State v. Bybee, 980248.
| Decision Date | 16 May 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 980248.,980248. |
| Citation | 1 P.3d 1087,2000 UT 43 |
| Parties | STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Alexander James BYBEE, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | Utah Supreme Court |
Jan Graham, Att'y Gen., Kenneth A. Bronston, Christine Soltis, Asst. Att'ys Gen., Colin R. Winchester, Kanab, for plaintiff.
Floyd W. Holm, Cedar City, for defendant.
¶ 1 Defendant-appellant Alexander Bybee ("Bybee") appeals a district court order denying a motion to suppress his confession. We affirm.
¶ 2 In mid-August 1996, a six-year-old boy disappeared in Big Water, Kane County, Utah. The boy was last seen leaving the home of Bybee, who was then one week shy of his seventeenth birthday. On three separate occasions during the subsequent investigation, police unsuccessfully attempted to question Bybee about the boy. The first time, Bybee was playing a video game and would not stop long enough to focus his attention on the interview. The second time, Bybee would not leave his room, would not speak to the investigators, and yelled that he had already been interviewed enough. The third time, Bybee again refused to answer any questions and told investigators not to bother him unless they had a warrant.
¶ 3 A short while after the young boy's disappearance, Bybee moved to Las Vegas to live with his father. While there, Bybee became severely depressed and attempted suicide. Subsequently, Bybee's father had him admitted to a youth mental health facility run by the Southern Nevada Child and Adolescent Services Treatment Division, a.k.a, Children's Behavioral Services ("CBS"). At some point after Bybee was admitted, his father informed CBS personnel that Bybee had killed a young boy in Big Water, Utah. CBS called the Las Vegas police to report this information. That same day, the Las Vegas police relayed the information to Chief Deputy Alan Johnson of the Kane County Sheriff's Office.
¶ 4 Shortly thereafter, Deputy Johnson traveled to Las Vegas. After gaining permission from the Nevada Attorney General's Office to speak with Bybee, Deputy Johnson met with a group of CBS personnel concerning his desire to interview Bybee. This group included Dr. Robert Behrens, the psychologist working with Bybee. No one present at this meeting discouraged Deputy Johnson from interviewing Bybee. Dr. Behrens told Deputy Johnson that although Bybee was severely depressed he was not suffering from mental instability.
¶ 5 Following the meeting, Deputy Johnson questioned Bybee in an unlocked office located in a different building than the one in which Bybee resided. The office was chosen because it provided a more comfortable environment than Bybee's room. At the outset, Bybee refused to allow Deputy Johnson to take notes of, or tape record, the interview. After reading Bybee his Miranda rights, Deputy Johnson asked him whether or not he understood them and wished to waive them to discuss the missing boy. Bybee nodded his head in the affirmative. Bybee never requested an attorney. He did ask if his father could be present. Deputy Johnson refused this request. ¶ 6 The interview continued and Bybee confessed to killing the little boy. He also described where the boy's remains could be found and agreed to go to Utah to help locate the site if necessary. Deputy Johnson made no threats or promises to induce these statements. Bybee talked quietly, was very somber, and sobbed while discussing the killing. In Deputy Johnson's view, it appeared a great weight was being lifted from Bybee as he confessed.
¶ 7 Immediately after the interview, Deputy Johnson met with Bybee's father, who was then on CBS property. Deputy Johnson had not consulted with him prior to the interview. Deputy Johnson told Bybee's father about the interview and asked if he would assist in bringing Bybee to Utah to locate the burial site if necessary. Bybee's father agreed to the request and proved to be helpful in that regard. He helped arrange for Bybee's temporary release from CBS and accompanied Bybee, Deputy Johnson, and others from Las Vegas to Page, Arizona, where Bybee's father remained while Bybee and others went on to Big Water. Once in Big Water, Bybee led officers to the burial spot.
¶ 8 The State of Utah charged Bybee with murder, in violation of Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-203 (1999), and the case was set for jury trial in the Sixth District Court, Judge K.L. McIff presiding. Prior to trial, Bybee moved to suppress his confession on the grounds that he did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his Miranda rights, and that Deputy Johnson violated rule 8(d) of the Utah Rules of Juvenile Procedure. The trial court concluded that Bybee's waiver of his Miranda rights was valid and denied his motion on that basis. The trial court did not address the rule 8(d) question. Bybee then entered a conditional plea agreement, pleading guilty to the murder charge while reserving the right to appeal the trial court's decision on the motion to suppress. On appeal, Bybee reasserts both the rule 8(d) and the Miranda claims.
¶ 9 Bybee argues his confession should be suppressed because Deputy Johnson violated Utah Rule of Juvenile Procedure 8(d), which states as follows:
No person other than a probation officer or a staff member of a detention facility shall be permitted to interview a minor 14 years of age or older in a detention facility without the consent of the minor and the minor's parent, guardian or custodian after first advising said minor of constitutional rights as described in Rule 26 and such rights having been intelligently waived by the minor.
Utah R. Juv. P. 8(d). Bybee claims Deputy Johnson violated this rule by not obtaining the consent of his father prior to the interview.1
¶ 10 "The proper interpretation of a rule of procedure is a question of law, and we review the trial court's decision for correctness." Ostler v. Buhler, 1999 UT 99, ¶ 5, 989 P.2d 1073. As noted, the trial court did not rule on the rule 8(d) issue. Regardless, even had the trial court done so, under the "correctness" standard of review applicable here the ruling would have been entitled to no deference.
¶ 11 Rule 8(d) by its express terms applies only to interviews conducted in a "detention facility." The hospital in which Deputy Johnson interviewed Bybee clearly does not qualify as a "detention facility." First, neither the State of Utah nor its agents were in any sense detaining Bybee at CBS. Bybee's father had Bybee admitted to CBS and it was Bybee's father and CBS who controlled the conditions and duration of Bybee's stay. Indeed, Deputy Johnson had to obtain the permission of the Nevada Attorney General's office just to speak with Bybee.
¶ 12 Second, CBS does not fit within the definition of a "detention facility" as contemplated by the Utah Code. Although neither rule 8 nor any other portion of the Utah Code precisely defines "detention facility," Utah Code title 62A, chapter 7, discusses certain characteristics of such a facility from which we can infer a definition. That chapter provides that a "detention facility" is established and maintained by the Division of Youth Corrections. See Utah Code Ann. § 62A-7-104(2) (1997) (). The Division of Youth Corrections did not establish and does not maintain CBS. Further, a "detention facility" is operated by or under contract with the Division of Youth Corrections. See id. § 62A-7-101(17) (); id. § 62A-7-101(18) (); id. § 62A-7-201(6) (). CBS is not operated by or under contract with the Department of Youth Corrections.
¶ 13 Bybee argues that Deputy Johnson impliedly contracted with CBS to detain him. Nothing in the record supports this bare allegation, however. The simple fact that CBS retained custody of Bybee after Deputy Johnson spoke with CBS personnel and heard Bybee's confession does not demonstrate that Deputy Johnson had anything to do with the terms and conditions of Bybee's stay at CBS, much less that these conversations created an implied contract.
¶ 14 Based on the foregoing, we find that CBS was not a "detention facility" for purposes of Utah Rule of Juvenile Procedure 8(d). Accordingly, rule 8(d) does not apply to Bybee's interview with Deputy Johnson and Bybee's first claim therefore fails.
¶ 15 Bybee alleges he did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his Miranda rights before confessing to Deputy Johnson. He primarily bases his claim on the fact that his father was not present during the interview and the fact that he was being treated for severe depression at the time.
¶ 16 We review for correctness a trial court's ultimate ruling regarding the validity of a Miranda waiver, while "granting some degree of discretion to the trial court because of the wide variety of factual settings possible." State v. Dutchie, 969 P.2d 422, 427 (Utah 1998) (citation omitted); see also State v. Ramirez, 817 P.2d 774, 781
-82 & n. 3 (Utah 1991). Of course, We review for clear error the trial court's findings of fact underlying the waiver. See State v. Pena, 869 P.2d 932, 935-36, 939 n. 4 (Utah 1994).
¶ 17 In order to determine whether Miranda rights were validly waived, we examine the totality of the circumstances surrounding the waiver. See Dutchie, 969 P.2d at 427
. In the case of a juvenile, we have stated some of the relevant circumstances as follows:
"[A] minor has the capacity to make a voluntary confession, even of capital offenses, without the presence or consent of counsel or other responsible adult, and the admissibility of such...
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