People v. Longoria, 85SA210
| Decision Date | 21 April 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 85SA210,85SA210 |
| Citation | 717 P.2d 497 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Roy Lee LONGORIA, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
G.F. Sandstrom, Jr., Dist. Atty., Scott B. Epstein, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty., Pueblo, for plaintiff-appellant.
Douglas D. Piersel, Pueblo, for defendant-appellee.
The defendant, Roy Lee Longoria, has been charged with aggravated robbery and two counts of habitual criminal. In this interlocutory appeal, filed pursuant to C.A.R. 4.1, the People challenge the Pueblo County District Court's order suppressing defendant's statements obtained when he was in custody. At the suppression hearing, the defendant claimed that he was entitled to be readvised of his Miranda rights after police questioning about an alleged sexual assault but before questioning about an armed robbery. The People contend that the defendant had been properly advised of his Miranda rights prior to police questioning; therefore, it was not necessary for the police to readvise him of his rights prior to questioning about the armed robbery. We reverse.
The facts surrounding the trial court's order to suppress are not in dispute. At the suppression hearing, the following information was elicited from Officers Bradford and Goddard of the Pueblo Police Department.
On the evening of January 24, 1985, Bradford was informed of an armed robbery which had occurred earlier that evening at a Kwik-Way store in Pueblo. On January 26, 1985, Goddard, of the Pueblo Police Department's "Crime-Stoppers" unit, received an anonymous phone call informing him that the defendant had committed the Kwik-Way robbery. On that same day, Goddard gave Bradford the information obtained from the Crime-Stoppers phone call.
Prior to learning about defendant's alleged involvement in the armed robbery, Bradford had learned that the defendant was a suspect in an alleged sexual assault which also occurred on or about January 24, 1985. The victim of the alleged sexual assault was the former sister-in-law of the defendant.
On January 28, 1985, Bradford and Goddard drove to the defendant's house. When the officers arrived, they found the defendant in his yard working on an automobile. They approached the defendant, identified themselves, and told the defendant that they wanted to talk to him about a sexual assault. The defendant agreed to talk about the alleged assault, at which time the officers asked the defendant to accompany them to the police station. The defendant agreed, and then asked the officers if he was under arrest. Bradford told the defendant that he was not under arrest. The defendant then asked if he would be coming back to his house. In response, Bradford said it would depend on the information the defendant provided at the police station. The defendant was not handcuffed, nor was he informed of his Miranda rights at that time.
At the police station, the defendant signed an advisement form waiving his Miranda rights. The form did not expressly state the crime for which defendant was a suspect.
The officers then questioned the defendant about the alleged sexual assault at his former sister-in-law's house. According to the testimony of Bradford, the defendant told the officers that at first the woman "was a willing participant and then she started crying and he never proceeded, he left."
Without readvising the defendant of his Miranda rights, Bradford then told the defendant that he, Bradford, wanted to talk to him about the robbery. The defendant then said: "Why do you want to talk to me about that," or words to that effect. Bradford then proceeded to tell the defendant about the information the police had learned through the Crime-Stoppers phone call which linked the defendant to the robbery. The information included a detailed description of the robber, that the robber used a knife, and that the caller had overheard the defendant talking about the robbery. After Bradford related the details of the robbery to the defendant and his knowledge of the defendant's involvement, the defendant, without further questioning by Bradford or Goddard, admitted that he committed the Kwik-Way robbery.
The defendant was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery pursuant to section 18-4-301(1), 8 C.R.S. (1978). Prior to the suppression hearing, the trial court granted the district attorney's motion to amend the information to include two counts under the habitual criminal statute, section 16-13-101, 8 C.R.S. (1985 Supp.), for defendant's prior convictions in Wyoming involving burglary, theft of an automobile, and two counts of Delivery of No Account Checks.
After the hearing, the trial court, based solely on its conclusion that the officers "had a duty to inform the Defendant that he was a suspect in the armed robbery and to readvise him of his Miranda rights before questioning him about that crime," granted the motion to suppress the defendant's statements admitting that he committed the robbery.
The question before us is whether the defendant's admission that he committed the Kwik-Way robbery was preceded by a valid waiver of his Miranda rights. We recently considered this issue in People v. Spring, 713 P.2d 865 (Colo.1985), cert. granted, 476 U.S. 1104 106 S.Ct. 1961, 90 L.Ed.2d 368 (No. 85-1517), and Jones v. People, 711 P.2d 1270 (Colo.1986). Spring adopted a "totality of the circumstances" test for determining the validity of a suspect's waiver where the police inform a suspect that he will be questioned about one crime, obtain a waiver, and then change the subject matter of the inquiry to another crime. After considering the totality of the circumstances, the court concluded that the defendant, Spring, had a right to be readvised of his rights prior to questioning concerning an unrelated crime. Jones, decided shortly after Spring, applied the standards announced in Spring but concluded that the defendant was not entitled to readvisement. Therefore, in order to resolve this case, we need to determine whether, under the totality of the circumstances, the defendant was entitled to be readvised of his rights.
Statements made by a defendant during a custodial interrogation are admissible only if the prosecution establishes that the defendant was adequately warned of his privilege against self-incrimination and his right to counsel and thereafter voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waived those rights. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444-45, 467-76, 479, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1612-13, 1624-29, 1630, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966); Spring, 713 P.2d at 869; Jones, 711 P.2d at 1275. Therefore, a threshold question is whether the questioning at the Pueblo police station constituted custodial interrogation. Here, even though the trial court did not make findings on the custody issue, we believe that the questioning of the defendant constituted custodial interrogation. See Jones, 711 P.2d at 1275-76.
We must next evaluate the effectiveness of defendant's waiver of Miranda rights and the voluntariness of his inculpatory statements. Spring, 713 P.2d at 870; People v. Pierson, 670 P.2d 770, 776 (Colo.1983). The People must prove the validity of a waiver by clear and convincing evidence and the voluntariness of subsequent statements by a preponderance of the evidence. People v. Fish, 660 P.2d 505, 508 (Colo.1983). Since the voluntariness of the defendant's inculpatory statements is not in issue, we limit our inquiry to the validity of the waiver.
"A waiver is valid if it is a knowing and intelligent relinquishment of a known right under the totality of the circumstances which in turn is determined by 'the particular facts and circumstances surrounding the case, including the background, experience, and conduct of the accused.' " Pierson, 670 P.2d at 775 (quoting Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 1023, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938)). The courts will indulge every reasonable presumption against a waiver. Pierson, 670 P.2d at 775. We are also mindful that the trial court's findings of fact concerning the validity of a waiver will be upheld on appeal if supported by adequate evidence in the record. Spring, 713 P.2d at 870; People v. Cummings, 706 P.2d 766, 769 (Colo.1985).
In order to decide whether the defendant made a voluntary, knowing, and intelligent waiver of his Miranda rights, we derive guidance from Spring and Jones. In Spring, the defendant was arrested in Kansas City, Missouri, by agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF); charged with interstate transportation of stolen firearms; and given his Miranda rights which he waived. While questioning the defendant about the firearms transaction, the agents, without any warning, began to question the defendant about a Colorado homicide. The defendant then made incriminating statements concerning the homicide.
In concluding that the incriminating statements should have been suppressed, the court set forth the standard for resolving the admissibility of such statements. In so doing, we affirmed the principle that a court must consider the totality of the circumstances when deciding whether a waiver was voluntary, knowing, and intelligent. Spring, 713 P.2d at 870. The court noted that no one factor is determinative in the analysis and stated:
Whether and to what extent a suspect has been informed or is aware of the subject matter of the interrogation prior to its commencement is simply one factor in the court's evaluation of the total circumstances, although it may be a major or even determinative factor in some situations.
Spring, 713 P.2d at 873 (citations omitted). We also stated that in determining the validity of a waiver it is "crucial" for a court to consider the extent of the suspect's knowledge concerning the likely subjects and scope of the prospective questioning. The court further stated:
Thus, it is important to determine whether the questions were...
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...interrogation in somewhat similar circumstances even though the defendant was not forced to submit to questioning. In People v. Longoria, 717 P.2d 497 (Colo.1986), the court determined the questioning of the defendant constituted a custodial interrogation where the police officers asked the......
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...totality of the circumstances, that factor may nevertheless be a major or even a determinative factor in some situations. People v. Longoria, 717 P.2d 497 (Colo.1986) (in considering voluntariness of confession under totality of circumstances, extent to which a suspect has been informed of ......