People v. Givans

• Decision Date: 19 December 1997
• Docket Number: Docket No. 189415
• Citation: 575 N.W.2d 84,227 Mich.App. 113
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Demetrius James GIVANS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

Page 84

575 N.W.2d 84

227 Mich.App. 113

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Demetrius James GIVANS, Defendant-Appellant.

Docket No. 189415.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted Aug. 6, 1997, at Grand Rapids.

Decided Dec. 19, 1997, at 9:20 a.m.

Released for Publication March 10, 1998.

Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Thomas L. Casey, Solicitor General, John G. McBain, Prosecuting Attorney, and Jerrold Schrotenboer, Chief Appellate Attorney, for People.

Hoare and Lyda by Madelaine P. Lyda, Farmington Hills, for Defendant-Appellant on appeal.

Before MARK J. CAVANAGH, P.J., and HOLBROOK and JANSEN, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant pleaded guilty of two counts of assault with intent to rob while armed, M.C.L. § 750.89; M.S.A. § 28.284, but reserved his right to appeal the trial court's finding that his confession was voluntary. Defendant now appeals his convictions as of right. We affirm.

On November 2, 1992, two men attempted an armed robbery at a Jackson gas station. During the robbery attempt, two employees of the gas station sustained gunshot wounds to the face. The robbers' efforts to open the cash register were unsuccessful. When they heard someone coming, they fled.

After receiving an anonymous tip, the police identified defendant as a suspect in the shootings and attempted robbery. On December 11, 1992, Detectives Carl Roberts and Maurice Crawford of the Jackson Police Department interviewed defendant at the Washtenaw County Youth Center, where defendant was lodged. Defendant initially denied any involvement in the attempted robbery and shootings at the gas station; however, he eventually admitted that he had taken part in the robbery along with Randy Emerson. Defendant stated that his role had been to distract the clerk, while Emerson had held the gun. Emerson had shot the two employees.

The trial court held a Walker ¹ hearing on November 30, 1993. Defendant did not testify at the hearing.

At the hearing, Roberts testified that after learning that defendant was sixteen years old, he telephoned defendant's mother, Denise Givans. According to Roberts, Givans told him that she had no objection to his speaking with defendant and said that she herself would like to know where defendant was. Givans was not present at the interview at the Washtenaw County Youth Center, and defendant never indicated that he wanted to telephone her.

The interview lasted less than three hours. Roberts told defendant that the detectives were investigating the incident at the Jackson gas station. Roberts then informed defendant of his Miranda ² rights, ascertained that defendant could read and write, and established that defendant was not taking any medication. Afterward, defendant agreed to speak to the detectives about the incident without an attorney present and signed a form acknowledging that he had waived his rights.

Roberts testified that during the interview defendant was very talkative. Defendant initially told Roberts that he was being investigated for an armed robbery in Washtenaw County and talked about the incident at great length. Eventually, defendant began talking about the attempted robbery at the Jackson gas station and denied involvement in it. Subsequently, defendant showed concern regarding what he was going to be charged with and whether he was going to prison. Defendant told Roberts that he wanted to talk to the prosecutor about making a deal. Roberts told defendant that if he cooperated during the interview, Roberts would report it to the prosecutor, as in any other investigation. Approximately an hour after the start of the interview, defendant told Roberts to tear up the notes he had taken and to begin a new set because defendant now wanted to tell the truth. Defendant then admitted that he had participated in the robbery.

Roberts asked defendant if the latter knew how his fingerprints could have been found in the gas station. Defendant explained that he could have handled a bag of chips at some time. When Roberts asked whether there was any way that defendant's fingerprints could have been left on the cash register, defendant said that he could have touched the cash register as he was reaching for the clerk who had been shot. In fact, the police had not identified any of the prints in the gas station as belonging to defendant.

At the end of the interview, Roberts told defendant that he wanted to be certain that the notes reflected exactly what defendant had stated that his role in the attempted robbery had been. Roberts and defendant then went over the notes page by page, and defendant made a few changes. Afterward, defendant signed a statement indicating that he had read the notes and considered them to be accurate and truthful.

Crawford testified that defendant did not ask for his mother or an attorney to be present during the interview. Crawford stated that he and Roberts encouraged defendant to be truthful because they did not believe that he was the man who pulled the trigger. However, the detectives did not try to make defendant believe that he had no criminal liability for the incident.

The last witness to testify at the hearing was Givans. Givans stated that she spoke to Roberts over the telephone and learned that he wanted to question defendant about an incident in Jackson. Givans testified that she told Roberts that she would prefer it if either she or an attorney were present when defendant was interviewed. She never gave Roberts permission to question defendant without either her or an attorney present.

In an order entered on August 11, 1994, the trial court found that defendant's confession had been knowingly and voluntarily made and ruled that it was admissible evidence. Defendant filed an application for leave to file an interlocutory appeal. This Court denied defendant's application, but ordered the trial court to state on the record the basis of its decision. On November 30, 1994, the trial court issued a supplement to its order stating that it had found the testimony of the two police detectives more credible than that of Givans.

On December 6, 1994, defendant pleaded guilty, but reserved his right to appeal the trial court's ruling regarding the voluntariness of his confession. On September 28, 1995, the trial court sentenced defendant as an adult to concurrent terms of eight to twenty-five years' imprisonment.

I

Defendant argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his confession. A trial court's findings of fact following a suppression hearing will not be disturbed by an appellate court unless the findings are clearly erroneous. People v. LoCicero (After Remand), 453 Mich. 496, 500, 556 N.W.2d 498 (1996). The trial court's factual findings are clearly erroneous if, after review of the record, this Court is left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made. People v. Launsburry, 217 Mich.App. 358, 362, 551 N.W.2d 460 (1996).

A

Defendant first asserts that Roberts' promise that he would tell the prosecutor if defendant cooperated constituted a promise of leniency that rendered the confession involuntary. Defendant relies on People v. Conte, 421 Mich. 704, 365 N.W.2d 648 (1984), which he claims stands for the proposition that a confession induced by a law enforcement official's promise of leniency is involuntary and inadmissible.

Defendant has misread Conte. In the lead opinion in that case, three justices (Williams, Kavanagh, and Levin) did support a rule that a confession obtained by a law enforcement official's promise of leniency automatically renders the confession involuntary and inadmissible. See id. at 739, 365 N.W.2d 648. However, four justices (Boyle, Ryan, Brickley, and Cavanagh), and hence a majority of the Court, rejected this rule. These four held that a defendant's inculpatory statement is not inadmissible per se if induced by a promise of leniency. Rather, a promise of leniency is merely one factor to be considered in the evaluation of the voluntariness of a defendant's statements. See id. at 751, 365 N.W.2d 648 (Boyle, J.), 761, 365 N.W.2d 648 (Brickley, J.), 761-762, 365 N.W.2d 648 (Cavanagh, J.).

Moreover, in the present case, Roberts testified that he merely told defendant that if defendant cooperated during the interview, Roberts would include that fact in his report, as in any other investigation. Roberts further testified that it was never suggested that if defendant told the truth, things would go easier for him. We do not believe that the mere pledge to note defendant's cooperation in a police report, without more, could reasonably be considered a promise of leniency. As this Court noted in a case involving similar facts, such a statement "constitutes a promise but not a promise of leniency." People v. Carigon, 128 Mich.App. 802, 811, 341 N.W.2d 803 (1983). Accordingly, the trial court's implicit finding that defendant's confession was not induced by an improper promise of leniency is not clearly erroneous.

B

Defendant also contends that his statement was not voluntary under the totality of the circumstances. The admissibility of a juvenile's confession depends upon whether, under the totality of the circumstances, the statement was voluntarily made. People v. Rode, 196 Mich.App. 58, 69, 492 N.W.2d 483 (1992), rev'd on other grounds sub nom. People v. Hana, 447 Mich. 325, 524 N.W.2d 682 (1994). The test of voluntariness is whether, considering the totality of all the surrounding circumstances, the confession is the product of an essentially free and unconstrained choice by its maker, or whether the accused's will has been overborne and his capacity for self-determination critically impaired. People v. Peerenboom, 224 Mich.App. 195, 198, 568 N.W.2d 153 (1997).

The factors that must be considered in applying the totality of the circumstances test to determine the admissibility of a juvenile's confession include (1) whether the requirements of Miranda v. Arizona, 384...