People v. Jin Cheng Lin

• Decision Date: 18 February 2016
• Docket Number: No. 14.,14.
• Citation: 27 N.Y.S.3d 439,26 N.Y.3d 701,2016 N.Y. Slip Op. 01205,47 N.E.3d 718
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. JIN CHENG LIN, Appellant.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

26 N.Y.3d 701

47 N.E.3d 718

27 N.Y.S.3d 439

2016 N.Y. Slip Op. 01205

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent

v.JIN CHENG LIN, Appellant.

No. 14.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Feb. 18, 2016.

Lynn W.L. Fahey, Appellate Advocates, New York City (De Nice Powell of counsel), for appellant.

Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens (Anastasia Spanakos, Robert J. Masters and John M. Castellano of counsel), for respondent.

OPINION OF THE COURT

RIVERA

, J.

Defendant challenges his conviction on grounds that his confession was an involuntary product of untoward psychological pressure by police, and consequent fatigue induced during a prolonged interrogation, extended, in part, by unnecessary prearraignment delay, manufactured for the sole purpose of procuring inculpatory statements. He also contends that due to his limited English language proficiency he did not understand the import of the Miranda warnings given to him, and, therefore, did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his rights to counsel or to remain silent, further establishing the involuntariness of his statements to the police.

Upon our careful review of defendant's case, we conclude that the record supports the court's ultimate determination that defendant sufficiently understood his rights and that his statements were voluntarily made. Defendant's additional grounds for reversal are either unpreserved or without merit. Therefore, the order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.

I. Background

A. The Double Homicide

Defendant Jin Cheng Lin challenges his conviction for murder, burglary and attempted robbery arising from events leading to the deaths of Cho Man Ng and her brother Sek Man

Ng. Defendant knew both victims and had previously been romantically involved with Cho. Initially, defendant was not a suspect in the murders, but during the course of their investigation, detectives grew suspicious of his role in the crimes after they identified various inconsistencies in his statements to the police. After several hours of questioning across three days, and after having implicated two others in the crimes, defendant confessed to brutally killing Cho and Sek.

At the time of their deaths, Cho was 21 years old and worked at a telephone store, and Sek was 18 and a college student. Their parents had moved to Hong Kong and Cho and Sek lived together in an apartment in Queens. Defendant was two years older than Cho and they started dating when they were teenagers. At some point, Cho also dated Kevin Lee, who knew defendant from work. Cho and Lee eventually broke up, but approximately a year before her murder she restarted her relationship with Lee and broke up with defendant.

On the day of the murders, May 12, 2005, Sek was home while Cho was out with Lee. At approximately 9:00 p.m., Lee drove Cho to her apartment. Once back at his own home, Lee called Cho several times until she finally answered the telephone at approximately 9:25 p.m. According to Lee, Cho sounded weak and told him she was dizzy and that someone was in the house. He did not call 911, but immediately went to Cho's apartment. At about 9:30 p.m., while at work, Wailap Tsang received a call from Cho, and he also heard her say that someone was in her apartment. She told him that there was a lot of blood and asked him to call 911. Tsang drove to Cho's apartment instead.

When Lee arrived, he entered through the open, outside door and went to Cho's second floor apartment, and also found that door open. He could see a light from Sek's bedroom and noticed that his door was open. Lee saw a hand from under a blanket on the floor, and noticed that there was blood on the floor and walls. When he looked at Cho's bedroom door he saw that it was closed, but noticed blood on the door and doorknob. He then went outside and also called 911.

While Lee waited, Tsang arrived and called 911. The two men then stood outside the building until the police arrived. The police went up to the apartment and found Sek lying next to his bed, unconscious, in a pool of blood and partially covered with a blanket, his legs bound together. The officers then heard

a moan from Cho's bedroom and kicked in the locked door. They found Cho on the blood-covered floor, semi-conscious, with her stomach cut open. She was barely able to speak. The emergency medical technician pronounced Sek dead at the scene. Cho died at about 10:30 p.m. at the hospital.

B. The Investigation

In the hours following the discovery of the victims, detectives and other personnel arrived at the apartment and took pictures of the crime scene and Sek's body, dusted for fingerprints and collected other evidence. They found a flashlight, a piece of duct tape and a duct tape roll in Sek's room. They also collected a roll of masking tape and some masking tape with blood in Cho's room. In the bathroom, the detectives found a knife with the blade pointed up and the handle submerged in the toilet. The knife matched the brand of knives in a block on the kitchen counter. The officers observed blood on the walls, floor and bed in Sek's bedroom.

Throughout the course of their investigation, the police interviewed several individuals at the precinct about the murders, including Lee and Tsang. Most if not all were Asian, some were the victims' family and friends. Several police officers participated in the questioning at the precinct, including members from Queens Homicide and the Organized Crime Investigation Unit. Some officers spoke to interviewees in Cantonese as well as English.

Defendant was also one of the several people initially investigated, although at first he was not a suspect. After several hours of questioning, defendant confessed to the murders. He was charged with six counts of murder in the first degree, six counts of murder in the second degree, one count of assault in the first degree, three counts of burglary in the first degree, three counts of attempted robbery in the first degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.

II. Defendant's Interrogation and the Suppression Hearing

Defendant moved to suppress his statements to the police. At the suppression hearing, the People submitted testimony from various detectives describing the investigation and defendant's interrogation, as well as testimonial and documentary evidence that defendant was sufficiently fluent in English to understand the surrounding events and his constitutional rights.

According to this evidence, on May 13th, the morning after the bodies were discovered and several hours into the investigation,

between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m., Detectives Marshall and Schindlar went to defendant's home and asked him to come to the precinct to discuss the deaths of Cho and Sek. Defendant agreed, went to get his jacket and shoes, and left, unhandcuffed, with the detectives in a police car. While he was waiting for defendant, Marshall asked him about a scratch he observed on defendant's forehead. Defendant responded that he hit his head on a kitchen table in his home. Detective Marshall testified that he and defendant conversed in English during this time.

At the precinct, the detectives placed defendant in a 12–by–12–foot, windowless room that contained a desk and chairs. Marshall asked defendant if he wanted any food or drink and brought him some water. He did not discuss the crime or investigation with defendant at this time. Around 9:00 a.m., Marshall left defendant alone in the room while he went to attend the victims' autopsies.

Approximately two hours later, at 11:00 a.m., Detective Wong entered the room to speak with defendant. Defendant was not handcuffed and not under arrest. Wong had known defendant for seven to eight years, from when he was involved in defendant's prior arrest in 1998. Defendant had also assisted Wong in the past, by serving as a filler in lineups arranged by Wong.

Wong had been called to the precinct to assist with witness interviews. His discussion with defendant the morning of May 13th would be the first of approximately six to seven conversations between them on that day. According to Wong, he would enter the room and talk to defendant for no more than 15 minutes at a time, then leave to interview other persons who were being questioned at the precinct as part of the investigation into the murders. To Wong's knowledge defendant was alone in the room after Wong left.

Defendant and Wong spoke to each other in English and Cantonese, defendant's native language. During these conversations Wong did not consider defendant a suspect, nor did he advise defendant of his Miranda rights. Wong testified that he asked about defendant's relationship to Cho, and defendant told Wong that he knew her for approximately seven years and dated her for five of those years. Defendant and Cho had broken up approximately a year prior, when he discovered she was cheating on him with Kevin Lee. Defendant had come back from China two months before the murders, and he had seen

Cho twice since his return, both times at his home. On May 12th he went to Cho's apartment at about 4:15 p.m., and Sek let him in. Defendant gave Sek two animal figurines made from seashells for Cho and then, after approximately a half hour, he returned home, where he remained the rest of the night. His brother was with him all night, and his mother returned from work after 9:00 p.m. In response to questions from Wong, defendant stated three reasons why he went to Cho's apartment that day: to get contact information for Cho's parents, who were living in Hong Kong; to engage in sexual relations with Cho; and because he “didn't want anyone to think [she] was promiscuous.” Wong reduced to writing the information he got from defendant during these conversations and read his notes into the record at the hearing. Wong further testified that he advised other detectives about what defendant had told him.

Around 10:00 p.m., Wong returned to the room where he, along with Detectives Hui and Shim, questioned defendant. Hui and...