People v. Abraham

• Decision Date: 29 June 1999
• Docket Number: Docket No. 212099.
• Parties: In the Matter of Nathaniel Jamar Abraham, Minor. PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Nathaniel Jamar ABRAHAM, Defendant-Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

599 N.W.2d 736

234 Mich. App. 640

In the Matter of Nathaniel Jamar Abraham, Minor.

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellant/Cross-Appellee, v. Nathaniel Jamar ABRAHAM, Defendant-Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

Docket No. 212099.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted January 6, 1999, at Detroit.

Decided March 30, 1999, at 9:15 a.m.

Released for Publication June 29, 1999.

Jennifer M. Granholm, Attorney General, Thomas L. Casey, Solicitor General, David G. Gorcyca, Prosecuting Attorney, Daniel L. Lemisch, Chief, Appellate Division, and John S. Pallas, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.

William Lanstat and Daniel Bagdade, West Bloomfield, for the defendant.

Before HOEKSTRA, P.J., and DOCTOROFF and O'CONNELL, JJ.

O'CONNELL, J.

The prosecutor appeals by leave granted, and defendant cross appeals, from the trial court's¹ orders granting defendant's motion to suppress evidence of his statements to the police and denying defendant's motion to quash the petition. We affirm as regards the motion to quash, but reverse as regards the motion to suppress.

This case arises from the fatal shooting of Ronnie Green, and the nonfatal shooting of Michael Hudack, on October 29, 1997. Two days later the police questioned defendant about the shootings. According to the investigating officer, defendant first offered various innocent explanations of his role in the matter, then finally implicated himself in the shooting of Green. A probable cause hearing with regard to the prosecution's petition requesting that defendant, then aged eleven years, be tried as an adult² was held the following month. At the hearing, friends of defendant testified that defendant broke into a house and stole a .22 caliber rifle, practiced shooting at balloons and streetlights, stated an intention to shoot gang members who had been bothering him, and then boasted that he had shot someone. Defendant was bound over for trial on one count of first-degree premeditated murder, M.C.L. § 750.316(1)(a); MSA 28.548(1)(a), one count of assault with intent to commit murder, M.C.L. § 750.83; MSA 28.278, and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, M.C.L. § 750.227b; MSA 28.424(2).

I. Waiver of Miranda Rights

The police took defendant from school to the police station for questioning, stopping on the way to apprise defendant's mother of the matter. Defendant's mother joined defendant at the police station several minutes after defendant arrived with the police. Defendant and his mother were advised of defendant's rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), in response to which they indicated that defendant did not wish to speak to an attorney and agreed to waive defendant's right to remain silent. Both signed a document stating that defendant waived his Miranda rights. Defendant does not allege any misconduct on the part of the police.

The prosecutor argues that the trial court erred in ruling that defendant's statements to the police must be suppressed on the ground that defendant did not knowingly and intelligently waive his Miranda rights. We agree.

"Statements of an accused made during custodial interrogation are inadmissible unless the accused voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waives his Fifth Amendment rights." People v. Howard, 226 Mich.App. 528, 538, 575 N.W.2d 16 (1997), citing Miranda, supra at 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602 and People v. Garwood, 205 Mich.App. 553, 555-556, 517 N.W.2d 843 (1994).

An appellate court must give deference to the trial court's findings at a suppression hearing. Although engaging in de novo review of the entire record, [the reviewing court] will not disturb a trial court's factual findings regarding a knowing and intelligent waiver of Miranda rights unless that ruling is found to be clearly erroneous. [People v. Cheatham, 453 Mich. 1, 29-30, 551 N.W.2d 355 (1996) (Boyle, J., joined by Brickley, C.J., and Riley, J., and by Weaver, J., in pertinent part) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).]

Whether a waiver was voluntary and whether an otherwise voluntary waiver was knowingly and intelligently tendered form separate prongs of a two-part test for a valid waiver of Miranda rights. Howard, supra at 538, 575 N.W.2d 16. Both inquiries must proceed through examination of the totality of the circumstances surrounding the interrogation. Fare v. Michael C., 442 U.S. 707, 724-725, 99 S.Ct. 2560, 2571-2572, 61 L.Ed.2d 197 (1979). The state has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that there was a valid waiver of the suspect's rights. Cheatham, supra at 27, 551 N.W.2d 355.

A. "Voluntary" Waiver

"[T]he voluntariness prong is determined solely by examining police conduct." Howard, supra at 538, 575 N.W.2d 16. In this case, the trial court failed to address whether defendant spoke to police voluntarily as something apart from whether defendant knowingly and intelligently did so. However, the court repeatedly commended the police for their conduct in this matter in general and found in particular that the police did not detain defendant excessively, subject him to actual or threatened physical abuse, or deprive him of food, sleep, or medical attention. The court additionally found that defendant was not injured, intoxicated, or ill when he spoke to the police. Further, at the Walker³ hearing defense counsel characterized defendant's statements to the police as having been offered "[v]oluntarily probably. He was trying to cooperate...." We gather from these indications that the trial court found that defendant voluntarily waived his Miranda rights. Because the court's findings well comport with all the indications in the record, because defendant has essentially conceded the point, and because there is no allegation that the police failed in any way to act according to accepted standards, we conclude that defendant's waiver of his Miranda rights satisfied the voluntariness prong of the test for a valid waiver. This leaves for our consideration the question whether that waiver was offered knowingly and intelligently.⁴

B. "Knowing and Intelligent" Waiver

The trial court announced that it was "clearly satisfied that [defendant] did not understand his Miranda warnings," explaining that "he didn't know the consequences of the statements. He did not know why he was being interrogated to start with. He did not know clearly what the words meant—specifically about the right to stop the interview when he wanted to." We hold that the trial court's decision is unsupported by the evidence when properly considered and is therefore clearly erroneous.⁵

The trial court's statements, considered along with other indications in the record, reveal that in concluding that defendant did not knowingly and intelligently waive his Miranda rights, the court both failed to recognize the applicable legal standard of mental competency for a valid waiver of those rights and attached too much significance to defendant's not having known more precisely why he was being interrogated. We conclude that when the evidence is considered without looking through the distorting prism of those two legal errors, the only conclusion that can be reached is that defendant waived his rights knowingly and intelligently.

To establish a valid waiver of Miranda rights, the prosecution need only "present evidence sufficient to demonstrate that the accused understood that he did not have to speak, that he had the right to the presence of counsel, and that the state could use what he said in a later trial against him." Cheatham, supra at 29, 551 N.W.2d 355. "`That is the meaning of intelligent waiver; that and no more.'" Id., quoting Harris v. Riddle, 551 F.2d 936, 939 (C.A.4, 1977).

In the present case, the trial court placed great emphasis on defendant's not having known the full extent of why the police were interrogating him. This was error. An accused need not fully appreciate the ramifications of talking to the police in order to effect a valid waiver of Miranda rights. "Lack of foresight is insufficient to render an otherwise proper waiver invalid." Cheatham, supra at 29, 551 N.W.2d 355. Further, "a suspect's awareness of all the possible subjects of questioning in advance of interrogation is not relevant to determining whether the suspect voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waived his Fifth Amendment privilege." Colorado v. Spring, 479 U.S. 564, 577, 107 S.Ct. 851, 93 L.Ed.2d 954 (1987). Finally, the United States Supreme Court has "never read the Constitution to require that the police supply a suspect with a flow of information to help him calibrate his self-interest in deciding whether to speak or stand by his rights." Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 422, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 89 L.Ed.2d 410 (1986). The court thus erred in impugning defendant's waiver of his Miranda rights on the ground that the police declined to inform defendant specifically that he was under suspicion of murder.

The trial court also weighed heavily defendant's youth, learning disabilities, and emotional impairment in concluding that his waiver of Miranda rights was not knowing and intelligent. Although these considerations should not be discounted, neither should they be taken to elevate the obligations of the police to unreasonable levels.

Conceding that there is a level of mental deficiency so severe that under no circumstances would a defendant be able to knowingly waive his rights, we observe that short of this level of incapacity, a defendant's mental ability of necessity must be only one factor in the "totality of circumstances" inquiry. To hold otherwise would effectively immunize the mentally limited from interrogation and preclude the socially beneficial use of confessions, despite the absence of any indications of overreaching by the police. [Cheatham, supra at 43, 551 N.W.2d 355.]

We accept the trial court's finding that defendant "shows some ability to process...