People v. Trujillo

• Citation: 784 P.2d 788
• Decision Date: 16 January 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89SA185,89SA185
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Julian Arthur TRUJILLO, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Colorado

Page 788

784 P.2d 788

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Julian Arthur TRUJILLO, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 89SA185.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

Jan. 16, 1990.

G.F. Sandstrom, Dist. Atty. and Frederick N. Mattoon, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty., Pueblo, for plaintiff-appellant.

Ted J. Malouff, Pueblo, for defendant-appellee.

Chief Justice QUINN delivered the Opinion of the Court.

In this interlocutory appeal, the People challenge a ruling of the district court suppressing a statement made by the defendant, Julian Arthur Trujillo, to a police officer during a stationhouse interview and also suppressing a shotgun and shotgun shells recovered by the officer during the interview. The district court ruled that the interview constituted custodial interrogation which should have been preceded by a proper advisement and waiver of Miranda rights ¹ and that the shotgun and shells were the fruit of the illegal interrogation. We affirm the suppression ruling.

The defendant is charged in a two-count information with the crimes of second degree assault and felony menacing allegedly committed against Steven Archuletta on or about November 5, 1988. The defendant entered a not guilty plea to the charges and filed a motion to suppress a statement made by him to Officer Frank Holderman on the basis that the statement was obtained in violation of his privilege against self-incrimination and his right to effective assistance of counsel as guaranteed by the United States and Colorado Constitutions.

At a pretrial suppression hearing the evidence established the following facts. Steven Archuletta filed a report with the Pueblo Police Department in which he stated that the defendant had fired a shotgun at his automobile sometime during the early morning of November 5, 1988. Officer Holderman was assigned to conduct an investigation of Archuletta's report and went to the defendant's home on November 7 to question the defendant about the incident. The defendant was not home at this time, and the officer told the defendant's mother that her son was a suspect in an assault and asked her to tell the defendant to contact him when the defendant returned home. While at the defendant's home, the officer observed a vehicle that matched the description of the automobile involved in the assault. The defendant's mother told the officer that the vehicle belonged to her, and she permitted the officer to search the automobile. The officer found a spent twenty-gauge shotgun shell in the trunk of the automobile.

Later in the day the defendant telephoned Officer Holderman at police headquarters. The officer told the defendant that he wanted to speak to him because he (the defendant) was a suspect in a shooting. The defendant agreed to come to the police station. Upon his arrival at the station at approximately 6:30 p.m., the officer directed the defendant to a small interview room where he conducted an interview of the defendant for approximately one and one-half hours. At no time either before or during the interview did the officer advise the defendant of his Miranda rights or tell the defendant that he was free to leave at any time.

The officer questioned the defendant at length about the shooting incident. The defendant basically told the officer that prior to the shooting incident he had a confrontation with Archuletta in a bar. Because Archuletta had made threats against the defendant's mother, the defendant went home, told his mother to call the police, and obtained a shotgun. When Archuletta and another man later drove up to the defendant's house and shouted a threat to "get this punk," the defendant fired the shotgun at Archuletta's vehicle.

During the stationhouse interview Officer Holderman told the defendant that he needed to obtain the shotgun as evidence. The officer asked the defendant to accompany him to the defendant's home, and the defendant agreed to do so. Prior to the trip, however, the officer took a photograph of the defendant for his investigative file. The officer also asked the defendant if he would be willing to submit to a polygraph exam, and the defendant answered that he would.

Upon arriving at the defendant's home, the defendant produced a shotgun and shells which the officer took into his possession. The officer drove the defendant back to the police station and told him that a report would be filed and the matter would be referred to the district attorney. The defendant then was permitted to leave the police station at approximately 8:50 p.m.

At the suppression hearing the officer testified that the defendant was very cooperative during the interview and did not appear to be intimidated in any way. The defendant, on the other hand, testified that he believed he was required to talk to the officer and did not have the right to decline to answer the officer's questions. He further testified that he was not aware that he had the right to confer with a lawyer before talking to the officer and did not realize that he was free to leave the police station until the end of the interview when the officer told him that he could leave.

In granting the motion to suppress, the district court made extensive findings of facts which basically recited the above sequence of events. In ruling that the defendant had been subjected to a custodial interrogation without having been advised of his Miranda rights, the court remarked as follows:

The manner of the interview was congenial and the Defendant was not restrained, but the time, place, and purpose suggest that it was custodial. The accusatory nature of the questions is pivotal to this Court's determination. Defendant was talking to stay out of jail. He wasn't sure he was free to leave until he was allowed to do so. A reasonable person would consider himself significantly deprived of his liberty in these circumstances. The statements are voluntary but without proper Miranda advisement.

In urging reversal of the suppression ruling, the People contend that the district court erred in determining that the interview at the police station constituted a custodial interrogation. In support of their contention the People assert that the court improperly focused on one factor only--the defendant's fear of being arrested--to the exclusion of other factors underlying the stationhouse interview.

In Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 478-79, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1630, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), the United States Supreme Court held that prior to any custodial interrogation a suspect must be adequately informed that he has a right not to say anything, that anything he does say can be used against him in court, that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, and that if he cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed for him prior to questioning if he so desires. See Duckworth v. Eagan, 492 U.S. 195, 109 S.Ct. 2875, 106 L.Ed.2d 166 (1989); California v. Prysock, 453 U.S. 355, 101 S.Ct. 2806, 69 L.Ed.2d 696 (1981); People v. Hopkins, 774 P.2d 849 (Colo.1989). A person subjected to custodial interrogation may waive these rights as long as the waiver is knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily made. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444, 86 S.Ct. at 1612.

The term "interrogation" under Miranda refers not only to express questioning by a police officer, but also to any words or actions on the part of the officer that the officer "should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect." Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1689-90, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980). The determination of whether an officer's words or actions are "reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response" turns primarily "upon the perceptions of the suspect, rather than the intent of the police [officer]." Id. at 301, 100 S.Ct. at 1690. Focusing on the perception of the suspect is designed to provide a person in police custody, in a manner consistent with Miranda, with "an added measure of protection against coercive police practices, without regard to objective proof of the underlying intent of the police." Id. The record before us unequivocally establishes that the defendant was subjected to "interrogation" by Officer Holderman at the stationhouse, and no question is raised here on that aspect of the...