State v. Keller
| Decision Date | 10 April 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 49A04-0505-CR-297.,49A04-0505-CR-297. |
| Citation | 845 N.E.2d 154 |
| Parties | STATE of Indiana, Appellant-Plaintiff, v. Michael KELLER, Appellee-Defendant. |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Steve Carter, Attorney General of Indiana, Cynthia L. Ploughe, Deputy Attorney General, Indianapolis, for Appellant.
Julie Ann Slaughter, Marion County Public Defender Agency, Indianapolis, for Appellee.
Michael Keller is charged with murder, felony murder, two counts of arson as Class A felonies, theft as a Class D felony, possession of methamphetamine as a Class C felony, and robbery as a Class A felony. Before trial, Keller moved to suppress the search of his hotel room, including his coat, and to suppress the two statements he made to law enforcement officers during separate interviews. After a hearing on the two motions, the trial court denied Keller's requests as to the search and his second statement, but suppressed his first statement. Upon the State's request, the trial court certified the interlocutory order for review, and this Court accepted jurisdiction.1 We affirm.
The State raises one issue for review, which we restate as whether the trial court properly granted Keller's motion to suppress his first statement to law enforcement officers. By way of cross-appeal, Keller calls into question the trial court's denial of suppression regarding his second statement and the search of his hotel room.
On December 1, 2003, Keller was arrested as part of an investigation into the death of Douglas Cook, who was shot in the head and left to die in a burning automobile. During the investigation, it was revealed that Cook had stayed in a hotel room the night before that was rented for him by Cindy Sugars using her name and money Cook had given her. Law enforcement officers, looking for Sugars, went to the hotel room accompanied by a hotel maintenance employee. Knocking at the door, the employee indicated that it was maintenance. A woman answered the door and permitted the officers to enter. The officers did not know at the time that the woman answering the door was not Sugars. There were three individuals occupying the room in various states of undress, including Keller. For officer safety, the occupants' clothing was searched for weapons before the individuals were allowed to dress, and were moved into the hallway.
Each occupant's coat was also searched. Inside a pocket of Keller's coat, Sergeant Michael Gullion discovered a bullet, which he confiscated, as well as money and drugs. Sergeant Gullion did not remove the money or drugs, and placed the coat back on the bed where he found it. The occupants were escorted into the hallway, where everyone waited until Sugars arrived and signed a consent form for a search of the room. No law enforcement officers re-entered until consent was given, at which time the crime lab processed the room, including the drugs found in Keller's coat and paraphernalia in plain view on a table.
Keller was arrested and taken to Sheriff's Department headquarters, where Sergeant Gullion and Detective Scott Scheid performed a videotaped interview approximately three hours in duration.2 As it began, Keller was informed that he was under arrest for the drugs. Detective Scheid asked Keller's age, to which Keller responded twenty-one. Detective Scheid then began the process of advising Keller of his rights, indicating that he would do so "real quick" to "get this out of the way." State's Exhibit 2 at pg. 1. He asked whether Keller could read and write, and Keller responded affirmatively. Detective Scheid, sitting across from Keller, slid a piece of paper in front of Keller and described it as an advice of rights form. He explained to Keller: "I need you to read that, okay and then initial each one of those if you understand, okay."3 Id. The language of the form was as follows:
Before we ask you any questions, you must understand your rights.
1. You have the right to remain silent.
2. Anything you say can be used as evidence against you in court.
3. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions and to have him with you during questioning.
4. If you cannot afford a lawyer and you want one, one will be appointed for you by the court before any questioning.
5. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you will still have the right to stop answering at any time. You also have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to a lawyer.
The videotape shows Keller, who was smoking a cigarette, glance quickly over the form before turning away to flick ashes into an ashtray. Returning his attention to the form, Keller looks it over again briefly before signing it. Sergeant Gullion, sitting to Keller's left, asks if Keller has read the form, to which Keller nods affirmatively, saying "Yeah." Id. Sergeant Gullion also asks if Keller understands the form, but it is unclear whether Keller responds. Detective Scheid then reminds Keller to initial each statement of advice on the form. Keller briefly reviews the statements and writes his initials beside each. When Detective Scheid notices that Keller has signed in the wrong place, he directs Keller to resign in the proper location. Following completion of the advice of rights form, Keller is questioned concerning Cook's death. He eventually makes incriminating statements, implicating both himself and another individual.
The following day, after a different law enforcement officer read Keller his rights from the advice of rights form, Keller again signed and made a statement. Keller was charged on seven counts, including murder, felony murder, two counts of arson, theft, possession of methamphetamine, and robbery. Before trial he made two motions to suppress evidence, one for the search and a second for his statements. The trial court conducted a hearing, during which Sergeant Gullion and Detective Scheid testified and a portion of the videotaped first statement was played for the trial court's review, resulting in the trial court's suppressing Keller's first statement. The State sought certification of the order for interlocutory appeal. The trial court obliged, and specified the legal question at issue as:
[W]hether or not giving a defendant an advice of rights form that contains all the rights required [by] Miranda and asking the defendant to read it and sign it, if he understands it, but without orally reading each right to him contained on the form and without insuring that defendant has in fact read the form and understands the rights and the waiver of those rights, is a sufficient advisement of the Miranda rights; and is a defendant's signature and subsequent interview a knowing and voluntary waiver of those rights.
Appendix of Appellant at 40. This Court granted the State's Petition for Interlocutory Appeal on July 6, 2005, and accepted jurisdiction. The State now challenges the trial court's suppression of statements made in Keller's first interview. Keller cross-appeals on the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress his second statement and the search of his hotel room, including his coat.
Preliminarily, we note that Indiana Appellate Rule 5 designates this Court with jurisdiction over interlocutory appeals under Rule 14. Appeals may be taken from interlocutory orders in some circumstances by right, and in others when the trial court certifies its order for review. Ind.App. Rule 14(A), (B). Here, the trial court certified its order of April 18, 2005, over which we accepted jurisdiction. However, the trial court never issued a written order for either of the motions to suppress, instead ruling orally and referring to the suppression hearing transcripts as its findings and conclusions. As a result, without a written order pertaining to each individual motion, or both of the motions, we treat the hearing in its entirety as one order that resolves the issues presented in both of the motions by granting suppression of Keller's first statement only.
In its certification order, under Indiana Appellate Rule 14(B)(1)(c)(ii), the trial court indicated the grounds for certification as being the existence of a substantial question of law, the early determination of which will promote a more orderly disposition of the case. It further specified the legal question as limited in scope to whether Keller was sufficiently advised of his rights pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), prior to his first statement to law enforcement. However, Keller also contends that the trial court erred when it denied suppression of his second statement and the search of his hotel room. The State replies that because the trial court only certified a specific question on appeal, this Court does not have jurisdiction to consider the other issues raised by Keller as he did not pursue separate certification on those issues. We disagree.
The language of Rule 14(B) clearly identifies certification of an order, not of specific issues or questions. Budden v. Board of School Com'rs of City of Indianapolis, 698 N.E.2d 1157, 1166 n. 14 (Ind.1998) (). Even so, our supreme court has affirmed that "although the trial court certifies an order, there is nothing to prohibit the trial court from identifying the specific questions of law presented by the order for the appellate court's review." Id. Although this may often be helpful, appellate courts are under "no obligation to accept the issue as framed by the trial court or to answer it." Id.
Here, Keller's attempt to cross-appeal on issues not specified by the trial court's certification order highlights the desirability of written orders from the trial court. Had the...
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