Commonwealth v. Chacko
| Decision Date | 27 April 1983 |
| Citation | 459 A.2d 311,500 Pa. 571 |
| Parties | COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania v. David CHACKO, Appellant. |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Argued March 11, 1983. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]
John H. Corbett, Jr., Chief, Appellate Div., Public Defender, Mitchell A. Kaufman, Pittsburgh, for appellant.
Robert E. Colville, Dist. Atty., Robert L. Eberhardt, Deputy Dist Atty., Melinda G. Tell, Asst. Dist. Atty., Pittsburgh, for appellee.
Before ROBERTS, C.J., and NIX, LARSEN, FLAHERTY, McDERMOTT HUTCHINSON and ZAPPALA, JJ.
This is a direct appeal from the judgment of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County sentencing appellant to life imprisonment upon his conviction of first degree murder. [1] Appellant challenges the admissibility of inculpatory statements he gave during custodial interrogation, arguing (1) that he was not given Miranda warnings before making his initial statement, which rendered inadmissible that statement and subsequent post-warning statements thereby tainted, and (2) that his intelligence level and psychological state made him incapable of effecting a valid waiver of his right to remain silent and right to counsel. Having examined the record we are satisfied that neither claim has merit and, accordingly we affirm the judgment of sentence.
At the time of the homicide appellant, his co-defendant, John Keen, and the victim, Barney Russell, were inmates at the State Correctional Institute at Pittsburgh. The testimony of fellow inmate Nathan Thomas, the Commonwealth's eyewitness, established the following. On December 26, 1977, appellant, Keen and Thomas were seated together in the prison auditorium watching a movie when Russell approached and sat beside them. Keen became angry and left the auditorium. Appellant, Keen and two other inmates confronted Thomas in the prison laundry the following morning, asking him if he had heard that Russell had threatened appellant. Thomas replied that he had not. Keen then told Thomas that if Russell threatened appellant, Russell would have to leave the prison because there would be "no place in the jail that he could go." Following this conversation Thomas left for his job in the prison butcher shop. At 11:00 a.m. Russell approached Thomas as Thomas left the shop and followed him to his cell. While Russell was in Thomas's cell, appellant and Keen appeared at the door. Keen, after asking to speak with Thomas, entered the cell and stabbed Russell repeatedly. Keen then threw his knife onto Thomas's bed and told appellant to "finish [Russell] off." Appellant entered the cell and, using both Keen's knife and his own, stabbed Russell an additional four to five times. Appellant, Keen and Thomas then left the scene. Russell died on April 17, 1978, as a result of the multiple stab wounds.
The evidence further establishes that at approximately 1:00 p.m. on December 27, 1977, appellant was informed by prison guards that the Major of the Guard, Lawrence J. Weyandt (Major) wished to see him. Appellant walked to the Major's office, entered and sat down. The Major was on the telephone when appellant arrived. The institution's Director of Treatment, James A. Wigton (Director), who was also present, asked appellant if he was involved in the stabbing incident. Appellant replied that he was the one who had stabbed Russell. The Major immediately terminated his phone call and gave appellant appropriate Miranda warnings. Appellant, after the warnings, elected to make a statement in which he asserted that he had stabbed Russell in self defense during a fight.
On the following day, December 28, 1977, appellant was interviewed by State Trooper Walter A. Knaus (State Trooper) in the office of another prison official. After being advised of his constitutional rights, appellant elected again to substantially repeat the statement he had given the prison officials the previous day. Appellant was subsequently arrested and charged with murder in the first and third degrees and voluntary manslaughter. His motion to suppress his inculpatory statements was denied, and he was convicted after a bench trial of first degree murder on November 16, 1978. Appellant was sentenced on September 21, 1979 to a term of life imprisonment to run consecutive to the sentence he was then serving. This appeal followed.
Appellant argues first that his initial statement to the Director should have been suppressed because it was obtained before he was advised of his constitutional rights during the course of a custodial interrogation in violation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). With this aspect of appellant's argument we are in agreement. The test for determining whether a suspect is being subjected to custodial interrogation so as to necessitate Miranda warnings is whether he is physically deprived of his freedom in any significant way or is placed in a situation in which he reasonably believes that his freedom of action or movement is restricted by such interrogation. Commonwealth v. Meyer, 488 Pa. 297, 412 A.2d 517 (1980); Commonwealth v. Brown, 473 Pa. 562, 375 A.2d 1260 (1977); Commonwealth v. Fisher, 466 Pa. 216, 352 A.2d 26 (1976); Commonwealth v. O'Shea, 456 Pa. 288, 318 A.2d 713, cert. denied 419 U.S. 1092, 95 S.Ct. 686, 42 L.Ed.2d 685 (1974). Mathis v. United States, 391 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1503, 20 L.Ed.2d 381 (1968) established that an individual incarcerated on charges unrelated to the subject of the interrogation is "in custody" for Miranda purposes. See Oregon v. Mathiason, 429 U.S. 492, 97 S.Ct. 711, 50 L.Ed.2d 714 (1977); Beckwith v. United States, 425 U.S. 341, 96 S.Ct. 1612, 48 L.Ed.2d 1 (1976). [2]
While this Court has not had occasion to address the precise issue raised herein, we have unquestionably embraced the Mathis principle. As this Court, applying Mathis, stated in Commonwealth v. Simala, 434 Pa. 219, 252 A.2d 575 (1969): "[W]hen a defendant is placed in custody for any reason, he cannot be interrogated without first being advised of his rights...." Id. at 224-225, 252 A.2d at 578. Thus we conclude that, since appellant was incarcerated at the time of questioning, he was "in custody" for purposes of Miranda.
We must next determine whether the Director's question concerning appellant's involvement amounted to interrogation. As the United States Supreme Court recently explained in Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980):
We conclude that the Miranda safeguards come into play whenever a person in custody is subjected to either express questioning or its functional equivalent. That is to say, the term "interrogation" under Miranda refers not only to express questioning, but also to any words or actions on the part of the police (other than those normally attendant to arrest and custody) that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect. The latter portion of this definition focuses primarily upon the perceptions of the suspect, rather than the intent of the police. This focus reflects the fact that the Miranda safeguards were designed to vest a suspect in custody with an added measure of protection against coercive police practices, without regard to objective proof of the underlying intent of the police. A practice that the police should know is reasonably likely to evoke an incriminating response from a suspect thus amounts to interrogation. But, since the police surely cannot be held accountable for the unforeseeable results of their words or actions, the definition of interrogation can extend only to words or actions on the part of police officers that they should have known were reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response.
Id. at 300-302, 100 S.Ct. at 1689-1690, 64 L.Ed.2d at 307-308 (footnotes omitted) (emphasis in original).
See Commonwealth v. Yount, 455 Pa. 303, 314 A.2d 242 (1974); Commonwealth v. Mercier, 451 Pa. 211, 302 A.2d 337 (1973); Commonwealth v. Simala, supra.
The Director testified that he asked appellant, "Are you involved in the incident that happened this morning?" Whatever the Director's motive in putting the question to appellant, such a direct question was clearly "likely to elicit an incriminating response." The Director conceded this fact on cross examination at the suppression hearing. Thus, appellant was subjected to interrogation while in custody, mandating Miranda warnings before questioning. Because no warnings were given until after appellant's initial statement, that statement should have been suppressed. [3] Mathis v. United States, supra; Miranda v. Arizona, supra; Commonwealth v. Ware, 438 Pa. 517, 265 A.2d 790 (1970).
Although we agree that the admission at trial of this first inculpatory statement constituted a technical violation of Miranda, we do not believe that it requires a disturbance of the verdict. Our reason for that conclusion is based on our judgment that the subsequent statements, which were more detailed and comprehensive, were properly admitted and thereby rendered the introduction of the initial statement harmless. See Commonwealth v. Ashburn, 459 Pa. 625, 331 A.2d 167 (1975); cf. Commonwealth v. Bishop, 489 Pa. 96, 413 A.2d 1031 (1980); Commonwealth v. Evans, 489 Pa. 85, 413 A.2d 1025 (1980); Commonwealth v. Glover, 446 Pa. 492, 286 A.2d 349 (1972); Commonwealth v. Thomas, 443 Pa. 234, 279 A.2d 20 (1971).
We must next consider appellant's objections to the subsequent statements. Appellant contends that these later statements were tainted by the illegality in eliciting the original admission. It is well established that a confession obtained after a suspect has been adequately advised of his constitutional rights is not ipso facto inadmissible because an...
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