State v. King

• Citation: 1998 ME 60,708 A.2d 1014
• Decision Date: 25 March 1998
• Docket Number: SAG-96-483
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Zaccheus KING.
• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (US)

Page 1014

708 A.2d 1014

1998 ME 60

STATE of Maine v. Zaccheus KING.

SAG-96-483

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued Jan. 5, 1998

Decided March 25, 1998.

Andrew Ketterer, Attorney General, Nancy Torresen, Asst. Atty. General (orally), William R. Stokes, Asst. Atty. Gen., Augusta, for State.

Leonard I. Sharon (orally), Sharon, Leary & DeTroy, Auburn, and Mary Beth Crocker (orally), York Beach, for defendant.

Before WATHEN, C.J., and ROBERTS, CLIFFORD, RUDMAN, DANA, and LIPEZ, JJ.

ROBERTS, Justice.

¶1 Zaccheus King appeals from the judgment entered in the Superior Court (Androscoggin County, Delahanty, J.) convicting him of manslaughter (Class A) in violation of 17-A M.R.S.A. § 203 (1983 & Supp.1997). King contends that the court erred by refusing to suppress all statements that he made to a police officer and that the court erred by failing to reinstruct the jury concerning the primary crimes of robbery and assault when it requested clarification of accomplice liability. He also challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction as an accomplice in the commission of the crime of manslaughter. Finally, he argues that the court erred in its determination of his basic period of incarceration. We affirm the judgment and the sentence.

I.

¶2 In the early morning hours of April 16, 1995, Juan Carlos Rodriquez, a crack cocaine dealer, was shot and killed in Lewiston. King, along with Joseph Jackson and Jeremiah Moore, was indicted for Rodriquez's murder pursuant to 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1)(A) (1983 & Supp.1997). King subsequently filed a motion to suppress all statements that he made during a police interrogation on the day of Rodriquez's death. The court denied King's motion, finding that King voluntarily waived his right to remain silent.

¶3 At King's trial numerous witnesses testified that the night before his death, Rodriquez had an argument with Jackson and/or Moore about a cocaine-for-marijuana trade. King was not involved in the argument, nor was he present during the incident. Sometime after midnight, however, he returned with Jackson, Moore, and a fourth man to the apartment where Rodriquez was staying. King, Jackson, and the fourth man entered the apartment building. After Jackson entered the apartment, he fired three or four shots into Rodriquez. Another shot was fired from behind Jackson. ¹

¶4 In April 1996 a jury found King guilty as an accomplice to the crime of manslaughter. At his sentencing hearing, the court established his basic period of incarceration at 25 years. It then imposed the sentence of 25 years with all but 18 years suspended followed by a 6-year period of probation. King appeals both his conviction and his sentence.

II

¶5 Detective Geoffrey Cummings of the Maine State Police interviewed King about his involvement in Rodriquez's death. Before beginning the interrogation, Cummings recited the Miranda warnings to King and told him that he could terminate the interview at anytime. Walter Coleman, a friend of King's mother, was present at the interview and also informed King that he did not have to answer any questions. King voluntarily agreed to proceed with the interview.

¶6 After Coleman left the room with another officer, King became reluctant to talk to Cummings. He stated that he wanted Coleman present to ensure that Cummings did not later misquote him. Cummings assured him that the interview was being recorded, but King again stated, "I'm just saying, you know, ... I ain't saying nothing." Cummings responded, "Zach ... you'd better start coming clean," and resumed questioning King about the shooting. King asserted that he did not know anything about Rodriquez's death and reiterated his earlier statement that he did not want to answer questions in Coleman's absence. King requested Coleman's presence on numerous occasions during the interview. Cummings did not, on any of these occasions, ask King whether he was invoking his right to remain silent. After Coleman came back into the interrogation room, King admitted to being present at the apartment.

¶7 King contends that the court erred by failing to suppress the statements that he made during his interview with Cummings. He argues that he unequivocally invoked his right to retract his waiver and reassert his right to remain silent during the interview and that Cummings violated his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent by failing to terminate the interview. Alternatively, King asserts that at a minimum his assertions were ambiguous, and pursuant to our decisions in State v. Ladd, 431 A.2d 60 (Me.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1101, 102 S.Ct. 677, 70 L.Ed.2d 643 (1981) and State v. Ayers, 433 A.2d 356 (Me.1981), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 941, 104 S.Ct. 1919, 80 L.Ed.2d 466 (1984), Cummings should have limited his inquiry to clarifying whether King was invoking his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. The State counters that King's statements were not a clear invocation of his right to remain silent. It further asserts that the statements were at the most ambiguous and that pursuant to the United States Supreme Court's decision in Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. 452, 114 S.Ct. 2350, 129 L.Ed.2d 362 (1994), the officer was not obligated to terminate the interrogation. We agree.

¶8 The trial court did not explicitly state whether it found King's statements ambiguous. Implicit in its findings, however, is its conclusion that even if one were to assume that the statements were ambiguous, the officer, pursuant to Davis, was not obligated to terminate the interrogation.

¶9 The Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), described an individual's "right to cut off questioning" as follows:

Once warnings have been given, the subsequent procedure is clear. If the individual indicates in any manner, at any time prior to or during questioning, that he wishes to remain silent, the interrogation must cease. At this point he has shown that he intends to exercise his Fifth Amendment privilege; any statement taken after the person invokes his privilege cannot be other than the product of compulsion, subtle or otherwise. Without the right to cut off questions, the setting of in-custody interrogation operates on the individual to overcome free choice in producing a statement after the privilege has been once invoked.

Id. at 473-74, 86 S.Ct. at 1627-28. In Ladd and Ayers, we interpreted the Miranda decision to require that when an individual equivocally asserts the "right to cut off questioning," an officer may make a limited inquiry to clarify whether the individual is, indeed, invoking the right to remain silent. We, likewise, employed this rule when an individual ambiguously asserts the right to counsel. See State v. McCluskie, 611 A.2d 975, 977 (Me.), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 1009, 113 S.Ct. 625, 121 L.Ed.2d 558 (1992). The Supreme Court in Davis clarified that such a limitation is not required by Miranda and explained that

if a suspect makes a reference to an attorney that is ambiguous or equivocal in that a reasonable officer in light of the circumstances would have understood only that the suspect might be invoking the right to counsel, our precedents do not require the cessation of questioning.

Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. at 459, 114 S.Ct. at 2355. Contrary to King's assertions, whether Miranda is applicable in a given situation is a matter of federal constitutional law, State v. McKechnie, 1997 ME 40, p 7 n. 1, 690 A.2d 976, 978 n. 1, and we are, therefore, bound by the principles enunciated by the Supreme Court. Moreover, King has not advanced, nor can we discern, any reason that the Court's decision in Davis be limited to an individual's right to retract a waiver and reassert the right to counsel. See Coleman v. Singletary, 30 F.3d 1420, 1424 (11th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1086, 115 S.Ct. 1801, 131 L.Ed.2d 727 (1995). We therefore follow the principles set forth in Davis that in order to assert one's right to "cut off questioning" an individual must articulate a desire "sufficiently clearly that a reasonable police officer in the circumstances would understand the statement" to be a retraction of a waiver and a reassertion of the right to remain silent. Davis, 512 U.S. at 459, 114 S.Ct. at 2355. None of King's statements meet this standard of clarity.

III.

¶10 King also argues that the court committed error in its reinstruction to the jury when they requested a clarification about accomplice liability and that the jury's findings that he aided and abetted Jackson in the manslaughter of Rodriquez are not supported by sufficient evidence. We are unpersuaded by either argument.

¶11 Because King failed to object to the court's reinstruction, we review the instruction for obvious error. State v. McCluskie, 611 A.2d at 978. When a court instructs a jury about the primary crimes at issue in its original instruction and then fails to reinstruct a jury about the crimes in its reinstruction, it has not committed error, let alone obvious error. See State v. Dow, 616 A.2d 864, 865 (Me.1992). In addition, the jury, based on the evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the State, could have rationally found beyond a reasonable doubt that King was an accomplice in the killing of Rodriquez. State v. Barry, 495 A.2d 825, 826 (Me.1985).

IV.

¶12 King's final argument is that the court erred in determining his basic period of incarceration. In sentencing King, the court first found that King's offence was among the "most heinous and violent crimes committed against a person" and set a basic period of incarceration within the extended sentencing range for Class A crimes. In doing so, the court noted that King willingly went to a haven for drug activity and that the evidence indicated that King acted as a backup. The court then set his basic period of incarceration at 25 years. After weighing the mitigating and aggravating factors, it determined that the basic period...