder, but the plea was conditioned upon this appeal of the trial court's denial of his motions to suppress the evidence. See A.R.Cr.P. Rule 24.3(b). The trial court sentenced appellant to a term of life without parole, and he now appeals from the rulings on the suppression motions. We uphold the rulings of the trial court. In addition, since this case involves a sentence of life in prison, we must review the record of the trial proceedings for any rulings which were adverse to appellant and which might constitute prejudicial error. Ark.Sup.Ct.R. 4-3(h). Because of the procedure in this case, appellant's conditional plea of guilty constituted his trial, and there were no rulings adverse to appellant in that trial other than the rulings involving the suppression motions. Since the trial court's rulings on those motions are upheld, appellant's guilty plea cannot be withdrawn, and he is without any further direct appeal. He must spend the remainder of his life in the penitentiary without possibility of parole.

The facts necessary to understand the evidentiary rulings on appeal, stated from the view most favorable to the appellee, are as follows. The corpse of a murder victim was found near Harrison on January 26, 1992. After a thorough investigation, the police established appellant as the primary suspect. They additionally found that appellant had multiple prior felony convictions in different states with some of the convictions involving violence as well as escape. Accordingly, the police sent out a bulletin that appellant was wanted for homicide and that he should be considered armed and dangerous. Shortly thereafter, on February 4, appellant telephoned Glenn Redding, the Patrol Commander of the Harrison Police Department, and said, "I hear you are looking for me." Redding replied that appellant was being sought for capital murder, and that, because the bulletin had notified all police that appellant should be considered armed and dangerous, he should contact an attorney and arrange a peaceful surrender. Appellant responded that he did wish to talk with an attorney before turning himself in. Appellant would not tell Redding his location, but the call was traced to the Paducah, Kentucky telephone exchange. The Kentucky State Police were notified of the call and were given a description of the car appellant was driving.

On the afternoon of February 6, a Kentucky State Policeman spotted appellant, arrested him, handcuffed him, advised him of his Miranda rights, placed him in his police car, and took him to the troop post in Mayfield, Kentucky. The post does not have jail facilities. It has a steel bar attached to a concrete wall, and high risk people are handcuffed to the bar while being processed. Appellant was considered high risk and accordingly was handcuffed to the bar. After only a short while, a detective came into the room, again advised appellant of his Miranda rights, and gave him a written statement of those rights. Appellant waived those rights in writing. All of this took place over a short time span, as appellant was arrested at 3:41 in the afternoon and signed the waiver about an hour and one-half later, at 5:23.

Appellant answered questions without hesitation during a lengthy interview that covers a total of forty-three transcribed pages. In the first thirty-five pages of the interview, appellant admitted that he had been in Harrison and had been drinking with the victim the last night of her life. He stated that he then stabbed her, but that he did so only in self-defense. He stated that he let her out of his car and had no idea of who might have later murdered her. At page thirty-six of the interview, and after appellant had given the above incriminating statement, the Kentucky detective asked appellant to give a more accurate statement of the whole affair. The detective said that appellant would later be questioned in Arkansas, and the officers in Arkansas would not be as friendly as they were because those officers would be from the area where the murder was committed. Appellant did not incriminate himself any further. Shortly after the comment about the officers in Arkansas, the detective said, "I can't make you say anything." The appellant responded: "Well, I understand that, and I don't want to be a smart ass and I don't want to appear to be one, and I don't want to be one, but in fifteen years in prison I'm not stupid when we're talking about things like this." An attorney was appointed to represent appellant in the extradition proceedings, and appellant waived extradition.

The public defender in Harrison learned that the police were looking for appellant and asked the circuit judge to appoint him as appellant's attorney. The circuit judge responded that he would do so in the event of appellant's apprehension. On February 7, the day after appellant had given the incriminating statement in Kentucky, the public defender called the jail in Boone County and left a message that appellant was not to make a statement about the crime. A few minutes later, at 1:50 in the afternoon, the attorney called the jail in Kentucky and asked the jailer to instruct appellant not to give a statement. Immediately thereafter appellant called the attorney, and the attorney instructed him not to make a statement. Meanwhile, Captain Wolfe of the Boone County Sheriff's Office and Sergeant Bill Gage of the Arkansas State Police had arrived in Mayfield, Kentucky and had taken custody of appellant. In mid-afternoon on the 7th, the three of them started back to Boone County in a police car. They did not ask appellant any questions until they stopped in Dyersberg, Tennessee to get appellant some cigarettes. At that time, 4:11 on the afternoon of the 7th, appellant's Miranda rights were again read to him. There was no separate waiver of his rights, but the standard form used to advise appellant of his rights contains questions that imply a waiver. For example, appellant's right to an attorney was explained to him as follows:

"Do you understand that you have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions and to have him with you during questioning?" Appellant responded in writing, "Yes sir."

"Do you understand that if you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish, at no cost to you?" Appellant signed, "Yes sir."

"Do you understand that if you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you still have the right to stop answering at any time? You also have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to a lawyer?" Appellant signed, "Yes sir."

Appellant and the officers got back in the car to resume the journey to Boone County. Over the next hour or so appellant told the officers more about the murder. He said he and the victim had been drinking heavily, and she tried to kill him with a butcher knife. He said he took it away from her and stabbed her once in the back and twice in the front. He told the officers the location of the trash dumpster where he had disposed of the knife, the victim's purse, and part of her clothing. By 6:20 that afternoon, they had reached Paragould and stopped at a restaurant. There, the officers again advised appellant of his Miranda rights. In doing so, they used the same form they had used earlier in the afternoon. Appellant signed a written statement that was a redaction of his earlier oral statement. They got to Harrison later that night, Friday the 7th, and appellant was placed in jail. On the following morning, February 8, Captain Wolfe gave appellant the same Miranda warnings, and appellant gave a lengthy and incriminating recorded interview. He was arraigned on Monday, February 10, and a lawyer was appointed to defend him.

About a month later, on March 4, appellant asked to speak to Captain Wolfe about a problem he was having in receiving his mail. After discussing the problem about the mail, appellant asked some questions about the murder and started to discuss the crime scene. Wolfe testified that he told appellant that he needed to wait until his attorney arrived before talking about the murder and that he did not want to violate appellant's rights. The jailer, Raymond Howe, confirmed that appellant initiated the conversation about the crime scene. Appellant then volunteered a further statement about the crime scene.

Appellant's points of appeal involve the Fifth and Sixth Amendments as well as the Arkansans Rules of Criminal Procedure. The arguments can be most clearly addressed by using the chronological order of the statements. The first statement was the one made to the detective in Kentucky. Appellant contends that this statement should have been suppressed because it was taken in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights. In order for a custodial statement to be admissible a defendant must have made a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent waiver of his Miranda rights. Mauppin v. State, 309 Ark. 235, 831 S.W.2d 104 (1992). The inquiry into the a waiver of those rights has two distinct components. Id. The first involves voluntariness. This component of the inquiry concerns whether appellant made a free choice, uncoerced by the police, to waive his rights. Id. The second component of the inquiry involves whether the defendant made the waiver knowingly and intelligently. Id.

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