State v. Powell
| Decision Date | 25 October 2022 |
| Docket Number | S22A0648 |
| Citation | 315 Ga. 5,880 S.E.2d 189 |
| Parties | The STATE v. POWELL. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Sharon Lee Hopkins, A.D.A., Darius T. Pattillo, District Attorney, Flint Circuit District Attorney's Office, One Courthouse Square, 3rd Floor, West Tower, McDonough, Georgia 30253, Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Paula Khristian Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Department of Law, 40 Capitol Square, S.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30334, for Appellant.
Suesan Ann Miller, Zachary North, Miller & Key, 80 Macon Street, McDonough, Georgia 30253, for Appellee.
On February 28, 2019, police officers responded to a shooting where they discovered 15-year-old Paris Powell (herein after "Appellee") standing beside the decedent, Larry "Tre" Bryant. Appellee was interviewed by Detective John Gleason on March 1, March 4, and March 25, 2019, in connection with Bryant's death. Powell's mother, Tiffany (hereinafter "Ms. Powell"), was present at all relevant times. After a hearing, the trial court found that Appellee was not in custody for any of the interviews and determined that Appellee's March 1 and March 4 statements were freely and voluntarily given. However, the trial court partially suppressed Appellee's March 25 statement, finding that, under a totality of the circumstances, she did not knowingly and voluntarily make a statement as a matter of constitutional due process. The State appeals the trial court's partial suppression of Appellee's March 25 statements, contending that the trial court clearly erred in determining that Appellee's statements were involuntary under Riley v. State, 237 Ga. 124, 226 S.E.2d 922 (1976). For the reasons explained below, we disagree with the State and affirm the ruling of the trial court.
The record shows that, during the investigation of Bryant's death, Appellee was interviewed by detectives on three separate occasions – March 1, March 4, and March 25, 2019. Eventually, Appellee was indicted for two counts of felony murder, one count of armed robbery, and one count of robbery in connection with Bryant's murder. Appellee filed a pretrial "Motion to Suppress Custodial Statement," seeking to suppress all three of her March 2019 interviews and her subsequent written statements. Appellee alleged that all of her statements were induced by an improper hope of benefit in violation of OCGA § 24-8-824. She further alleged that the statements were made while she was in custody, triggering the requirement that she be read her rights pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona , 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and that Detective Gleason's failure to read Appellee her rights rendered all subsequent statements involuntary.
At the Jackson-Denno1 hearing, defense counsel further clarified that the motion also included a claim that Appellee's "statements were [not] free and voluntary" as a matter of constitutional due process. The prosecutor and the court then agreed that the court needed to consider the totality of the circumstances to determine whether Appellee's statements were made freely and voluntarily.
At the pretrial hearing, the State called Detective Gleason as a witness and introduced into evidence the video recordings of Appellee's three interviews and her three written statements. Detective Gleason testified that Appellee was not in custody for any of her interviews and was free to leave, that she was not read her Miranda rights at any time, and that she was never informed that her interviews were being recorded.
Detective Gleason testified that, on March 1, 2019, Appellee arrived at the Henry County Police Department with her mother to speak with him about Bryant's death. At that time, detectives believed that Appellee was simply an eyewitness to the shooting. The video recording of the interview is 1 hour and 48 minutes long. The first 25 minutes of the video recording show Appellee sitting alone in the interview room crying. Detective Gleason and Ms. Powell can be heard speaking just outside of the room. At the motion hearing, Detective Gleason confirmed that, during this conversation, "[Ms.] Powell told [him] that she didn't want to have [Appellee] talk to anybody without a lawyer." Detective Gleason explained to Ms. Powell that Appellee was After this exchange, Ms. Powell agreed to let the detective speak with her daughter.
Detective Gleason testified that he never asked Appellee if she wanted to speak with him. Further, when defense counsel inquired into this issue on cross-examination, the following exchange occurred:
The video shows that, shortly after Detective Gleason and Ms. Powell enter the interview room, the detective tells Appellee, At the suppression hearing, Detective Gleason testified that he did not explain to either Appellee or her mother that Appellee "could get in trouble" or that "they could have a lawyer" present during the interview.
For the next 71 minutes of the recorded interview, both Detective Gleason and Ms. Powell questioned Appellee regarding what she had seen. Detective Gleason testified that Ms. Powell "was helping with the interview." During this time, Appellee described Bryant's death as a drive-by shooting. Then, in the last 12 minutes of the video, Detective Gleason and Ms. Powell left Appellee alone in the interview room and engaged in another discussion, the contents of which are not in the record. At the end of the interview, Appellee gave a written statement consistent with her description of events. She then left the police station with her mother.
On March 4, 2019, Appellee and her mother returned to the police station for a second interview with Detective Gleason after Ms. Powell reported to the detective that Appellee had additional information about the shooting. This interview lasted approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes. At the outset, Detective Gleason stated:
I felt like at the time [we last spoke] there might be more that you had to tell me, and I'm not upset with you. I need you to understand that, okay? This is basically just to get to the whole story, okay? So what new information do you have to tell us?
Appellee admitted that she knew that the passenger in the car was a man named "Chris," that Bryant was selling drugs to the men in the car, and that Bryant had tried to rob the men in the car during the drug deal. Appellee apologized for not providing that information during her first interview, to which Detective Gleason responded:
Listen, this is not the first time that people hold back information, ya know? Um, I'm a little bit disappointed just to be finding out now, but it's better now than not at all, ya know? So I'm not mad at you, I knew you had a little bit more to tell me.
Detective Gleason then confronted Appellee with information he had obtained suggesting that Appellee had "set up" Bryant for the robbery. Both Appellee and her mother adamantly denied this allegation. The video shows that, during the remainder of the interview, Appellee provided additional details about events leading up to Bryant's death, while downplaying her own role in the shooting. She also provided a written statement detailing this new information. After the interview, Appellee went home with her mother.
On March 25, at the request of Detective Gleason, Appellee and her mother returned to the police station for a third interview. Detective Gleason testified that he asked Appellee and her mother to come back because he had discovered that Appellee "had prior knowledge of what was going on and that she had left out more details." Detective Gleason confirmed at the suppression hearing that he "knew that during this third interview [he was] going to ask [Appellee] questions that could possibly incriminate her in a crime." But he testified that he did not advise Appellee of her Miranda rights because she was not in custody and because he did not consider the interview to be an interrogation.
The video recording shows that, at the beginning of the third interview, the following exchange occurred:
Thereafter, Detective Gleason confronted Appellee regarding her prior dishonesty. Approximately six minutes into the interview, Detective Gleason told Appellee, "I understand why you lied," to which Ms. Powell responded, "I don't." Detective Gleason explained that he knew Bryant was buying drugs from the men in the car, not selling them....
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