People v. Hankins

• Decision Date: 23 February 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08SA343.,08SA343.
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Terry HANKINS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

201 P.3d 1215

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Terry HANKINS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 08SA343.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

February 23, 2009.

Bonnie S. Roesink, District Attorney, 14th Judicial District, Carl E. Stahl, Chief Deputy, Jeremy J. Snow, Deputy District Attorney, Craig, Colorado, Attorneys for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Douglas K. Wilson, Colorado State Public Defender, Sheryl Uhlmann, Deputy State Public Defender, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Attorneys for Defendant-Appellee.

Justice HOBBS delivered the Opinion of the Court.

The prosecution brought this interlocutory appeal pursuant to C.A.R. 4.1 to challenge the trial court's suppression of several murder confessions and other related statements by the defendant Terry Hankins.¹ Hankins initially confessed to police without first being advised of his Miranda rights. Soon after his initial confession, police advised Hankins of his Miranda rights, which he waived before giving his next three statements. Ruling that Hankins was in custody when he made his initial confession, the trial court granted his motion to suppress. The trial court also suppressed his subsequent statements, concluding that the later Miranda warnings did not cure the initial Miranda violation because "there was insufficient attenuation between the violation and subsequent waivers."

We reverse the suppression order. We hold that Hankins was not in custody when he made the initial confession and he was properly Mirandized before his subsequent custodial statements.

I.

On August 24, 2007, seventy-year-old Hankins sat staring out from a police car window at a mound of soil on the far edge of his mining claim near Craig, Colorado, where he had voluntarily led two investigators whom he had invited to his home that morning. He pointed and said, "She's under that pile of dirt." Hankins was referring to his wife Cynthia, who had disappeared several months earlier.

Shortly after Hankins revealed the location of his wife's body, one of the investigators asked, "Terry, tell us while we're here right now, what happened that night?" Hankins then described how he had murdered his wife Cynthia by strangling her, hitting her over the head with a crowbar, and then meticulously carving her body into quarters in their bathtub, "like butchering a deer," he said, so he could more easily transport her remains. He then buried her body parts and all her belongings under the pile of dirt. Thinking that no court of law would believe his claim of self defense, Hankins vacated their apartment and told friends that his wife had run off with another man.

Hankins made this statement in the investigator's car at the burial site and on the drive back to his home. The investigators treated him politely and maintained an inquisitive, respectful tone. Several times during and after the approximately fifteen-minute confession, investigators told Hankins, "You're free to go at any time . . . you don't have to tell us any more . . . you're still free to go."

On arriving at Hankins' home, the investigators advised Hankins of his Miranda rights, which he waived. Inside, the investigators asked Hankins to again describe "from A to Z" what happened. Now Mirandized, Hankins walked through the details of the events leading up to the murder, the murder itself, and what happened since.

The investigators then transported Hankins to police headquarters where they again read him his Miranda rights. He signed a waiver and then gave his third confession of the day, this time captured on video inside a police interrogation room. The following day, Hankins gave additional statements, once again preceded by a full advisement of his Miranda rights, which he again waived.

In the months leading up to his initial murder confession, Hankins and the local police grew familiar with each other. The police spoke with Hankins several times, served search warrants on his home, and confiscated some of his property over the course of the summer of 2007. Throughout these events, Hankins maintained he was not involved in his wife's disappearance, and the police did not arrest Hankins. Before his initial confession, investigators did have evidence linking Hankins to check forgeries and illegal narcotics.

On the day Hankins confessed to the murder, Investigators Joe DeAngelo and Jen Kenney arrived at Hankins' home, where they spent about an hour discussing Hankins' involvement in fraud and drugs. The investigators then turned the discussion towards Cynthia's disappearance. The investigators DeAngelo and Kenney emphasized they were only seeking the truth and stated that Cynthia's children deserved to have their mother buried properly. In response, Hankins agreed to show them where he had hidden Cynthia's body. Investigators commended him for allowing Cynthia to now have a "good Christian burial."

Hankins initially offered to drive the investigators to the burial site in his van. When the investigators opted to drive in a police vehicle, Hankins drove with them providing directions and carrying on a conversation in a relaxed tone. At times, Hankins and the investigators joked about matters unrelated to the case.

Following the identification of the burial site and Hankins' confessions, the Moffatt County District Attorney filed nine charges against Hankins: first degree murder; abuse of a corpse; three counts of theft; three counts of forgery; and one count of possession of oxycodone.

The trial court found that all the statements Hankins made to police "were voluntary without exception, and that includes the statements he made after he was in custody." The court also found police did not coerce Hankins to produce his statements. The court, however, decided Hankins was in custody for Miranda purposes as soon as he showed investigators where he buried Cynthia. At this juncture, the trial court found that Hankins had "implicated himself in the death of his wife in a way that would likely result in criminal charges against him, even if nothing else was known at that point." The trial court concluded "no reasonable person in his shoes would believe that they were free to go at that stage."

The trial court found Investigator DeAngelo's question at the burial site that spurred Hankins' initial confession "was a question designed to elicit an incriminating response. Therefore, it should have been preceded by a Miranda warning." The court suppressed Hankins' statements made in response to that question.

The court also suppressed all later statements Hankins made to police that day and the next, despite proper Miranda advisements and Hankins' waivers, because "there was insufficient attenuation between the violation and subsequent waivers."

The prosecution's interlocutory appeal followed.

II.

We reverse the suppression order. We hold Hankins was not in custody when he made his initial confession and that he was properly Mirandized before his subsequent custodial statements.

A. Standard of Review

When a trial court rules on a motion to suppress a confession, it engages in both fact-finding and law application. People v. Kaiser, 32 P.3d 480, 483 (Colo.2001). We defer to the trial court's findings of fact if supported by the record. People v. Elmarr, 181 P.3d 1157, 1161 (Colo.2008); People v. Matheny, 46 P.3d 453, 462 (Colo.2002). We review de novo the legal question of whether those facts establish that the suspect was in custody when interrogated. Elmarr, 181 P.3d at 1161. A trial court may not reach legal conclusions that are not supported by the record. People v. Minjarez, 81 P.3d 348, 355 (Colo.2003).

B. Custodial Interrogation

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." U.S. Const. amend. V. Miranda v. Arizona protects this right by requiring the prosecution to establish that the police gave proper warnings before the suspect made a statement during custodial interrogation. 384 U.S. 436, 444-45, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966); People v. Breidenbach, 875 P.2d 879, 885 (Colo.1994).

A trial court must suppress any statement made during a custodial interrogation not preceded by a proper Miranda warning. People v. Wood, 135 P.3d 744, 749 (Colo.2006). This does not mean that police officers are "required to administer Miranda warnings to everyone whom they question. Nor is the requirement of warnings to be imposed simply because . . . the questioned person is one whom the police suspect." Oregon v. Mathiason, 429 U.S. 492, 495, 97 S.Ct. 711, 50 L.Ed.2d 714 (1977) (per curiam). A Miranda warning must be given when "there has been such a restriction on a person's freedom as to render him `in custody.'" Id.

Whether a person is in custody for Miranda purposes involves an objective test requiring the court to determine "whether a reasonable person in the suspect's position would believe himself to be deprived of his freedom of action to the degree associated with a formal arrest." Matheny, 46 P.3d at 467 (quoting People v. Taylor, 41 P.3d 681, 691 (Colo.2002)); see People v. Stephenson, 159 P.3d 617, 620 (Colo.2007) ("The touchstone of custody is significant curtailment of the defendant's freedom of action that is equivalent to a formal arrest."); see also Thompson v. Keohane, 516 U.S. 99, 113-14, 116 S.Ct. 457, 133 L.Ed.2d 383 (1995); Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 442, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984). To determine whether the defendant had such a reasonable belief, a court must consider the totality of the circumstances. Stansbury v. California, 511 U.S. 318, 322, 114 S.Ct. 1526, 128 L.Ed.2d 293 (1994); Matheny, 46 P.3d at 460. Factors to consider include:

(1) the time, place, and purpose of the encounter; (2) the persons present during the interrogation; (3) the words spoken by the officer to the defendant; (4) the officer's tone of voice and general demeanor; (5) the length and mood...