Maulden v. State, 75595
| Decision Date | 25 March 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 75595,75595 |
| Citation | 617 So.2d 298 |
| Parties | 18 Fla. L. Week. S179 Charles Sebastian MAULDEN, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender and A. Anne Owens, Asst. Public Defender, Bartow, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Robert J. Krauss, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, and Sara D. Baggett, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.
Charles Sebastian Maulden appeals his conviction of two counts of first-degree murder and corresponding sentences of death. We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(1) of the Florida Constitution.
Charles Maulden was married to Tammy Maulden for five to six years. In October 1987, the Mauldens separated. In January 1988, they were divorced and Maulden went to live with his mother in Lakeland, Florida.
For some time after the divorce, Maulden tried but was unable to reconcile the relationship. As time went on, Maulden became more and more depressed. He took Melaril, a prescription drug, to help cope with the depression but discontinued it in 1988. Eventually, Maulden learned that Tammy Maulden and their children were living with another man, Earl Duvall, in Wahneta, Florida, and that Tammy Maulden and Duvall were considering marriage. This added to Maulden's depression.
On Sunday, June 26, 1988, the day before the homicides at issue, the children were visiting Maulden. In the afternoon, Maulden made a telephone call to Duvall's father. During the conversation, Maulden said, "If you love him (Duvall), you'll get him out of there." That evening Maulden saw Tammy Maulden when she picked up the children.
On Monday, June 27, 1988, at approximately 1:30 a.m., Maulden woke up and decided that he was going to kill Tammy Maulden. He drove to the apartment where she and Duvall were staying and saw Duvall's car there. Then, Maulden drove to Saddle Creek Road and dug up a gun he had buried earlier that day. Maulden proceeded back to the apartment, crawled through a bathroom window, entered the room where Tammy Maulden and Duvall were sleeping, and shot them. In all, Maulden fired five shots. Tammy Maulden and Duvall died instantly.
Subsequently, Maulden scraped the signs off the company truck he was using and drove to Las Vegas, Nevada. He was arrested there and was returned to Florida. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, armed burglary, grand theft, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. After a penalty proceeding, the jury recommended death by a vote of eight to four. The judge followed the jury's recommendation and sentenced Maulden to death for each count of first-degree murder.
As his first issue on appeal, Maulden, who is white, alleges that the jury selection process was tainted by the prosecution's peremptory challenges of two prospective black jurors. We have reviewed the record, and we cannot say that the trial judge abused his discretion in denying Maulden's objection to these challenges.
As his second and third issues, Maulden argues that the trial judge erred in failing to suppress statements and admissions made by Maulden to the Las Vegas police subsequent to his arrest and in failing to suppress evidence discovered as a result of his arrest. After shooting Tammy Maulden and Duvall, Maulden fled to Las Vegas in a stolen truck. A Las Vegas police officer, making a random computer check of vehicle tags, discovered the truck in the parking lot of the motel where Maulden was staying. The computer indicated that the vehicle was stolen and that the person responsible was wanted for two murders in Polk County, Florida. Upon discovering the truck, the officer notified his dispatcher who, in turn, contacted the Polk County Sheriff and verified that Maulden had arrest warrants outstanding in Florida.
Subsequently, the officer contacted the motel manager to determine who drove the truck to the motel and if that individual was still there. The manager informed the officer that the driver was staying in the motel and provided a key to the room. Two backup officers were summoned, and when they arrived, the police entered the room. The officers used the key to unlock the door but, because the chain lock was engaged, they were forced to break into the room. After entering the room, the officers handcuffed Maulden and read him his Miranda rights. 1 While in the motel room, the officers questioned Maulden about the vehicle and whether he had committed any crimes in Florida. Maulden confessed to killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend. Maulden also acknowledged that the truck belonged to his employer and told the officers where the keys to the truck could be located. The officers then transported Maulden to the police station where, after again being notified of his Miranda rights, Maulden gave another, more detailed, confession. After Maulden was removed to the police department, a police crime scene specialist searched the truck. Inside, she found the murder weapon and other incriminating evidence.
Maulden argues that his arrest in the motel room was illegal under the rationale of Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980). Therefore, the statements made by Maulden to the police in the motel room immediately after the arrest, and the evidence obtained by the police as a result of the arrest, were tainted and should have been suppressed. We disagree.
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution proscribes unreasonable searches and seizures. 2 In Payton, the Court held that the Fourth Amendment prohibits police from making warrantless, nonconsensual entries into suspects' homes to make routine felony arrests absent exigent circumstances. 445 U.S. at 576, 100 S.Ct. at 1374. This prohibition is also applicable to guests in motel rooms. Sheff v. State, 329 So.2d 270, 272 (Fla.1976).
In the instant case, a valid Florida warrant had been issued for Maulden's arrest and the Las Vegas police confirmed its existence before they moved to arrest Maulden. However, the police did not obtain a Nevada arrest warrant prior to entering Maulden's motel room to arrest him. Thus, the threshold question is whether the Las Vegas police could properly rely on a valid Florida arrest warrant to effect an arrest in Nevada.
The answer to the question lies in the principle underlying arrest warrants. The purpose of the warrant requirement is
to interpose the magistrate's determination of probable cause between the zealous officer and the citizen. If there is sufficient evidence of a citizen's participation in a felony to persuade a judicial officer that his arrest is justified, it is constitutionally reasonable to require him to open his doors to the officers of the law.
Payton, 445 U.S. at 602-603, 100 S.Ct. at 1388. As Justice Jackson observed in Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14, 68 S.Ct. 367, 369, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948),
[t]he point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime.... When the right of privacy must reasonably yield to the right of search is, as a rule, to be decided by a judicial officer, not by a policeman or government enforcement agent.
(Footnotes omitted.) With these principles in mind, it is clear that, in the case at bar, the reliance by the Las Vegas police on a Florida warrant is in keeping with the spirit underlying the Fourth Amendment.
Warrants for Maulden's arrest were obtained in Florida. Thus, there was a determination by a neutral, detached magistrate that probable cause existed to arrest Maulden on two counts of murder and for grand theft of the vehicle. The Las Vegas police confirmed the existence of the warrants and relied on them in arresting Maulden. Neither precedent nor logic would dictate that a second arrest warrant needed to be obtained in Nevada before the arrest. We hold that Maulden's Fourth Amendment rights were not infringed, and the precepts of Payton were satisfied. 3
Based on our holding, all of Maulden's statements and admissions to the police, and the evidence obtained as a result of the arrest, were admissible. Even if the arrest was tainted, however, the failure of the trial court to grant Maulden's motions to suppress could only be harmless error. In New York v. Harris, 495 U.S. 14, 15, 110 S.Ct. 1640, 1641, 109 L.Ed.2d 13 (1990), the defendant was arrested in his home on probable cause but without a warrant in violation of Payton v. New York. Immediately following the arrest, while still in his home, the defendant admitted his guilt to the police. Id. at 16, 110 S.Ct. at 1642. This statement was tainted and, therefore, inadmissible at trial. After the arrest, the defendant was removed from his home and taken to the police station. While there, the defendant made a second statement to the police admitting his guilt. Id. Regarding the second admission, the Court held that "where the police have probable cause to arrest a suspect, the exclusionary rule does not bar the state's use of a statement made by the defendant outside of his home, even though this statement is taken after an arrest in the home in violation of Payton." Id. at 21, 110 S.Ct. at 1644. Applying the principle of New York v. Harris to the instant case, it is clear that Maulden's statement given at the police station was admissible.
The evidence found in the truck was also admissible even if Maulden's original arrest was illegal. In Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 448, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 2511, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984), the United States Supreme Court adopted the "inevitable discovery" exception to the "fruit of the poisonous...
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