State v. Fleurie

• Decision Date: 05 September 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-190.,07-190.
• Citation: 2008 VT 118,968 A.2d 326
• Parties: STATE of Vermont v. Timothy FLEURIE.
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

968 A.2d 326

2008 VT 118

STATE of Vermont v. Timothy FLEURIE.

No. 07-190.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

September 5, 2008.

Kyle Sipples, Caledonia County Deputy State's Attorney, Saint Johnsbury, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Allison N. Fulcher of Martin & Associates, Barre, for Defendant-Appellant.

Present: REIBER, C.J., DOOLEY, JOHNSON, SKOGLUND and BURGESS, JJ.

REIBER, C.J.

¶ 1. Defendant appeals the Caledonia District Court's partial denial of his motion to suppress his confession to assault and robbery. The court suppressed statements defendant made in his home before he was given Miranda warnings, but did not suppress subsequent statements made after officers administered Miranda warnings at the police station. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Defendant asserts that the court erred by admitting his confession at the police station because it was obtained in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights. Defendant does not argue that the officers violated the rights guaranteed to him by Article 10 of the Vermont Constitution. We affirm.

¶ 2. The undisputed facts on appeal are as follows. During an afternoon vehicle patrol on January 26, 2006, two St. Johnsbury police officers noticed defendant, an eighteen-year-old male they recognized from prior encounters, at the intersection of Railroad Street and Bagley Street. Not suspecting any wrongdoing, the officers drove on. Within ten minutes after observing defendant, the officers received a report of a robbery at Landry's Drug Store on Railroad Street. A witness at the scene gave a description of a robber armed with a gun, wearing a face mask, sweatshirt, and jeans with a distinctive yellow emblem sewn on the back pocket.

¶ 3. Because the witness' description of the clothes matched those worn by defendant, whom they had just seen, the officers proceeded to defendant's mother's apartment, which was only a few minutes' walk from the drug store, and where one of the officers knew he lived. One officer knocked on the front door while the other proceeded around the house to watch the back door. By the time defendant's mother opened the door, at least four officers and two police cruisers were at the scene. One officer told defendant's mother that they were investigating an armed robbery and asked permission to speak with her son inside the apartment. Permission was granted.

¶ 4. Officer Bickford saw that defendant was wearing jeans with a distinct yellow insignia on the rear pocket. Officer Bickford told defendant that he matched the description of a suspect in an armed robbery. Defendant replied that he had no guns or mask, a statement Officer Bickford found significant because he had not mentioned the details of the robbery to defendant. Without administering Miranda warnings, Officer Bickford then proceeded to question defendant about his whereabouts during the day. Defendant denied leaving the apartment. When defendant asked for a cigarette and moved towards the kitchen to get one, the officer told him to stay where he was and that he was not allowed to smoke. Officer Bickford told defendant that the officers had seen him outside walking near the drug store. Defendant again denied being outside that day. To this the officer responded: "C'mon, I know you were outside. I saw you"; "C'mon, tell the truth"; and "Tell me what you really did." For approximately ten minutes, Officer Bickford continued this line of questioning. Defendant again asked if he could smoke, and was again denied. At no time did any of the officers unholster their guns or get out their handcuffs. None of the officers touched or searched defendant.

¶ 5. At some point, Officer Maurice came in through the back door and asked defendant why there was a puddle of water—presumably from melted snow—on the floor under his boots if he had not been outside that day. Defendant then acknowledged that he had been out very briefly to see his girlfriend. The trial court found that this statement was incriminating because it placed defendant outside the apartment in the same general time and area where the crime had occurred. During the questioning in the apartment, defendant did not make any other admissions and continued to deny any involvement in the robbery.

¶ 6. About midway through the interrogation, Officer Bickford noticed the odor of alcohol and asked defendant if he would submit to a preliminary breath test. Defendant agreed. The test results indicated a blood alcohol content of 0.04. At this point the officers decided to arrest defendant for an underage-drinking violation, 7 V.S.A. § 657(a)(3), but did not inform defendant of this.¹ Officer Bickford questioned defendant about the robbery for an additional thirty minutes before bringing him to the police station, a few minutes' drive from the apartment.

¶ 7. The officers did not question defendant while he was in the police cruiser. At the police station, an officer handcuffed defendant to a wall while waiting for defendant's mother to arrive on foot. Officer Maurice informed defendant of his Miranda rights for the first time. When his mother arrived, defendant waived his Miranda rights and confessed to participating in the robbery.

¶ 8. Defendant moved to suppress the statements he made during the initial interrogation in his home, as well as the statements he made later at the police station. The State opposed this motion, arguing that defendant was not "in custody" when he was interviewed in his home, and, since Miranda applies only to "custodial police interrogation," the statements were admissible. The trial court found that while the questioning at the home may "have begun as an investigative detention ... the situation transformed itself into a full scale interrogation." It concluded that, "[g]iven the totality of the circumstances ... this was a custodial interrogation. The failure to give Miranda warning[s] requires suppression of the statements defendant made within his home."

¶ 9. Relying on Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 105 S.Ct. 1285, 84 L.Ed.2d 222

(1985), however, the trial court concluded that the confession given after the Miranda warnings was admissible. In support of this conclusion, the court found that there was "no sign defendant's will was overborne, or that there were threats made, or any overreaching by the officers, or any of the psychological pressure games." The court also noted that there was no showing that defendant waived his Miranda rights as a result of coercion or overbearing tactics, stating that "[d]efendant's waiver of Miranda rights was a rational, informed and voluntary decision." Moreover, the court found that defendant's admission during the initial interrogation that he was outside the house at the same time and in the same general vicinity of the robbery, while somewhat incriminating, was not "a full confession which rendered further denial of involvement all but impossible to sustain." Defendant entered a conditional plea of guilty to the robbery charge, reserving his right to appeal the partial denial of his motion to suppress.

¶ 10. The sole issue raised on appeal is whether the trial court erred in concluding that the confession obtained at the station was admissible. "A motion to suppress evidence presents a mixed question of fact and law. While we uphold the trial court's factual findings absent clear error, we review the trial courts conclusions of law de novo." State v. Bauder, 2007 VT 16, ¶ 9, 181 Vt. 392, 924 A.2d 38.

¶ 11. The Fifth Amendment gives every citizen the right not to be "compelled in any Criminal Case to be a witness against himself." U.S. Const. amend. V. To protect this right, law enforcement officers must warn a person in custody "that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him, and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed." Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Miranda warnings serve to ensure that a person has sufficient knowledge of his constitutional rights and that any waiver of those rights is knowing, intelligent, and voluntary. Id. at 444-45, 86 S.Ct. 1602. Because defendant does not invoke Chapter I, Article 10 of the Vermont Constitution and does not argue that we should diverge from federal precedent, we analyze his claims under the Fifth Amendment.

¶ 12. This dispute requires us to consider in detail the Supreme Court's decisions in Elstad and Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U.S. 600, 124 S.Ct. 2601, 159 L.Ed.2d 643 (2004). Both of these cases addressed situations in which defendants received Miranda warnings only after the police had already begun questioning them. Defendant argues that Seibert is controlling and requires the exclusion of his post-Miranda confession. The State asserts that the confession is admissible under Elstad and that Seibert is inapplicable. The State further argues that, even if Seibert did control, defendant has failed to show that the post-Miranda statements should be excluded.

¶ 13. In Elstad, a witness contacted the police and reported that Elstad, an eighteen-year-old male, had committed a burglary. After obtaining a warrant for Elstad's arrest, two police officers drove to Elstad's home. Elstad's mother answered the door and led the officers to Elstad's room. The officers asked Elstad to get dressed and to accompany them into the living room. While one officer talked to Elstad's mother in the kitchen, the other officer briefly questioned Elstad about the burglary without administering Miranda warnings. According to the officer's testimony, the extent of the interrogation was as follows:

"I sat down with Mr. Elstad and I asked him if he was aware of why Detective McAllister and myself were there to talk with him. He stated no, he had no idea why we were there. I then asked him if he knew a person by the name of Gross, and he said yes, he did, and also added that he heard that there was a...