People v. Pease, 96SA467

• Citation: 934 P.2d 1374
• Decision Date: 07 April 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96SA467,96SA467
• Parties: , 21 Colorado Journal 515 The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jeffrey Marcus PEASE, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Colorado

Page 1374

934 P.2d 1374

65 USLW 2694, 21 Colorado Journal 515

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jeffrey Marcus PEASE, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 96SA467.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

April 7, 1997.

Jeanne M. Smith, District Attorney, Fourth Judicial District, Gordon R. Denison, Deputy District Attorney, Ann C. Joyce, Deputy District Attorney, Colorado Springs, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Dennis W. Hartley, P.C., Dennis W. Hartley, Colorado Springs, for Defendant-Appellee.

Justice MARTINEZ delivered the Opinion of the Court.

This is an interlocutory appeal of the district court's order suppressing statements of the defendant, Jeffrey Pease, pursuant to C.A.R. 4.1. The district court suppressed Pease's statements from use at trial because the police deliberately failed to tell Pease that they had a warrant for his arrest. We reverse and hold that Pease's waiver of Miranda ¹ rights was valid even though the police deliberately failed to tell Pease that there was a warrant for his arrest.

I.

In September 1994, Colorado Springs Police Detective Richard Hunt obtained information concerning Pease's alleged sexual activity with a minor. Detective Hunt interviewed the minor and confirmed parts of the minor's account. He investigated Pease's prior criminal history, and prepared affidavits in support of an arrest warrant for Pease and a search warrant for his home. A judge signed both warrants on September 13, 1994.

Detective Hunt and several other officers went to Pease's home the next morning. They explained why they had come and began executing the search warrant. They did not tell Pease they had a warrant for his arrest. Pease agreed to go to the police station for an interview, in order to tell his side of the story. He was allowed to get fully dressed and was transported, in an unmarked police car and without handcuffs, to the police station.

Pease was led through a number of security doors into an interview room in the station, where he was given Miranda warnings and signed a written Miranda waiver form. Pease acknowledged that he understood his right against self-incrimination and his right to be represented by an attorney. Detective Hunt then questioned Pease for several hours, until the detective suggested that Pease take a polygraph test.

Pease, a college-educated professional, had prior experience with the process of arrest and with the criminal justice system. He testified that the police were polite and cordial throughout the encounter. Pease stated that he never felt pressured or uncomfortable. He did not feel that he was under arrest until the end of the interview. The interview ended when Detective Hunt asked Pease to take the polygraph test. Pease responded that he would not submit to a polygraph without first consulting an attorney. Detective Hunt then produced the arrest warrant that he had obtained the day before and formally placed Pease under arrest.

Pease was not informed of the arrest warrant until the end of the interview. ² He testified that if he had known that the police had already obtained a warrant for his arrest, he would not have signed the Miranda waiver and consented to the interview, but would have asked to see an attorney immediately.

The district court ruled from the bench that "it's not acceptable for police to have an arrest warrant, then to seek information, to ask questions without informing that individual that he or she's under arrest." The court relied on language from Commonwealth v. Jackson, 377 Mass. 319, 386 N.E.2d 15 (1979), to support its finding of impermissible deception We think that where police pursue a course of conduct aimed at improperly convincing a defendant to relinquish the right to remain silent, the Commonwealth has neither "scrupulously honored" that right nor has it sustained its burden of showing a knowing, intelligent and voluntary waiver of that right.

Id. 386 N.E.2d at 21. The district court concluded that where the police had an arrest warrant and an obligation to advise pursuant to Miranda, the failure to advise the defendant that there was an arrest warrant was not acceptable and improperly convinced the defendant to relinquish his Miranda rights.

The district court did not explicitly determine when Pease was placed in custody for Miranda purposes. However, the court found that the police were required to give Pease Miranda warnings before interviewing him at the station. Consistent with this conclusion, the court stated that ordinarily suspects are handcuffed while in transit to the police station and that the fact that Pease was not handcuffed would have given him the impression that he was not in custody during the ride to the station. The district court's discussion of this ride suggests that the police intentionally wished to create a non-custodial atmosphere in order to encourage the subsequent Miranda waiver and interview at the police station.

Upon arriving at the police station Pease was taken through a number of "electrically controlled doors" to a "very secure area," and could not have simply gotten up and walked out of the interview room. These facts strongly suggest a custodial environment and support the court's conclusion. Thus, while the district court did not explicitly hold that Pease was in custody during the interview, we infer from its ruling that Miranda warnings were required before the interview that the court applied the correct standard and implicitly found that Pease was in custody once he was taken into the locked interview room. Also, the district court would not have reached the question of whether the failure to inform Pease of the arrest warrant prevented a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver of Miranda rights had the court not implicitly found Pease was in custody.

The constitutional requirement to give a criminal suspect Miranda warnings applies when the suspect is subject to custodial interrogation. See People v. LaFrankie, 858 P.2d 702, 705 (Colo.1993). In addition to a formal arrest, custody includes situations where the person being interrogated reasonably believes that he is deprived of his freedom of action in a significant way. See id. A trial court's determination of whether a person is in custody will not be disturbed where its findings of fact are adequately supported by competent evidence and the determination is based on the correct legal standard. See People v. Haurey, 859 P.2d 889, 893 (Colo.1993); see also People v. Trujillo, 784 P.2d 788, 792 (Colo.1990). Accordingly, we accept the district court's implicit determination that Pease was in custody when he was interviewed at the police station, and we address the court's determination that Pease could not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive his Miranda rights because he was not informed that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

II.

In order for a waiver of Miranda rights to be considered valid, the prosecution must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the waiver was knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily made. See People v. May, 859 P.2d 879, 882 (Colo.1993). To be valid, a Miranda waiver must be:

"voluntary in the sense that it was the product of a free and deliberate choice rather than intimidation, coercion, or deception. Second, the waiver must have been made with a full awareness, both of the nature of the right being abandoned and the consequences of the decision to abandon it."

Id. (quoting People v. Hopkins, 774 P.2d 849, 851 (Colo.1989) and Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 421, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 1140-41, 89 L.Ed.2d 410 (1986)); see also Colorado v. Spring, 479 U.S. 564, 573, 107 S.Ct. 851, 856-57, 93 L.Ed.2d 954 (1986). The voluntariness prong of this test focuses on whether police conduct was coercive. The knowing and intelligent prong of this test focuses on the suspect's state of mind. See May, 859 P.2d at 883.

The district court did not find, and the evidence of record does not suggest, that the Miranda waiver was not knowingly and intelligently made with awareness of the nature of the right being abandoned and the consequences of the decision to abandon that right. The district court held that Pease's waiver was involuntary only because of Detective Hunt's failure to inform Pease about the existence of the arrest warrant. Thus, the district court regarded the failure to tell Pease about the arrest warrant as a deception, and Pease's waiver as the product of this deception. The court therefore based its suppression order on the prosecution's failure to satisfy the voluntariness prong of the waiver test. We disagree with the district court's conclusion that the failure of police to inform a suspect that they have obtained a warrant for his arrest is a deception which will render a waiver involuntary.

The prohibition on the use of deceptive tactics to obtain a waiver of constitutional rights stems from language in Miranda that a suspect may not be "threatened, tricked, or cajoled into a waiver" of constitutional rights. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 476, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1628-29, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1965) (emphasis added). The United States Supreme Court has consistently held that police need not inform a suspect of information which is beyond the scope of Miranda, even if the information might affect the suspect's decision to talk to police. A decision is not involuntary because it is unwise, or may prove unwise in hindsight. Nothing in the Constitution or Miranda requires police to tell a suspect all the facts and circumstances which might affect the suspect's decision whether to waive his rights. Rather, Miranda prevents the police from coercing a suspect and requires them to insure that a suspect is aware of and understands his constitutional rights.

In Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 89 L.Ed.2d 410 (1986), police properly advised a suspect before questioning, but failed to inform the suspect that his sister had arranged to get him...