Com. v. Sites

• Decision Date: 14 November 1967
• Citation: 31 A.L.R.3d 559,427 Pa. 486,235 A.2d 387
• Parties: , 31 A.L.R.3d 559 COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Dennis Terry SITES, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 387

235 A.2d 387

427 Pa. 486, 31 A.L.R.3d 559

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. Dennis Terry SITES, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Nov. 14, 1967.

H. Rank Bickel, Jr., Edward H. Miller, Lebanon, for appellant.

R. Hart Beaver, Asst. Dist. Atty., Lebanon, Alvin B. Lewis, Jr., Dist. Atty., Lebanon, for appellee.

Before BELL, C.J., and MUSMANNO, JONES, COHEN, EAGEN, O'BRIEN and ROBERTS, JJ.

OPINION

EAGEN, Justice.

The appellant, Dennis Terry Sites, was convicted by a jury in Lebanon County of murder in the first degree, and the punishment was fixed at life imprisonment. Following dismissal of a motion for a new trial and imposition of sentence in accordance with the jury's verdict, an appeal was filed with this Court. We reverse the judgment and order a new trial.

Carrie Batdorf Layser was found slain in her home in Richland, Lebanon County, on the early morning of December 24, 1965. An autopsy indicated that death occurred between the hours of 10 p.m., December 23rd, and 5 a.m., December 24th. Police investigating officers learned that a 1958 Chevrolet sedan, fitting the description of one owned by Sites or his wife, was seen in the driveway of the Layser home during the early morning hours of December 24th.

On December 25th, two investigating officers, seeking to ascertain if Sites owned such an automobile, questioned him at his apartment. No warnings concerning his constitutional rights were given Sites at this time, but nothing of an incriminating nature was then disclosed by him.

On December 26th, the district attorney of Lebanon County, after reviewing the evidence then at hand with officers investigating the case, decided that Sites should be questioned further in connection with the crime. Two officers were dispatched to locate him for this purpose. He was found at his father-in-law's home, was requested to return with the officers to his own apartment for the purpose of discussing the case, and he agreed.

Before any questioning began at his apartment, Sites was warned by the officers that he had the right to remain silent. He was further advised that anything he did say would be used against him in court and also that 'he had the right to be represented by counsel.' ¹

In answer to questions concerning his whereabouts on the night of December 23rd and the morning of December 24th, Sites initially made misleading statements. As the questioning continued, however, he admitted waking up in his automobile in the driveway of the Layser property on the morning of December 24th with his right hand covered with blood. As a result, he was immediately placed under arrest.

Sites was then taken to the Layser home. There he made an oral statement in the presence of the district attorney and other officers which was tape recorded. Before this statement was given, the district attorney again warned Sites of his right to remain silent and also advised him that he had 'the right to be represented by counsel, he could hire counsel of his own choice; if he didn't have the money to hire counsel, that counsel would probably be appointed by the court.'

After this statement was concluded, Sites was taken to a hospital to see his wife. After this he was removed to the local state police headquarters for fingerprinting and photographing, following which he was returned to the Layser home. An attempt then followed to refresh Sites' memory and to reconstruct the circumstances incident to the victim's death. In the course of this, Sites made additional damaging admissions. As a result, a second oral statement was taken which also was tape recorded.

On February 21, 1966, Sites was indicted for murder and on February 24th, his court-appointed counsel filed a motion to suppress the evidence of all incriminating statements or admissions Sites had made to the investigating officers. A hearing on the motion was held on April 26th, and the motion was denied on June 2nd.

The trial began before a jury on September 19, 1966, and the verdict was returned on September 27th. At trial, evidence of the incriminating admissions made by Sites to the police officers in his apartment before his arrest on December 26th was admitted over objection. Likewise, over objection, evidence of the subsequent re-enactment of the crime at the Layser home and the tape recordings of Sites' statements was introduced for the jury's consideration.

Under Miranda v. State of Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), for a statement obtained from an individual subjected to in-custody police questioning to be admissible as trial evidence, it is an absolute requirement that the Commonwealth demonstrate, inter alia, that before the questioning began the suspect was clearly informed of his right to have his own legal counsel present during the questioning. And in order to apprise the suspect fully of his rights in this regard, it is indispensable not only that he be warned of his right to have counsel but also that he be advised that a lawyer will be appointed to represent him if he is indigent. As stated in Miranda, supra, 384 U.S. at 473, 86 S.Ct. at 1627, 'Without this additional warning, the admonition of the right to consult with counsel would often be understood as meaning only that he can consult with a lawyer if he has one or has the funds to obtain one. The warning of a right to counsel would be hollow if not couched in terms that would convey to the indigent--the person most often subjected to interrogation--the knowledge that he too has a right to have counsel present. As with the warnings of the right to remain silent and of the general right to counsel, only by effective and express explanation to the indigent of this right can there be assurance that he was in position to exercise it.' (Footnotes omitted.)

It is clear, in fact it is undisputed, that at the time Sites was questioned in his apartment by the police on December 26th, when the first incriminating admissions were made, he was not fully apprised of his right to counsel as dictated by Miranda. In our view, this itself proscribed evidentiary use of these admissions. The fact that a sufficient warning of this right was given later at the Layser home did not cure the infection and validate the evidence involved. See Miranda v. State of Arizona, supra. Since the question was neither briefed nor argued, we do not reach the issue of the sufficiency of the warning given subsequently at the Layser home or the effect of the prior unconstitutionally secured admissions on the admissibility of the tape recorded statements...