State v. Fillyaw

• Decision Date: 01 December 1981
• Docket Number: No. 79-840-CR,79-840-CR
• Citation: 312 N.W.2d 795,104 Wis.2d 700
• Parties: STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent-Petitioner, v. Ronald FILLYAW, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

Page 795

312 N.W.2d 795

104 Wis.2d 700

STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Respondent-Petitioner, v. Ronald FILLYAW, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 79-840-CR.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Argued Oct. 7, 1981.

Decided Dec. 1, 1981.

Sally L. Wellman, Asst. Atty. Gen. (argued), for petitioner; Bronson C. La Follette, Atty. Gen., on brief.

Jack E. Schairer, Senior Asst. State Public Defender, for defendant-appellant.

COFFEY, Justice.

This is a review of a decision of the court of appeals, 301 N.W.2d 463, reversing a judgment and order of the circuit court for Milwaukee county, HON. HAROLD B. JACKSON, JR., presiding. ¹ Defendant-appellant Ronald Fillyaw was convicted of first-degree murder, contrary to sec. 940.01, Stats. Fillyaw appealed, claiming that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress various items of physical evidence allegedly obtained in violation of his constitutional rights and in refusing to suppress statements allegedly made by Fillyaw without the benefit of his Miranda ² warnings. The court of appeals reversed, holding that prejudicial error was committed by the trial court when it admitted into evidence the bloodstains found on the floor during a warrantless search of the murder victim's apartment as the search and seizure were unconstitutional. The appellate court determined that Fillyaw had standing to challenge the search and thus held the search and seizure unconstitutional.

On February 2, 1977, at approximately 11:45 a. m., Officer Robert Drakos was dispatched to a garage at 1820 North 1st Street in Milwaukee to investigate a report that a dead body had been found in the garage. Drakos' investigation confirmed that there was a dead female body lying on some cement blocks and rubbish in the garage. He summoned the Detective Bureau to investigate.

Sometime between noon and 12:30 p. m. on February 2, 1977, while Drakos was securing the garage area, he was approached by Fillyaw who stated that he was staying at 116-C East Vine Street and saw all the commotion and wanted to find out what was going on. ³ He was concerned because his girl friend was missing and he was taking care of her children. He went on to explain that he was at his girl friend's mother's house at about 8 p. m. on February 1, 1977, when he received a call from his girl friend, Wanona Jarrett, who lived at 116-C E. Vine Street, who asked him if he would come over and "watch her kids" because she wanted to go out. Wanona Jarrett's mother lived at 204 East Vine Street. Fillyaw further stated that he went over to watch the children and fell asleep before she went out for the evening.

At this point in the conversation, Drakos asked Fillyaw his address and for a description of the girl friend. Fillyaw replied at this time that he lived at 204 East Vine Street with Jarrett's mother and sometimes stayed at 116-C East Vine Street. He gave a description of his girl friend and what she was wearing the evening of February 1, 1977. This description fit the body and the clothes found on the body found in the garage. At this time, Drakos informed Detectives Blackburn and Braun, present at the scene, of his conversation with Fillyaw.

Detectives Blackburn and Braun approached Fillyaw and asked where he lived and he replied for a second time at 204 East Vine. Fillyaw then repeated the same description of his girl friend matching that of the deceased found in the garage. The detectives then asked Fillyaw if he would go with them to the Police Administration building so they could interview him regarding his girl friend's recent activities and acquaintances. Fillyaw agreed to go but said that he first wanted to get a babysitter for his girl friend's baby he had left upstairs in the apartment. Detectives Blackburn and Braun went with Fillyaw to the apartment to wait for the babysitter. Fillyaw asked a neighbor to watch over the baby.

After the sitter arrived, Fillyaw went with the detectives to the Police Administration Building about 1:15 p. m. The police did not advise Fillyaw of his constitutional rights at this point as they testified that he was not a suspect or in custody at this time.

During the interview Fillyaw gave his address as 204 East Vine and stated that he also stayed with his girl friend at 116-C East Vine. As the interview continued, the detectives noticed what appeared to them to be blood spots on Fillyaw's coat and shoes. It was during this interview that Fillyaw showed the officers a note he had just written to Wanona Jarrett to make up with her after an argument. They also noticed that Fillyaw had a cut on his hand. When questioned about this, Fillyaw explained that he had cut his finger on glass earlier that day.

At about 2:45 p. m. on February 2, 1977, Detectives Blackburn and Braun received information that the victim in the garage had been stabbed. The officers received this information at approximately the same time they had noticed and questioned Fillyaw about the cut on his hand. Based upon the information that the victim had been stabbed and the fact that Fillyaw's hand was cut, the officers became suspicious of Fillyaw and, therefore, Detective Braun read him his constitutional rights. After being advised of his Miranda rights, Fillyaw repeated the information concerning Wanona's and his own activities which he had previously given the officers. At approximately 5 p. m., Fillyaw was placed under arrest for the murder of Wanona Jarrett. At that time, he was again advised of his Miranda rights. After being placed under arrest, Detective Braun took Fillyaw's gray leather coat, along with other items on his person, and placed them in police inventory.

Later in the evening of February 2, 1977, Fillyaw was taken to the Bureau of Identification where photographs were taken of his injured finger. He was then transported to Milwaukee County General Hospital to have the laceration to his finger treated. Before being conveyed to the hospital, Fillyaw was advised for a third time of his constitutional rights. While he was in the hospital, a nurse asked Fillyaw how he had injured his finger and, in the presence of Detective Sliwinski, Fillyaw responded that he had cut his finger with a knife. Detective Sliwinski had not asked the nurse to ask this question. After the defendant's cut was treated, Detective Sliwinski asked the defendant if he would "give us some blood samples" and Fillyaw agreed to do so. A separate hospital consent form was prepared by the hospital personnel at Detective Sliwinski's request, and signed by Fillyaw in the detective's presence although the consent form did not specifically state that the consent was for taking a blood sample. Detective Sliwinski did not inform Fillyaw that he had a right to require the police to get a search warrant for the blood nor his right to refuse consent. Detective Sliwinski personally asked the defendant if he would give "us a blood sample" and he did not object. The doctor also informed the defendant that the police wanted a blood sample and he acquiesced. Further, Fillyaw was present when the nurse turned the blood sample over to the police detective and did not object at that time either.

Fillyaw was returned to the police station and was interrogated by Detectives James Mallette and Fred Reahorst in the early morning of February 3, 1977. Prior to interrogation, he was advised for a fourth time of his constitutional rights and he denies the completeness and sufficiency of the Miranda warnings given at this time. Fillyaw, in response to the officers' advice and questions, replied that he did not need an attorney and he continued to answer the officers' questions.

At the time Fillyaw was being interviewed on the afternoon of February 2, 1977, the officers at the scene found the victim's purse containing her identification in the garage. Somewhere between 1:30 p. m. and 2 p. m. on February 2, 1977, the victim was identified as being Wanona Jarrett. After the victim's body was removed from the garage, it was taken to the Milwaukee County medical examiner's morgue where Dr. Elaine Samuels determined that Wanona Jarrett died after having been strangled and repeatedly stabbed. The investigation in the garage area continued during the afternoon of February 2, 1977. During the investigation, the officers found nothing inside or outside of the garage indicating a struggle. At approximately 4 p. m. that afternoon, Detective Douglas Paulos discovered red spotting of blood in the snow from the base of the first step at the 116 East Vine Street address to the garage. This led the detectives to believe that the murder occurred someplace other than the garage and that the body was then carried into the garage.

After the blood spots leading to 116 East Vine St. were discovered at approximately 4 p. m. on February 2, 1977, the detectives on the scene extended their investigation to the apartment. Detective Andrew Andewenter, the officer in charge, went to Wanona Jarrett's apartment in the course of his investigation. He was let in by the babysitter with several other officers during the late afternoon of February 2, 1977. All of the officers testified that as a result of their investigation they found nothing in the apartment to indicate that Fillyaw or any other man resided there. It should be pointed out that none of the officers who entered Wanona's apartment on February 2, 1977, were present when Fillyaw, earlier that day, advised Officer Drakos that he was "staying at the apartment." Further, their investigation substantiated their belief that only Wanona Jarrett and her children lived there. While Detective Paulos was in the apartment, he seized two belts, one brown and one black.

About 4 p. m. on February 2, 1977, another detective, Alan Quosig, was dispatched to the 116-C East Vine Street address to look for anything else in the victim's apartment which would aid in the murder investigation. When Detective Quosig entered the apartment at about 5 p. m. he...