Hartman v. State

• Decision Date: 31 May 2013
• Docket Number: No. 68S01–1305–CR–395.,68S01–1305–CR–395.
• Parties: Brian Scott HARTMAN, Appellant (Defendant), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

988 N.E.2d 785

Brian Scott HARTMAN, Appellant (Defendant),

v.STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. 68S01–1305–CR–395.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

May 31, 2013.

Mark I. Cox, The Mark I. Cox Law Office, LLC, Richmond, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Gregory F. Zoeller, Attorney General of Indiana, George P. Sherman, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee.

On Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 68A01–1106–CR–264

DICKSON, Chief Justice.

Facing charges of Murder and Assisting Suicide, the defendant filed a motion to suppress incriminating statements he made to a police detective in response to police inquiries, notwithstanding the defendant's prior request for counsel. The trial court denied his motion, and the defendant initiated this interlocutory appeal. The Court of Appeals affirmed. Hartman v. State, 962 N.E.2d 1273 (Ind.App.2012). We grant transfer and reverse.

On Monday, February 22, 2010, the defendant, Brian Scott Hartman, was taken into custody on burglary charges. Detective Douglas Fritz of the Randolph County Sheriff's Department initiated an interview with the defendant at the Randolph County Jail and asked questions about the defendant'sfather, Brian Ellis Hartman, who was missing at the time. Detective Fritz advised the defendant of his Miranda rights, and the defendant requested to speak with an attorney. Detective Fritz ceased questioning at that time.

The following afternoon, Detective Tom Pullins executed two search warrants at a residence in nearby Williamsburg, Indiana, and discovered the body of the defendant's father.¹ Early the following day, Wednesday, February 24, 2010, at approximately one o'clock in the morning, Detective Pullins had the defendant brought to the jail's intake area and informed him that “by law” the detective “had” to read him the search warrants. After Detective Pullins read the search warrants, he asked the defendant if he had any questions. In response, the defendant asked if the house had been searched and if anything had been found. Detective Pullins then asked whether the defendant wanted to speak with the detectives, and the defendant indicated that he did. The detective took the defendant to an interview room where he re-read the defendant his Miranda rights, after which the defendant indicated that he understood his rights and had no questions. The defendant then made incriminating statements to the detectives, essentially confessing his role in his father's death.

In the ensuing trial, the defendant moved the trial court to suppress his confession on the grounds that the statements were obtained as a result of an interrogation which took place after he had invoked his right to remain silent and consult with an attorney. In its order denying the motion to suppress, the trial court concluded:

In the case at hand, more than a day had passed since the Defendant had been questioned. The Defendant was not taken to an interview room to have the Warrants read to him, but was in the intake area. That conversation was clearly not of a coercive nature, which might cause the Defendant to feel pressure to answer questions. Rather, it was the Defendant's conduct and questions which led to his giving the incriminating statement. He may have simply wanted to “come clean” and be truthful with the officers. He may have hoped to obtain favor from the authorities by providing helpful information. This is only speculation. What is clear is that the Defendant voluntarily chose to initiate this conversation and, regardless of his motivation, chose to give the incriminating statement. Therefore the Motion to Suppress must be denied.

Appellant's App'x at 117.

On interlocutory appeal, the defendant asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress because Detective Pullins, in violation of the Fifth Amendment,² reinitiated interrogation after he had invoked his right to counsel, and that the resulting confession is therefore inadmissible. The State contends that the detectives did not reinitiate interrogation of the defendant by reading him the search warrants and asking if he had any questions. Rather, they claim that it was the defendant who initiated a dialogue and indicated that he wished to speak with the officers.

The trial court's decision regarding admissibility of a confession or incriminating statement is controlled by determining from the totality of the circumstances whether the statement was given voluntarily, rather than through coercion or other improper influence so as to overcome the free will of the accused. Massey v. State, 473 N.E.2d 146, 147 (Ind.1985). We review a trial court's denial of a motion to suppress in a manner similar to other sufficiency issues. Taylor v. State, 689 N.E.2d 699, 702 (Ind.1997). There must be substantial evidence of probative value in the record to support the trial court's decision. Id. We do not reweigh the evidence, and we consider conflicting evidence most favorably to the trial court's ruling. Id. However, within this sufficiency review, we review all issues of law de novo, subject to the sole determination of this Court. See Griffith v. State, 788 N.E.2d 835, 839 (2003).

The Fifth Amendment grants to individuals, among other rights, the right to be free from self-incrimination. U.S. Const. amend. V (“No person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself....”). This provision applies to the states by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment. Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 6, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 1492, 12 L.Ed.2d 653, 658 (1964). In Miranda v. Arizona, the United States Supreme Court outlined an additional prophylactic requirement, inherent in the privilege against self-incrimination, that an individual must be informed of his right to have counsel present during custodial interrogation. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 469, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1625, 16 L.Ed.2d 694, 721 (1966) (“[T]he right to have counsel present at the interrogation is indispensable to the protection of the Fifth Amendment privilege under the system we delineate today.”). When an individual in custody invokes his Fifth Amendment right to counsel, all interrogation must cease until an attorney is present, and the individual must be afforded the opportunity to speak with the attorney and have an attorney present at any further questioning. Id. at 474, 86 S.Ct. at 1628, 16 L.Ed.2d at 723. However, if the individual initiates “further communication, exchanges, or conversations” with law enforcement, then the individual may be further interrogated without counsel present. Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 484–85, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 1885, 68 L.Ed.2d 378, 386 (1981). Furthermore, even if counsel is not immediately provided to an individual who requests it, the police “are free to inform the suspect of the facts of [a] second investigation as long as such communication does not constitute interrogation.” Arizona v. Roberson, 486 U.S. 675, 687, 108 S.Ct. 2093, 2101, 100 L.Ed.2d 704, 717 (1988) (citation omitted). Under Miranda, “interrogation” refers to “either express questioning or its functional equivalent.” Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 300–01, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1689, 64 L.Ed.2d 297, 308 (1980). The Court has defined the functional equivalent of express questioning as “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.” Id. at 301, 100 S.Ct. at 1689–90, 64 L.Ed.2d at 308 (footnote omitted). Such reasonable likelihood of eliciting an incriminating response must be determined from the suspect's perspective, rather than the intent of the police, because Miranda protections are intended as a layer of protection for the suspect against coercive police practices, “without regard to objective proof of the underlying intent of the police.” Id. at 301, 100 S.Ct. at 1690, 64 L.Ed.2d at 308.

The findings of fact, conclusions of law, and ruling by the trial court fail to reflect consideration of several uncontested factualmatters. Regardless of his whereabouts in the police station house, the defendant remained in police custody, in a police-dominated atmosphere in which there are “inherently compelling pressures which work to undermine the individual's will to resist and compel him to speak where he would not otherwise do so freely.” Miranda, 384 U.S. at 467, 86 S.Ct. at 1624, 16 L.Ed.2d at 719. The longer an individual is in custody, the more the psychological pressures build. Although the defendant had been in custody for less than 48 hours at the time of the exchange, the uncertainty and stress of the situation was heightened due to the second factor—that the defendant had requested the assistance of counsel, and that counsel had not been provided to him.

In Maryland v. Shatzer, the Supreme Court refused to extend the Miranda and Edwards protections to cover situations where an accused has been released from custody for more than fourteen days and is then re-interrogated. Maryland v. Shatzer, 559 U.S. 98, 130 S.Ct. 1213, 175 L.Ed.2d 1045 (2010). In so deciding, the Court stated that when a suspect has been released from custody and has returned to his normal life prior to the later attempted interrogation, there is little reason to believe that the suspect's willingness to talk has been coerced. Id. “He has likely been able to seek advice from an attorney, family members, and friends. And he knows from his earlier experience that he need only demand counsel to bring the interrogation to a halt; and that investigative custody does not last indefinitely.” Id. at 107–08, 130 S.Ct. at 1221, 175 L.Ed.2d at 1055 (footnote omitted).

Here, despite the defendant's request for counsel, he had not been provided the opportunity to consult with an attorney prior to the police approaching him to read the search warrants. Nor had he consulted...