Nicholas v. People, 97SC705
| Decision Date | 11 January 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 97SC705,97SC705 |
| Citation | 973 P.2d 1213 |
| Parties | 1999 CJ C.A.R. 145 Dameon E. NICHOLAS, Petitioner, v. The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Respondent. |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
Lari Jean Trogani, Colorado Springs, for Petitioner.
Gale A. Norton, Attorney General, Martha Phillips Allbright, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Richard A. Westfall, Solicitor General, John Daniel Dailey, Deputy Attorney General, Robert Mark Russell, First Assistant Attorney General, Catherine P. Adkisson, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Enforcement Section, Denver, for Respondent.
Colorado has a statute that requires that no statements of a juvenile resulting from custodial interrogation shall be admissible in evidence against that juvenile unless a parental figure was present during the interrogation and advised of the juvenile's Miranda rights. In this case, we decide whether this statute must be followed when a juvenile lies to police about his age, thereby causing them to believe that he is an adult. Applying the plain language of the statute, we hold that the juvenile's statements are not admissible as evidence against him. Therefore, we reverse the court of appeals decision in People v. Nicholas, 950 P.2d 634 (Colo.App.1997), and remand this case for a new trial.
According to evidence presented at trial, Dameon Nicholas and Allan Lucero were involved in the murder of an elderly man in the parking lot of a pharmacy in Colorado Springs on the evening of August 18, 1993. While Nicholas waited across the street, Lucero attempted to rob the victim. In the course of the attempted robbery, Lucero shot and killed the victim. Nicholas and Lucero fled the scene together, but then returned to retrieve the gun that Lucero had used in the crime. At that time, in the early morning hours of August 19, 1993, the police apprehended both Nicholas and Lucero.
The following facts relevant to the suppression issue are not disputed. On the scene, an officer asked Nicholas some basic identification questions. The officer recorded Nicholas's responses in a police form called a "Field Interview Record." Nicholas gave this officer a false name and a false date of birth. Although Nicholas was seventeen years old at the time, the date of birth that Nicholas gave the officer made it appear that he was eighteen years old.
The police took Nicholas to a police substation. At the police substation, Nicholas admitted his true name to the lab technician who performed gunshot residue tests on him. Nicholas told the lab technician that the other information contained in the Field Interview Record was correct.
Detective Brian Ritz interrogated Nicholas three times. The first interrogation lasted from 1:25 a.m. to 2:10 a.m. Detective Ritz failed to administer Miranda warnings to Nicholas before this first interrogation.
The second interrogation was from 2:28 a.m. to 3:15 a.m. Before this second interrogation, Detective Ritz reviewed the Field Interview Record prepared by the arresting officer which included the false name and the false date of birth. Detective Ritz knew that Nicholas had admitted that the name on the Field Interview Record was false. Detective Ritz also knew that Nicholas was arrested with Lucero, who was a juvenile. At the outset of this second interrogation, Detective Ritz obtained a Miranda waiver from Nicholas. There was no parental figure present.
During the second interrogation, Nicholas asked to speak to his father. Detective Ritz responded by asking Nicholas how old he was. When Nicholas stated that he was eighteen, Detective Ritz told him that he could not talk to his father because he was an adult.
Detective Ritz interrogated Nicholas a third time, from 4:00 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. During this third interrogation, Nicholas again asked for permission to call his father. Detective Ritz again asked Nicholas his age, and when Nicholas answered that he was eighteen, Detective Ritz refused to allow him to call his father.
During breaks in between the interrogations, Nicholas was guarded by Officer Mark Cormier, who remained in the hallway while Nicholas sat inside the interrogation room. At one point, Nicholas asked Officer Cormier if the officer would enter the interrogation room because Nicholas needed to talk to someone. Officer Cormier entered the room and engaged in casual conversation with Nicholas, during which Nicholas mentioned the fact that he had two children. When Officer Cormier commented that Nicholas seemed pretty young to have two children and asked Nicholas how old he was, Nicholas told Officer Cormier that he was eighteen years old. Officer Cormier observed Nicholas off and on throughout the early morning hours and testified that Nicholas appeared very upset, was occasionally crying, and seemed afraid.
At the end of the interrogations, the police informed Nicholas that they were formally arresting him and taking him to an adult detention facility. At that point, Nicholas told the police that they could not take him to an adult facility because he was only seventeen years old. This was the first time that morning that Nicholas gave his correct age to the police.
Detective Ritz then ran Nicholas's name through the Colorado Springs Police Department Identification section computer. This computer database, which was generally available to the police twenty-four hours a day, showed Nicholas's correct date of birth and indicated that he was only seventeen.
Nicholas moved to suppress his statements resulting from all three interrogations. Finding that Detective Ritz had failed to give Miranda warnings to Nicholas before the first interrogation, the trial court suppressed Nicholas's statements made during that interrogation. This ruling is not at issue here.
The trial court denied Nicholas's motion to suppress his statements made during the second and third interrogations. The trial court found that Nicholas told the police that he was eighteen on five or six occasions. Ruling that the fact that the computer system may have shown that Nicholas was seventeen did not rise to the level of bad faith on the part of the police, the trial court found that the police had acted in good faith. The trial court ruled the second and third statements admissible, reasoning that Nicholas should not be allowed to benefit from lying about his age.
Nicholas was prosecuted as an adult under Colorado's direct filing statute. 1 Following a jury trial, Nicholas was convicted under a complicity theory of murder in the first degree (felony murder), 2 attempted aggravated robbery, 3 and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery. 4
Nicholas appealed, arguing in part that the trial court committed reversible error when it ruled that Nicholas's second and third statements were admissible. Relying on case law from New York, the court of appeals held that because the police acted in good faith reliance on Nicholas's misrepresentations about his age, section 19-2-210 did not require exclusion of his statements. See Nicholas, 950 P.2d at 636. Thus, the court of appeals upheld the trial court's determination that under the totality of the circumstances, Nicholas's Miranda waiver had been knowing, intelligent, and voluntary, and therefore his statements were admissible. See id.
We granted certiorari in this case to decide "[w]hether the trial court erred in denying [Nicholas's] Motion to Suppress [Nicholas's] statement given as a juvenile." We hold that the trial court's ruling that Nicholas's second and third statements were admissible violated the mandate of section 19-2-210.
As background to our analysis, we note that the Colorado Children's Code requires that statements of a juvenile taken during custodial interrogation shall be inadmissible unless a parental figure was present and advised of the juvenile's Miranda rights:
No statements or admissions of a juvenile made as a result of the custodial interrogation of such juvenile by a law enforcement official concerning delinquent acts alleged to have been committed by the juvenile shall be admissible in evidence against such juvenile unless a parent, guardian, or legal or physical custodian of the juvenile was present at such interrogation and the juvenile and his parent, guardian, or legal or physical custodian were advised of the juvenile's right to remain silent and that any statements made may be used against him in a court of law, of his right to have counsel appointed if he so requests at the time of the interrogation; except that, if a public defender or counsel representing the juvenile is present at such interrogation, such statements or admissions may be admissible even though the juvenile's parent, guardian, or legal or physical custodian was not present.
§ 19-2-210(1), 8B C.R.S. (1993 Supp.) (emphasis added). 5
Nicholas argues that the language of this section is compulsory and should be strictly construed. Nicholas further argues that the purpose of this section is to provide him with protective counseling concerning his constitutional rights from an adult whose interests are not adverse to his own.
The People argue that Nicholas should not be able to benefit from his own misrepresentations. The People point out that there was no evidence of police misconduct during the interrogations and that the police's reliance on Nicholas's repeated assertions that he was eighteen was reasonable. Accordingly, the People argue, the trial court correctly admitted Nicholas's statements.
Our sole task, therefore, is to determine whether the trial court correctly ruled that because Nicholas lied about his age, he is not entitled to the protection of section 19-2-210.
To decide this question, we begin with basic principles of statutory construction. "In construing statutory provisions, our obligation is not to make policy decisions but rather to give...
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