People v. Vigil, 79SA168

• Citation: 597 P.2d 567,198 Colo. 185
• Decision Date: 09 July 1979
• Docket Number: No. 79SA168,79SA168
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jesse (NMI) VIGIL, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Colorado

Page 567

597 P.2d 567

198 Colo. 185

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jesse (NMI) VIGIL, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 79SA168.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

July 9, 1979.

Paul Q. Beacom, Dist. Atty., Marc P. Mishkin, Darrel L. Campbell, Deputy Dist. Attys., Brighton, for plaintiff-appellant.

Evans & Lipson, Allan I. Lipson, Denver, for defendant-appellee.

PER CURIAM.

This is an interlocutory appeal challenging the rulings of the District Court of Adams County sustaining motions to suppress physical evidence, statements and admissions by the defendant, Jesse Vigil. We reverse.

The defendant and Virgil Thomas Vigil were jointly charged with two counts of first-degree murder of Josephine B. McLennan, aggravated robbery and conspiracy. Separate trials of the two defendants have been ordered.

The evidence at the hearing on defendant's motion to suppress disclosed that on the night of November 11, 1978, Officer Mattie of the Colorado State Patrol was shot while making a routine traffic stop near Walsenburg, Huerfano County, Colorado. Officer Mattie informed fellow officers that two suspects fled the scene in an automobile described as a green and white Cadillac with Dakota license plates. He described the driver of the vehicle as having a dark complexion, with long black hair and wearing a black or navy blue coat. The passenger was described as having lighter hair and wearing a red and black plaid coat. This information was communicated by police radio to the officers who later arrested the defendant, Jesse Vigil.

Later during the night, an unnamed citizen who lived in the vicinity of the Johnson ranch advised the State Patrol that a green and white Cadillac, bearing North Dakota license plates was abandoned on Rousse Road, a county road running west from I-25, at a point where Rousse Road intersects with the road into the Johnson ranch. In response to this information, at approximately 6:00 a. m. on November 12, three State Patrol cars containing four patrolmen, a sheriff's deputy and a Walsenburg police officer, proceeded out Rousse Road toward the Johnson ranch. Approximately nine miles from I-25 on Rousse Road, the defendant, who was wearing a red and black plaid jacket and generally matched the description of one of the suspects, was observed walking from the direction of the reported location of the green and white Cadillac.

The defendant was arrested, placed in handcuffs, and his clothing was patted down. As a result of the patdown, a .22-caliber pistol was removed from the defendant's jacket pocket. The defendant was then removed to the Huerfano County Jail and held for investigation of the offense against Officer Mattie.

Shortly after the defendant was arrested, the police found the abandoned green and white Cadillac approximately three miles west, at the entrance to the Johnson ranch. The Cadillac was towed to a garage and impounded, where an inventory search was conducted.

On November 12 at the county jail, the defendant, in the presence of his father, was given a full and complete Miranda advisement. The father urged his son to tell the truth, and the defendant then gave a full statement regarding the shooting of Officer Mattie.

The alleged murder of Josephine B. McLennan occurred in Adams County on or about November 6, 1978. Detective Jan Brace of the Commerce City Police Department learned that defendant, Jesse Vigil, was being held in Huerfano County as a suspect in the shooting of Officer Mattie. Her information was that a .22-caliber pistol had been found on the defendant and that a .32-caliber bullet had been removed from Officer Mattie who had been shot. These calibers matched the calibers of weapons which had...