State v. Mirquet

• Decision Date: 27 March 1996
• Docket Number: No. 930098,930098
• Citation: 914 P.2d 1144
• Parties: STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Petitioner, v. Joseph C. MIRQUET, Defendant and Respondent.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 1144

914 P.2d 1144

STATE of Utah, Plaintiff and Petitioner, v. Joseph C. MIRQUET, Defendant and Respondent.

No. 930098.

Supreme Court of Utah.

March 27, 1996.

Jan Graham, Atty. Gen., Christine Soltis, David B. Thompson, Asst. Attys. Gen., Salt Lake City, for plaintiff.

Milton T. Harmon, Nephi, for defendant.

AMENDED OPINION

STEWART, Associate Chief Justice:

This Court granted certiorari to review a Court of Appeals decision affirming the trial court's suppression of physical evidence obtained as a result of what both courts held to be a custodial interrogation of defendant in which no Miranda ¹ warning was given. State v. Mirquet, 844 P.2d 995, 1001 (Utah Ct.App.1992), cert. granted, 857 P.2d 948 (Utah 1993). We affirmed the Court of Appeals' decision and issued our opinion on June 30, 1995. Subsequently, the State filed a petition for rehearing, primarily to seek clarification of the standards determining when a person who is interrogated by police prior to an actual arrest is deemed to be "in custody" and entitled to a Miranda warning. We granted the State's petition to amend our initial opinion in light of Stansbury v. California, 511 U.S. 318, 114 S.Ct. 1526, 128 L.Ed.2d 293 (1994), and to make explicit that where an officer has made an uncommunicated decision to arrest a detained person, accusatory questioning of that person does not necessarily require Miranda warnings. As we did in our initial opinion, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals.

Utah Highway Patrol Officer Paul Mangelson stopped defendant Joseph C. Mirquet for speeding on Interstate 15 near Nephi, Utah. Officer Mangelson asked Mirquet to enter the patrol car to observe the speed reading on the radar unit. Inside the patrol car, the officer smelled burned marijuana on Mirquet and told him: "It's obvious to me you've been smoking marijuana. You know, there's no question in my mind. Would you like to go to the car and get the marijuana, or do you want me to go get it?" In response, Mirquet went to his car, retrieved two marijuana cigarettes, and gave them to Mangelson. Mangelson then searched the car and found cocaine, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia.

The State charged Mirquet with possession of cocaine and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, both third degree felonies. See Utah Code Ann. § 58-37-8(2)(a)(i). Mirquet moved to suppress the marijuana and cocaine, asserting that he was entitled to a Miranda warning when Officer Mangelson told him to retrieve the marijuana. The trial court ruled that Mirquet was "in custody" at the time he was told to retrieve the marijuana and entitled to a Miranda warning and that because the warning was not given, the evidence should be suppressed.

On an interlocutory appeal to the Court of Appeals, the State argued that the trial court had applied an incorrect legal standard in ruling that Mirquet was "in custody" for Miranda purposes. The Court of Appeals agreed, vacated the suppression order, and remanded to the trial court for reconsideration in light of Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 440, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 3150, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984), which held that the standard for determining when a defendant is in custody for Miranda purposes is whether the defendant's freedom of action is curtailed to "a degree associated with a formal arrest."

On remand, the trial court relied principally on the accusatory nature of Officer Mangelson's questioning, one of four factors set out in Salt Lake City v. Carner, 664 P.2d 1168, 1171 (Utah 1983), for determining custody issues, and again ruled that Mirquet was in custody when he was directed to retrieve the marijuana. The trial court again ordered the cocaine and marijuana suppressed. On the ensuing appeal to the Court of Appeals, the State argued that the trial court had again applied an incorrect standard in determining custody when it ruled that custody was established if "a reasonable person would probably not feel free to leave under the circumstances." The State also argued that the trial court erred in suppressing physical evidence obtained as a result of an interrogation that violated Miranda.

Although the Court of Appeals acknowledged that the trial court had failed to recite the "precise words of the custody standard," the Court of Appeals nevertheless evaluated the undisputed facts in the case under the Berkemer standard, as applied in light of the Carner factors, and held that Mirquet was in custody when the interrogation occurred. Id. at 1000-01. The court declined to reach the issue of whether physical evidence derived from an interrogation conducted without Miranda warnings should be suppressed because that issue had not been raised in the trial court.

The State now argues that because the trial court applied an incorrect standard for deciding the custody issue, the Court of Appeals should have simply reversed and remanded for reconsideration by the trial court. The State also argues that the Court of Appeals erred in drawing inferences from the undisputed facts on the custody issue and, in effect, making additional findings of fact. It is also the State's position that this Court should hold that physical evidence derived from an interrogation is admissible, absent actual coercion.

The standard for determining when a defendant is "in custody" for Miranda purposes is well-settled. "[T]he safeguards prescribed by Miranda become applicable as soon as a suspect's freedom of action is curtailed to a 'degree associated with formal arrest.' " Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 440, 104 S.Ct. at 3150 (quoting California v. Beheler, 463 U.S. 1121, 1125, 103 S.Ct. 3517, 3520, 77 L.Ed.2d 1275 (1983) (per curiam)); see also State v. East, 743 P.2d 1211, 1212 (Utah 1987). More specifically, Miranda warnings are required whenever the circumstances of an interrogation are such that they "exert[ ] upon [the] detained person pressures that sufficiently impair his free exercise of his privilege against self-incrimination to require that he be warned of his constitutional rights." Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 437, 104 S.Ct. at 3149.

The "not free to leave" standard, on the other hand, determines whether a person has been "seized" under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 555, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1877-78, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980). That standard is broader than the Miranda standard. A person may be "seized" for Fourth Amendment purposes but not be "in custody" for Fifth Amendment purposes. Whether one is "in custody" for Miranda purposes depends on an objective assessment of the circumstances of the interrogation with respect to the compulsory nature of the interrogation rather than on the subjective intent or suspicions of the officers conducting the examination. Beckwith v. United States, 425 U.S. 341, 345-48, 96 S.Ct. 1612, 1615-17, 48 L.Ed.2d 1 (1976). In the context of a routine traffic stop, the driver and the passengers, even though they have been stopped and, at least momentarily, are not free to leave, are not "in custody" for Miranda purposes. Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 440, 104 S.Ct. at 3150; Salt Lake City v. Womack, 747 P.2d 1039, 1042 (Utah 1987); East, 743 P.2d at 1212; see also Pennsylvania v. Bruder, 488 U.S. 9, 11, 109 S.Ct. 205, 207, 102 L.Ed.2d 172 (1988) (per curiam). That is true even though an officer engages in some degree of accusatory questioning of the driver during the course of the stop and even though the officer may have a subjective, unstated intent to arrest the driver. Berkemer, 468 U.S. at 442, 104 S.Ct. at 3151.

Nevertheless, there may be occasions when a defendant is entitled to a Miranda warning prior to a formal arrest. Berkemer recognized that point in refusing to make formal arrest an absolute bright line test for determining custody under Miranda. 468 U.S. at 440, 104 S.Ct. at 3150. If the right to a Miranda warning never attached until a formal arrest, a person's right to a Miranda warning and the protection it affords the privilege against self-incrimination could be subverted by an intentional delay in making a formal arrest. Id. Thus, the standard is whether a defendant's freedom of action is curtailed to an extent associated with a formal arrest.

To guide the decision as to when one is in custody and entitled to a Miranda warning prior to a formal arrest, Salt Lake City v. Carner, 664 P.2d 1168, 1171 (Utah 1983), set out four factors to be evaluated: "(1) the site of interrogation; (2) whether the investigation focused on the accused; (3) whether the objective indicia of arrest were present; and (4) the length and form of interrogation." ²

In the instant case, the trial court erred in applying the "not free to leave" standard as a justification for its ruling. The Court of Appeals sustained the trial court but applied the Berkemer standard, construed in light of the Carner factors, and then applied those standards to the facts of the case, instead of remanding for the trial court to do so. The court stated, "[W]here, as here, the evidence is essentially undisputed and the undisputed facts support a determination that defendant was in custody, the [district court's] mere failure to recite the precise words of the custody standard does not demand a remand for more specific findings." Mirquet, 844 P.2d at 999.

The undisputed evidence to which the Court of Appeals referred demonstrated that Mirquet was in the patrol car when Officer Mangelson told him that it was clear he had been using an illegal drug, and that either Mirquet should retrieve the drugs from his car or the officer would. Thus, Officer Mangelson made a direct accusation of illegal conduct wholly unrelated to the reason for the traffic stop and told Mirquet that if he did not retrieve the incriminating...