People v. Minjarez, No. 03SA219.

• Decision Date: 15 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. 03SA219.
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John Mario MINJAREZ, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

81 P.3d 348

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John Mario MINJAREZ, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 03SA219.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

December 15, 2003.

G.F. Sandstrom, District Attorney for the Tenth Judicial District, Karl S. Tameler, Deputy District Attorney, Robert R. Case, Deputy District Attorney, Pueblo, Colorado, Attorneys for Plaintiff-Appellant.

David S. Kaplan, Colorado State Public Defender, Thomas B. Flesher, Deputy State Public Defender, Pueblo Regional Public Defender, Pueblo, Colorado, Attorneys for Defendant-Appellee.

Justice BENDER delivered the Opinion of the Court.

Introduction

In this interlocutory appeal, filed pursuant to C.A.R. 4.1, the prosecution challenges the trial court's order suppressing statements made by the defendant to police officers during an interview at Children's Hospital in Denver, and statements subsequently made by the defendant to his wife in the officers' presence. The trial court held that all of the defendant's statements were elicited from the defendant in violation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). We affirm in part and reverse in part. We hold that the defendant was in custody for Miranda purposes when he was questioned by the police officers and thus affirm the order of the trial court suppressing those statements. We also hold that the defendant was not subject to interrogation when he spoke to his wife in the officers' presence after the interview was over, and thus we reverse the trial court's order with respect to those statements.

Facts and Proceedings Below

On November 17, 2002, the defendant, John Mario Minjarez, placed a 911 call during which he reported that his infant daughter, Juanita Minjarez, was not breathing. Police and emergency personnel arrived at the home and found the infant severely injured. She was taken to a local hospital and subsequently transferred to Children's Hospital in Denver. The defendant was questioned several times at his home by members of the Pueblo Police Department, including Detective Patsy Archuleta, who is the lead detective in this case.¹ At that time, the defendant claimed the infant was injured when his one-year-old daughter accidentally knocked over the seat in which the infant was sitting, causing the infant to fall six inches and hit her head.

The following day, Detective Archuleta received information from Dr. Sirotnik, the treating physician at Children's Hospital, that the infant's injuries were not consistent with accidental injury. Rather, the extent and severity of her injuries suggested the infant had been shaken or subject to some other non-accidental trauma. Based on this and other information, Detective Archuleta obtained a warrant for the defendant's arrest. Later that day, Dr. Sirotnik called Detective Archuleta to inform her that the defendant was at the hospital.

Detective Archuleta told Dr. Sirotnik that she was coming to Denver to arrest the defendant. She then drove with Officer Raymond Purvis from Pueblo to Denver to execute the warrant.² After a two-hour drive, they arrived at Children's Hospital at approximately 6:00 p.m. Detective Archuleta had the warrant for the defendant's arrest in her pocket. The officers asked nurses in the neonatal ICU, where the infant was being treated, to provide them a room where they could speak to the defendant privately, and asked the nurses to bring the defendant to them. Detective Archuleta testified that she requested a private room to avoid creating a disturbance when the defendant was taken into custody.

The nurses showed Detective Archuleta and Officer Purvis into a meeting room a short distance from the area where the infant was being treated. The room had a long conference table and several chairs. After the defendant was taken to the interview room by the nurse, he sat down at the officers' request. The defendant was seated in a chair away from the door, and Detective Archuleta and Officer Purvis sat between him and the door. Once the defendant was shown to the room, the nurse closed the door, which remained closed throughout the interview. At no time during the interview was anyone else admitted to the room.

Officer Purvis and Detective Archuleta testified that the defendant cried on and off while he was questioned and that initially they could see he was emotionally distraught. The officers began to question the defendant immediately after he was admitted to the room. Officer Purvis testified that he told the defendant he was free to go at any time, and Detective Archuleta testified that she told the defendant he didn't have to say anything. At no time during the interview was the defendant advised of his Miranda rights or informed of the existence of the warrant.

Officer Purvis began the questioning in a conversational tone, but when the defendant responded with the same story he had told Detective Archuleta the day before, Officer Purvis' tone grew more accusing and confrontational. Officer Purvis told the defendant that the "medical evidence" contradicted his story, and that it would be better for the defendant to talk to Officer Purvis now and be honest about what happened.

From that point in the interrogation, Officer Purvis testified that the questioning proceeded with Officer Purvis providing details of what happened and the defendant agreeing. For example, in his report Officer Purvis wrote: "I told [the defendant] that he lost his temper and that he shook Juanita. I told [the defendant], `this is what happened, right, you shook her—you lost your temper, and you shook Juanita.'" Later in the interview, Officer Purvis reported, "I told [the defendant] `You shook her, didn't you?' And [the defendant] said, `Yes.' I told [the defendant], `You violently shook her,' and [the defendant] said, `Yes.'" At one point, Officer Purvis informed the defendant, incorrectly, that the infant had a skull fracture, and when Officer Purvis suggested how this might have happened, the defendant agreed with Officer Purvis' version of events. Detective Archuleta testified that about twenty minutes of the forty-five minute interview were comprised of this type of confrontational exchange.

Based on the defendant's admission that he shook the infant, Detective Archuleta and Officer Purvis formally arrested him, again without advising him of his Miranda rights, and then the defendant's wife was permitted to enter the room. Before she saw her husband, nurses had informed her that the defendant confessed to shaking the infant. In the officers' presence, the defendant had a brief conversation with his wife during which he said, "I'm going to take full responsibility for this." Detective Archuleta and Officer Purvis then transported the defendant to Pueblo, and during the trip, the defendant made unsolicited comments that he was "a monster."³

The trial court held that the defendant was in custody for Miranda purposes during his interview with Detective Archuleta and Officer Purvis and therefore prohibited the prosecution from using the statements made in the course of that interview as evidence in its case-in-chief. The court also held that the defendant's subsequent conversation with his wife was the functional equivalent of interrogation and ordered those statements suppressed as well.

Regarding the statements made while the defendant was being interviewed in the hospital, the trial court cited People v. Matheny, 46 P.3d 453 (Colo.2002), and articulated the standard we set forth in that case to determine whether a defendant is "in custody" for Miranda purposes. The court then made several findings of fact. First, the trial court found the officers were dishonest with the defendant "when Detective Purvis told him that he was free to leave." The court found that the officers drove two hours to execute the warrant, and that "[their] testimony that the Defendant was free to leave their presence once he came into the interview room" was incredible. The court then made the following findings regarding the character and tone of the forty-five minute interview: the defendant was isolated with the two detectives; the defendant was "directed to the chair farthest from the door and had two officers between him and the door"; and the officers communicated their belief in the defendant's culpability. The court found the overall tone of the interview to be "accusatory" and "confrontational," especially when Officer Purvis referred to the "medical evidence" that refuted the defendant's story. The court found that Officer Purvis was "empathetic towards the [infant] and raised his voice to emphasize the violent nature of the act" and that the police used leading questions and "played on [the defendant's] emotions by . . . conducting a confrontational interview."

The trial court also addressed the existence of the warrant in its findings. The court reiterated that the officers went to Denver for the purpose of arresting the defendant and stated that the officers' testimony that they would allow the defendant to leave was "incredible as a matter of law."

Overall, the court concluded, "In reviewing the facts of this matter and looking at the totality of the circumstances, the Court finds that the Defendant in this matter was `in custody' at the time he was interrogated by the two police officers" at the hospital.

With respect to the statements the defendant made to his wife, the court noted briefly: "The Court finds that to allow into a room a spouse, who has just been told that her husband has confessed to seriously injuring their child is the functional equivalent of questioning and the Court orders that those statements be suppressed."

Analysis

In 1966, the United States Supreme Court decided Miranda v. Arizona. Under this ruling, the state may not use in its case-in-chief any statement made by a suspect in the course of custodial interrogation unless the interrogation was preceded by...