State v. Collum

• Decision Date: 13 November 1978
• Docket Number: Nos. 62157,62159 and 62160,62158,s. 62157
• Citation: 365 So.2d 1272
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Donnie Franklin COLLUM.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 1272

365 So.2d 1272

STATE of Louisiana v. Donnie Franklin COLLUM.

Nos. 62157, 62158, 62159 and 62160.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Nov. 13, 1978.

Dissenting Opinion Dec. 22, 1978.

Dissenting Opinion Feb. 1, 1979.

Ferdinand J. Kleppner, Grisbaum & Kleppner, Metairie, Wilson F. Walters, Wilson F. Walters & Associates, Inc., Denison, Tex., for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara B. Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Francis F. Dugas, Dist. Atty., Walter K. Naquin, Jr., Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

SUMMERS, Justice.

Jessie Collum, his wife Lenora, and their children, Jeffrey, age nine, and Anna, age six, were killed on May 27, 1977 in their trailer home in the Four Point Heights Subdivision to the Town of Raceland, in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. All had been shot several times; Jessie Collum had also been stabbed several times. Two days later Donnie Collum, who was then fifteen years old, having been born December 21, 1961, and his brother Scott Collum, age thirteen, were stopped by police officers in Benson, Arizona, driving a 1974 Cadillac automobile. The brothers admitted the Cadillac belonged to Jessie Collum, their father by his first marriage to Peggy Mendoza, and that they had taken it without permission. The Arizona authorities retained custody of the automobile and the boys were turned over to their mother in Victoriaville, California.

On June 1, 1977 the bodies of the four Collums were discovered. Police authorities in Lafourche Parish ascertained that Donnie and Scott had been living with their father and that the Cadillac was missing. Accordingly, a nationwide bulletin was broadcast in an attempt to locate the Cadillac for investigation in connection with a homicide. As a result of an inquiry to that office on June 3, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office notified the Lafourche authorities of the whereabouts of Donnie and Scott Collum in Victoriaville, California. Arrest warrants were then issued by the District Judge in Lafourche Parish to arrest them for theft. Donnie and Scott were apprehended on June 3, 1977 and taken to Sheriff's Office Sub-Station in Victoriaville.

They were questioned about the car theft and the killings and gave a statement to the California authorities admitting their guilt of the killings. Later, on the evening of June 3, two Lafourche Parish deputies arrived and Donnie and Scott were again questioned and confessed for a second time.

Upon their return to Louisiana Donnie was indicted by the grand jury for four counts of first degree murder as a juvenile fifteen years of age charged with a capital offense. La.Const. art. V, § 19; La.Rev.Stat. 14:30; La.Rev.Stat. 13:1570(A)(5). A motion to suppress his confessions was filed, heard and denied on December 5, 1977. The charges were then reduced to four separate counts of second degree murder, to which Donnie pled guilty on February 24, 1978, reserving his right to appeal the ruling on the motion to suppress. On each of the four counts he received a sentence of life imprisonment without the benefit of probation or parole for forty years, such sentences to be served consecutively. La.Rev.Stat. 14:30.1.

On this appeal three assignments of error are urged.

I.

At the outset it must be determined whether this Court's decision in State in the Interest of Dino, 359 So.2d 586 (La.1978), is applicable to this prosecution. By that decision this Court decided that a confession of a person under seventeen years of age is not admissible unless the juvenile actually consulted with an attorney or an adult before waiving his right to silence; that the attorney or adult consulted was interested in the welfare of the juvenile; and if an adult other than an attorney is consulted, the adult also must be fully advised of the rights of the juvenile.

If the Dino holding applies to the case at bar, the State readily concedes the conviction must be reversed because the Dino decision was not complied with. No attorney, parent or adult friend actually consulted with the defendant at the interrogation. The State submits, however, that Dino should not be applied retroactively and the case should be governed by the "Totality of Circumstances Test", the rule of law in these cases for many years in this State and in the Federal courts.

Dino became effective June 15, 1978. The offenses in the case before us occurred on May 27, 1977, and the guilty pleas were entered on February 24, 1978. A motion to appeal was filed on March 3, 1978 returnable on May 2, 1978, and filed in this Court on May 3, 1978. Thus the issue of the retroactivity of the Dino decision, or at least its applicability to cases on direct appeal at the time of the decision, is squarely presented.

The Dino case dealt in part with a confession obtained from a thirteen-year-old boy as the result of a custodial interrogation. This Court concluded that the State had failed to show beyond a reasonable doubt under the totality of circumstances test that the juvenile had knowingly and intelligently waived his privilege against self-incrimination and his right to counsel. This Court felt, however, that the "exclusive use of the totality of circumstances test in relation to waivers by juveniles tends to mire the courts in a morass of speculation." To end this speculation on the part of both the courts and the police, it was decided that to demonstrate a knowing and intelligent waiver on his part, the State "must affirmatively show that the juvenile engaged in a meaningful consultation with an attorney or an informed parent, guardian, or other adult interested in his welfare before he waived his right to counsel and privilege against self-incrimination." This Court recognized that though most minors are not mature enough to understand their rights nor competent to exercise them, some minors would be capable; nevertheless, it made the consultation an absolute prerequisite to waiver because such a requirement was a step toward guaranteeing knowing and intelligent waivers regardless of the minor's degree of sophistication. 359 So.2d at 591-94.

In its impact on the law and police custodial interrogation, this decision may be likened to the United States Supreme Court decision in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), in which the Court made the giving of certain warnings or rights an absolute prerequisite to the admissibility of an in-custody confession. As in this case, it was not long before the courts were called upon to determine the retroactivity of what has become known as the Miranda Rule.

In Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966), the United States Supreme Court decided that the Miranda Rule would apply only to cases in which the trials commenced after the decision was handed down. Three criteria were formulated for deciding the retroactivity issue: 1) the purpose of the new rule; 2) the reliance which may have been placed upon prior decisions on the subject; and 3) the effect on the administration of justice of a retroactive application.

This Court's decision in State v. King, 347 So.2d 1108 (La.1977), took the position that the balancing process of the criteria applied in Johnson v. New Jersey would be explored only where a newly announced rule does not go to the very integrity of the fact-finding process. Where the integrity of the fact-finding process is impaired, retroactivity would be imposed.

While the integrity of the fact-finding process is inextricably entwined with the three criteria applied in Johnson v. New Jersey, a separate and threshold consideration of that factor is articulated in keeping with the mandate of State v. King.

Under the law as it existed when Donnie Collum gave the confessions, it was not sacramental to the validity of a juvenile's confession that the State "must affirmatively show that the juvenile engaged in a meaningful consultation with an attorney or informed parent, guardian or other adult interested in his welfare before he waived his right to counsel and privilege against self-incrimination" as mandated by this Court's decision in Dino. Aside from his claim that the Dino decision should be applied retroactively to his case to invalidate his confession, defendant makes insubstantial claims that his confession was involuntary. As this opinion points out hereafter no procedures were employed in taking the statements which were not permissible under the then prevalent jurisprudence approving the totality of circumstances test.

The major design of the new rule announced in Dino, even if it were to overcome an aspect of the criminal trial that substantially impairs its truth-finding function, is not violated in this case where there was no trial and the accused has pled guilty. In such a situation, this Court's jurisprudence and the jurisprudence of the Federal courts have consistently held that only the jurisdiction of the court which received the plea is reviewable on appeal. Lefkowitz v. Newsome, 420 U.S. 283, 95 S.Ct. 886, 43 L.Ed.2d 196 (1975); Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970); State v. Torres, 281 So.2d 451 (La.1973); State v. Foster, 263 La. 956, 269 So.2d 827 (1972). The rule is, however, subject to an exception applicable to this case. With the court's approval defendant reserved the right to appellate review of the non-jurisdictional ruling on the motion to suppress. Review of that ruling is therefore permissible under this exception. State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976).

But the Dino rule does not go to the very integrity of the fact-finding process. The decision purports to assure that a juvenile answering questions at a custodial interrogation does so with an intelligent understanding of his right to remain silent and of the consequences which may flow from relinquishing that right. This is the same purpose that the older voluntariness standard and the prophylactic Miranda...