State v. Puente-Flores
| Decision Date | 30 October 2020 |
| Docket Number | 558,120 |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
| Parties | State of Kansas, Appellee, v. Valeria Puente-Flores, Appellant. |
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
Appeal from Shawnee District Court; Cheryl A. Rios, judge.
Sam Schirer, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant.
Michael J. Duenes, assistant solicitor general, and Derek Schmidt, attorney general, for appellee.
Before Warner, P.J., Standridge and Gardner, JJ.
A jury convicted Valeria Puente-Flores (Mother) of aggravated battery and abuse of a child. Mother appeals, arguing the district court erred by admitting her confessions and excluding her expert witness. She also raises a claim of cumulative error. We agree that the district court erred by denying Mother's motion to suppress her confessions and that the State cannot prove that the error was harmless. We thus reverse Mother's convictions and remand for a new trial without the inadmissible statements.
In December 2015, Mother gave birth to her child, M. Her birth was complicated because of Mother's gestational diabetes pre-eclampsia, and other issues.
Three days before Mother was admitted to the delivery room, her amniotic fluid began leaking. Nearing delivery, Mother's pulse and blood pressure were elevated and she had a fever. As a result of Mother's prolonged amniotic leaking, M took her first stool (meconium) in utero, thus contaminating Mother's amniotic fluid and raising the risk that M would get an infection. M. also had a decelerated fetal heartrate, showing she may not have been getting enough blood to her brain. These complications left M. in a state of "fetal distress" for 11/2 hours, requiring an emergency cesarean section. Along with these complications M. developed a "caput"-a bump formed on an infant's skull during labor indicating pressure on the skull during the birthing process. Doctors also discovered that Mother's placenta was severely infected.
At birth, M.'s Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and Respiration (APGAR) score-assessing her responsiveness based on several characteristics such as heart rate, color, and breathing-was in the normal range, indicating M. was a "vigorous baby at birth." And M. tested normal when given a Kansas Newport Screen-testing for genetic abnormalities and other things that may require further evaluation. Still, M. was sent to the neonatal intensive care unit for treatment, where she remained for seven days.
Once home, M. lived with Mother and her boyfriend (Boyfriend). M.'s biological father was not involved with the family. Mother's parents did not live in Kansas, but Mother's aunt lived nearby and was present for M.'s birth.
M. was a healthy baby as evidenced by her medical records. She was, however, a fussy baby. Once, Mother and Boyfriend saw M.'s eyes roll back into her head while her arms and legs began shaking, making them suspect she was having a seizure. Mother took M. to the pediatrician and told a nurse she thought that M. had suffered a seizure. But Mother did not relay that concern to M.'s pediatrician, and it was not documented in her medical records. A different pediatrician considered the symptoms weeks later and thought it unlikely that M. had experienced a seizure. She also ruled out the possibility that M.'s movements showed some other serious medical condition.
Mother returned to work on Tuesday, January 26, 2016, when M. was around seven weeks old. She took M. to a babysitter Tuesday through Thursday during her day shift. Thursday night, the 28th, Mother stayed up all night trying to get M. to fall asleep. During that time, Boyfriend heard Mother yell at M. to "shut up," both in Spanish and in English. The next morning, Boyfriend drove M. to her babysitter and Mother went to work. He noticed that M. appeared "a little yellow" and very pale.
While at the babysitter's that Friday, M. slept most of the day and did not drink any formula, which the babysitter found unusual. When Boyfriend picked M. up from the babysitter the evening of January 29, M. was not responding to her surroundings. As a result, Mother and Boyfriend took M. to a Topeka hospital, which quickly transported M. by air ambulance to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
Doctors at Children's Mercy diagnosed M. with subdural brain and left eye retinal hemorrhaging. By that time, M. was also suffering from seizures. Doctors did not see any associated external bruising on M.'s body. But M.'s injuries led to severe brain damage, causing significant physical and mental disabilities. And the injuries were consistent with abusive head trauma.
In the early hours of Saturday, January 30, 2016, Detective Jason Judd gave Miranda warnings to Mother when he and Detective Lance Green questioned her in the waiting room of Children's Mercy. The detectives told Mother that they were investigating M.'s injuries. During the interview, which lasted about an hour, Mother denied that she had shaken M. Mother showed the detectives how she had handled M. the night before; she did not demonstrate a violent shaking but a "cradling" and "rocking motion back and forth."
Detectives interviewed Mother again on February 5. Detectives Judd and Green went to Mother's home at about 8:30 a.m. and asked if she and Boyfriend would speak with them at the police station. The detectives also offered to give Mother and Boyfriend a ride to the station, as Mother had told them her car had quit working. Mother and Boyfriend agreed and rode in the detectives' vehicles to the police station.
Once at the station, the detectives placed Mother and Boyfriend in separate interrogation rooms. At first, Detective Judd questioned Boyfriend and Detective Green questioned Mother. Detective Judd advised Boyfriend of his Miranda rights right after beginning his questioning, but Detective Green never advised Mother of those rights. Detective Judd later joined Detective Green in questioning Mother. Nearly three hours into the interview, and after Mother made incriminating statements, Detective Judd gave Mother her Miranda rights after learning that Detective Green had not done so.
Mother's interview lasted around 3 1/2 hours. About half of that time, however, Mother was alone in the room. Mother eventually admitted that she had shaken M. in the early morning hours of January 29 and showed with a doll how she had done so. Detective Green thought that Mother's demonstration was "significantly" different than her demonstration during her interview at the hospital. Detective Green found Mother's reenactment at the hospital showed a much calmer and soothing rocking than what she demonstrated at the police station interview. During the police station interview, Mother "grabbed" or "took [M.] out of [a] swing, and then cradled [her]." Mother admitted at the police station that M.'s head may have bounced around and may have hit her chest as Mother picked her up out of her swing. And Mother admitted that this happened when she took M. out of her swing five or six times during the early morning of the 29th.
During Boyfriend's interrogation, he told Detective Judd that Mother had said after their trip to the hospital that she "might have shaken the baby too hard and caused [M.'s] injuries." When confronted with this statement at the police station, Mother explained that she had told Boyfriend only that the police had told her that she had shaken M. too hard when cradling her. Boyfriend also testified that he had heard Mother yell at M. during the night of the 28th and 29th to "shut up."
The State charged Mother with knowing aggravated battery and child abuse in the form of a cruel and tortious beating. The State later amended the child abuse charge to allege that a shaking, rather than a beating, had occurred.
Before trial, Mother moved to suppress evidence of the incriminating statements she made during the interview at the police station. In her motion, Mother emphasized that she had not been given her Miranda rights until after she confessed. The district court denied Mother's motion, finding the interrogation was not custodial so no Miranda warnings were necessary.
The district court also held a pretrial Daubert hearing to address the admissibility of the parties' proffered expert testimony. See K.S.A. 2019 Supp. 60-456(b); Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993). The district court found that the State's experts-Doctors Liza Murray and Ara Hall-were qualified to present expert testimony. But the district court precluded Dr. Hall from testifying that M.'s injuries resulted from shaking or shearing. The district court denied Mother's request for Dr. Thomas Young to present expert testimony that M.'s brain injury may have been caused by injuries sustained at birth or during later seizures or "hypoxic spells." The district court found that Dr. Young was not qualified to opine on that issue, that his opinion was not based on reliable scientific evidence, and that his opinion would not help the jury. In a later hearing, the district court found Mother's other expert-Dr. Jennifer Johnson, a nurse practitioner-could testify but not on the issue of what caused M.'s injuries.
The district court also held a Jackson v. Denno hearing to establish the admissibility of Mother's confession to law enforcement during her interrogation at the police station. See Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964). After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court held that Mother's statements at the police station were voluntarily and knowingly given, so they were admissible. Mother does not challenge that finding on appeal.
Mother's jury trial was in September 2018. The...
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