State v. Jimenez
| Decision Date | 07 August 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. CR-88-0005-AP,CR-88-0005-AP |
| Citation | 165 Ariz. 444,799 P.2d 785 |
| Parties | STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Jesus Rodriguez JIMENEZ, Appellant. |
| Court | Arizona Supreme Court |
Appellant Jesus Rodriguez Jimenez (defendant) appeals from his conviction of first degree murder after a jury trial. We have jurisdiction pursuant to article 6, § 5(3) of the Arizona Constitution and A.R.S. §§ 13-4031 and -4033. For the following reasons, we affirm defendant's conviction for first degree murder, but reduce the death sentence to life imprisonment without possibility of parole for 35 years.
At 9:00 p.m. on November 30, 1986, police found the body of a 5-year-old girl wrapped in plastic in the trunk of a disabled car parked in the backyard of a house next door to the victim's. Defendant, then 17 years, 2 months old, lived in the house next door to the victim's with his aunt and uncle and their children. The victim's mother had reported the girl missing earlier that afternoon. The autopsy revealed that the victim died from manual strangulation, and that she had numerous post-mortem knife wounds on her body.
Police considered defendant a prime suspect because he had been home alone all day, and the victim often visited him there. Additionally, the victim had received a phone call from defendant earlier that afternoon and was last seen by her family near his house. Defendant was taken into custody for questioning by detectives. Defendant's natural parents lived in Mexico, and could not be contacted. However, the police did not advise defendant's aunt and uncle, who returned home while police were investigating the scene of the crime, of their minor nephew's constitutional rights; neither did the police invite them to attend the interview. During questioning and after having been read his Miranda 1 rights, defendant admitted to police that he had killed the victim because he heard "voices" compelling him to do so.
The state filed a petition for delinquency in juvenile court, and moved to transfer defendant to superior court for trial as an adult. The juvenile court ordered mental examinations and determined that defendant was competent. The court subsequently determined that probable cause existed to believe that defendant had committed first degree murder, and that the public safety or interest would best be served by transferring defendant for adult prosecution. See generally rule 14, Arizona Rules of Procedure for the Juvenile Court.
After ordering additional mental examinations pursuant to rule 11, Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure, the trial court found defendant competent to stand trial. Defendant was tried as an adult and convicted by a jury of first degree murder, a class 1 felony, and kidnapping, a class 2 felony and dangerous crime against children. After a presentence aggravation and mitigation hearing, the trial court sentenced him to death on the murder count, and to an aggravated consecutive sentence of 22 years on the kidnapping count, with credit for 418 days of presentence incarceration. This appeal automatically followed. See A.R.S. § 13-4033 and rule 31.2(b), Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Defendant raises numerous issues in his opening brief. Because of our disposition reducing the death penalty to life imprisonment, however, we need not address those issues. Only the following issues are relevant in this appeal:
1. Did the trial court err in failing to suppress defendant's confession?
2. Did the trial court err in finding that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors and in imposing the death penalty in this case?
Defendant was taken into custody and transported to the police station for questioning. He was met by Detective Tony Morales, who accompanied him to a small interrogation room that contained a table and two chairs. Morales began questioning defendant, in defendant's native Spanish language, at about 11:45 p.m. He first requested background information for approximately 15 minutes. Morales testified that defendant "appeared to respond well to everything I questioned him about," and that defendant seemed comfortable talking with him. Defendant informed him that he had been in the United States for two years, that he was living with his aunt and uncle, that his mother was in Mexico and he had never known his father, and that he was in 10th grade in high school, where he was experiencing learning difficulties.
After obtaining this background information, Morales told defendant that the victim had been seen at his house the afternoon she disappeared, that the police had found fresh handprints on the car in which her body was discovered that would be compared with defendant's, and that defendant was considered a "strong suspect." Defendant admitted knowing the little girl, but denied killing her. A few minutes later, Morales again summarized the information police had gathered about the crime and informed defendant that, in light of the circumstantial evidence, he was considered a "prime suspect." Defendant again denied any involvement. Morales explained to defendant that the person who killed the little girl, if found guilty at trial, would face the death penalty by electrocution or the gas chamber.
Approximately 30 minutes after the interrogation had begun, Morales asked defendant "if he had sexually molested the child ... and somehow accidentally killed her." Defendant, after a 20- to 30-second pause, responded, The detective then stopped defendant from saying anything further and advised him of his constitutional rights. Defendant did not confess to the crime before he was advised of his rights.
Defendant was then read, in Spanish, his Miranda rights, first from a standard rights card, and then from a "Juvenile Rights Form," which contained the same listing of constitutional rights along with explanations geared to a juvenile's understanding. The detective also explained to defendant the possibility that he could be transferred to adult court for prosecution because of his age and the seriousness of the crime. After giving him this information, the detective questioned defendant to verify his comprehension. Defendant indicated he understood his constitutional rights, did not want an attorney or his parents present, and wished to confess to the crime.
Defendant's initial unrecorded confession took approximately an hour, beginning at 12:15 a.m. At its conclusion, at 1:12 a.m., Morales turned on a tape recorder, again explained defendant's constitutional rights and obtained a second, recorded statement, which he testified was substantially the same as the first, unrecorded confession.
In his confession, defendant admitted that the victim had visited his house earlier that afternoon to get some candy. He had let her into the house, where he was alone for the weekend while his aunt and uncle were visiting relatives in Mexico. As the victim walked toward the back bedroom, defendant felt an overpowering urge to harm her because "voices" had been urging him for two days to hurt someone. He followed the child to the bedroom, put his hands around her throat, and began to strangle her until she went limp. As he was choking her, he heard a knock at the front door. Defendant placed the child, unconscious but still alive, under the bed to hide her, and went to answer the door. The victim's sister and brother had arrived to ask if she was there because her mother wanted her at home. Defendant told them he had not seen her, and closed the door without letting them into the house. He returned to the bedroom, where he said he could hear the child crying under the bed. He believed she had regained consciousness. He grabbed a table knife on the way to the bedroom, where he strangled her until she was dead, repeatedly stabbed her, and left the knife imbedded in the roof of the child's mouth. Defendant then found a plastic trash bag, wrapped the child's body in the bag and sealed it with masking tape, and placed the body in the trunk of a car in his uncle's backyard.
After defendant's confession, he was photographed, fingerprinted, and transported to the juvenile detention facility.
Before trial, defense counsel moved to suppress the confession on the grounds that it was coerced and involuntary, and that defendant had not made a knowing, voluntary, and intelligent waiver of his Miranda rights under the totality of the circumstances, including the fact that no parent or guardian was present when he was questioned. After a voluntariness hearing, the trial court found that defendant was properly read his Miranda rights, that he indicated he understood the nature of the offense and the nature of the punishment, that the interrogation time was not excessively long and the procedure used was not overbearing, and that the police exerted no physical or psychological coercion.
On appeal, defendant contends the trial court erred in admitting a confession that was involuntary under the totality of the circumstances.
We start with the presumption that confessions resulting from custodial interrogation are inherently involuntary; to rebut that presumption, the state must show by a preponderance of the evidence that the confession was freely and voluntarily made. State v. Fulminante, 161 Ariz. 237, 243, 778 P.2d 602, 608 (1988), cert. granted on other grounds, Arizona v. Fulminante, 494 U.S. 1055, 110 S.Ct. 1522, 108 L.Ed.2d 762, cert....
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...burglary and first degree murder are separate offenses of different nature subject to separate punishment); State v. Jimenez, 165 Ariz. 444, 460, n. 3, 799 P.2d 785, 801, n. 3 (1990) (same for kidnapping and Given that the Arizona legislature intended first degree murder and the underlying ......
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