Com. v. Brown

• Decision Date: 29 March 1985
• Citation: 341 Pa.Super. 138,491 A.2d 189
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Gary BROWN. COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Lewis A. WISE.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

Page 189

491 A.2d 189

341 Pa.Super. 138

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Gary BROWN.

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Lewis A. WISE.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted June 13, 1984.

Filed March 29, 1985.

Eric B. Henson, Deputy Dist. Atty., Philadelphia, for Commonwealth, appellant.

John Packel, Chief, Appeals, Asst. Public Defender, Philadelphia, for appellee (at 3052).

Timothy A. Crawford, Philadelphia, for appellee (at 3053).

Before CIRILLO, BECK and CERCONE, JJ.

CERCONE, Judge:

Appellees Lewis A. Wise and Gary Brown were charged as participating in the robberies of a number of bars in the Philadelphia area which occurred from November 1981 through February 1982. Appellee Wise was identified by a witness as one of the felons in the Castle Bar. During interrogation, he inculpated himself as a participant in several other bar robberies in which the perpetrators all wore ski masks. Appellee Brown was identified as having robbed the 801 Bar and in the course of interrogation he admitted his role in various other bar robberies, in which witnesses had reported the robbers as having worn head coverings, making their identification similarly impossible.

The evidence elicited at the preliminary hearing consisted of various bar owners and barmaids who could testify as to the circumstances of the robberies, i.e., dates, number of perpetrators, amount of money taken, but who, with the exception of the 801 and Castle Bar incidents, could provide no identification of the robbers. (Some were able to say they were black men of a certain build). The identifications were provided by each detective's testimony as to the statements given by the appellees during interrogation.

Following a suppression hearing, the court granted appellees' respective motions as to the inculpatory statements since appellees had not been rewarned of their Miranda rights prior to interrogation on the numerous unsolved bar robberies in the police files. This is the Commonwealth's appeal from that suppression order. The Commonwealth is substantially handicapped in its prosecution of appellees by the suppression of the statements in that they provide the only link of appellees to the robberies. Thus, this case is properly before us as an appealable order. ¹ Commonwealth v. Dugger, --- Pa. ----, 486 A.2d 382 (1985) (Commonwealth was found to have absolute right to appeal a suppression order on its good faith certification that its prosecution is substantially handicapped.)

When we review an order suppressing evidence, we are bound by the lower court's findings of fact, if those findings are supported by the record. Commonwealth v. Williams, 287 Pa.Superior Ct. 19, 429 A.2d 698 (1981). No one is questioning the court's findings of fact in the instant cases. The court found that both defendants, in two separate interrogation sessions, were initially administered their Miranda ² warnings as to the robbery in which each was implicated by a positive identification via a photo array by witnesses. Each defendant waived his rights and agreed to talk. While Brown admitted his role in the 801 Bar robbery, Wise initially denied that he robbed the Castle Bar. Wise subsequently admitted his role in the Castle Bar robbery after admitting robbing seven other bars. However, the court further found, and this is supported by the testimony of Detective Santiago, as to Brown, and Detective Carroll, as to Wise, that the interrogating detectives then proceeded to question appellees about their possible participation in numerous unsolved bar robberies. Each defendant did admit such participation in seven or eight additional robberies.

The suppression court concluded, under the authority of Commonwealth v. Travaglia, 502 Pa. 474, 467 A.2d 288 (1983), Commonwealth v. Dixon, 475 Pa. 17, 379 A.2d 553 (1977), and Commonwealth v. Richman, 458 Pa. 167, 320 A.2d 351 (1974) that the procedure violated appellees' Fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

The Pennsylvania courts, in interpreting Miranda, have held that, in order for an accused to exercise his Miranda rights intelligently, he must have knowledge of the particular transaction under investigation. This does not mean that the accused need know the technicalities of the offense or every conceivable consequence which might flow from a Miranda waiver, but he does have a right to know of the general nature of the incident giving rise to the investigation.

Thus, the question for our determination is whether by informing each of the appellees at the time of the Miranda warning that he was a suspect in a particular bar robbery, did the officers adequately apprise appellees of the general nature of the incidents which gave rise to the investigation of the numerous other robberies. Were they so adequately apprised that the waiver with regard to the known robbery sufficed to provide for the voluntariness of the waiver as to a laundry list of unsolved robberies with fact patterns very similar to the first. For the reasons which follow, we find that the circumstances of these interrogations did not mandate re-warning of Miranda rights, and we therefore, reverse.

It is evident that there is a wide range of circumstances which may give rise to defendant's claim that his Miranda waiver was involuntary because he was not made aware of the nature of the crimes which are the subject of his interrogation. The courts have ruled that in the face of such a claim, the totality of the circumstances must be examined to determine whether re-warnings are necessary. The indicia to be considered include

(1) the time lapse between the last Miranda warnings and the accused's statement; (2) interruptions in the continuity of the interrogation; (3) whether there was a change of location between the place where the last Miranda warnings were given and the place where the accused's statement was made; (4) whether the same officer who gave the warnings also conducted the interrogation resulting in the accused's statement; and (5) whether the statement elicited during the complained of interrogation differed significantly from other statements which had been preceded by Miranda warnings. See Commonwealth v. Riggins, 451 Pa. 519, 304 A.2d 473 (1973); Commonwealth v. Ferguson, 444 Pa. 478, 282 A.2d 378 (1971).

It is not difficult to comprehend the need to re-warn a suspect of his opportunity to assert his or her constitutional rights in circumstances in which he or she is brought into custody on relatively minor charges, and then is questioned on much more serious crimes without additional Miranda warnings. That was the situation in Commonwealth v. Dixon, supra, in which appellant had earlier been convicted of malicious mischief and was delinquent in her restitution payments. Police informed her of this infraction and then asked her to accompany them to the police station. Once warned of her Miranda rights as to that offense, police proceeded to interrogate her on the investigation of the death of her two-year-old son. As the Supreme Court stated in reversing her conviction,

"It is a far different thing to forego a lawyer where a traffic offense is involved than to waive counsel where first degree murder is at stake." Commonwealth v. Collins, 436 Pa. 114, 121, 259 A.2d 160, 163 (1969) (plurality opinion) in Dixon, supra, 475 Pa. at 22, 379 A.2d at 556. ³

In Commonwealth v. Travaglia, 502 Pa. 474, 467 A.2d 288 (1983), it was not clear that the questioning would cover several murders before the defendant was given the waiver form to sign. Both a violation of the Uniform Firearms Act and recklessly...