State v. Shirley

• Decision Date: 05 May 2009
• Docket Number: No. 2008-KK-2106.,2008-KK-2106.
• Citation: 10 So.3d 224
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Rachel SHIRLEY.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

10 So.3d 224

STATE of Louisiana v. Rachel SHIRLEY.

No. 2008-KK-2106.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 5, 2009.

James D. Caldwell, Attorney General, Richard J. Ward, Jr., District Attorney, Elizabeth A. Engolio, Assistant District Attorney, for applicant.

Delatte, Edwards & Marcantel, Glynn Joseph Delatte, Jr., D. Carson Marcantel, Baton Rouge, for respondent.

KNOLL, Justice.

At issue in this vehicular homicide case is whether the trial court correctly granted the defendant's motion to suppress statements she made at the scene of a fatal, one-car accident in which the passenger was killed after the defendant lost control of her car and flipped it upside down. This brings into question whether the trial court properly suppressed the results of a blood-alcohol test taken under the provisions of La.Rev.Stat. § 32:662 as presumptive evidence to establish the defendant's intoxication. For reasons that follow, we reverse the trial court's ruling to the extent it suppressed defendant's statements made at the scene of the vehicular accident. In all other respects, we deny the State's writ application.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On July 8, 2006,¹ Rachel Shirley (hereafter "defendant") ran a stop sign at the intersection of Louisiana Highways 327 and 99 land flipped her vehicle in a one-car accident. Defendant's passenger died as a result of injuries she sustained in the crash.

According to the testimony of Kevin Ambeau, Sr., the Chief of Police for the City of St. Gabriel,² at the hearing on defendant's motion to suppress, Officer Cody Casto, a policeman with the St. Gabriel police department, was initially dispatched to the accident scene. Utilizing Officer Casto's accident report as a basis for his testimony, Chief Ambeau stated the defendant informed Officer Casto she had been drinking; specifically, she told Officer Casto she drank two Smirnoffs and two Budlight beers. Later, when Chief Ambeau learned at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center that defendant's passenger die d, he directed Officer Casto to have hospital personnel obtain blood samples from defendant. After receiving the two vials allegedly containing the defendant's blood sample, Officer Casto stored both vials in a refrigerator at the St. Gabriel Police headquarters. Subsequently, Chief Ambeau delivered the blood samples to the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory for scientific analysis.

The only other person to testify at the hearing on the defendant's motion to suppress was Kesha Malveaux, a forensic scientist employed at the toxicology section of the Louisiana State Police Crime Laboratory. Using a gas chromatograph, Malveaux tested the two samples of blood that Chief Ambeau delivered. She testified that the blood-alcohol result for both samples was a 0.03 grams percent.³

On August 30, 2007, a grand jury for the Parish of Iberville indicted defendant for vehicular homicide where the operator is under the influence of alcoholic beverages "as determined by chemical tests administered under the provisions of R.S. 32:662", a violation of La.Rev.Stat. § 14:32.1(A)(1).⁴ After entering a plea of not guilty and asking for a jury trial, the defendant filed a motion to suppress her oral statements made after the accident. Additionally, the defendant sought to suppress the blood-alcohol test results for failure to comply with the requirements for administering the blood-alcohol test set out in La.Rev. Stat. § 32:661-669 and Title 55 of the Louisiana Administrative Code.

After hearing the testimony of Chief Ambeau and Malveaux, the trial court granted the defendant's motion to suppress. The trial court suppressed the defendant's statements, noting that the State failed to produce Officer Casto to testify about the statements defendant made at the accident scene and instead only relied upon Chief Ambeau's hearsay testimony. In further explanation of its decision, the trial court did not consider Chief Ambeau's hearsay testimony and found that although the defendant was not immediately under arrest after the accident, she was detained and should have been advised of her Miranda rights. With regard to the test results from the forensic examination of the defendant's blood samples, the trial court found the State failed to produce a witness from the hospital to show that the defendant's blood was drawn by a qualified person in conformity with La.Rev.Stat. § 32:664(A) (1999) and the procedures approved and promulgated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Therefore, it also suppressed the results of the blood-alcohol tests.

The State filed a writ application with the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, seeking reversal of the trial court's rulings on the defendant's motion to suppress. A majority of the appellate panel affirmed the trial court's rulings, finding no abuse of discretion. One appellate court judge agreed on the issue of the suppression of the blood-alcohol test results, but dissented on the suppression of the defendant's oral statements, finding the defendant was neither under arrest nor detained at the time the statements were made.

We granted the State's writ application to address the trial court's disposition of the defendant's motion to suppress both her oral statements and the blood-alcohol test results. State v. Shirley, 08-2106 (La.11/26/08), 997 So.2d 540.

Defendant's Oral Statement

The State contends the defendant's statement that she had been drinking alcohol should not have been suppressed. The State avers the trial court erred when it ruled Chief Ambeau's testimony was hearsay because well established jurisprudence has recognized that hearsay testimony is admissible in a suppression hearing. Moreover, relying on State v. Levy, 292 So.2d 220 (La.1974), the State asserts Miranda warnings were not required at this point because the testimony of Chief Ambeau shows defendant was neither under arrest nor detained when she made her statement about drinking.

On the other hand, the defendant asserts the trial court correctly applied the rules of evidence in this hearing on defendant's motion to suppress. Focusing on La.Code Evid. art. 1101,⁵ the defendant contends that formal evidentiary rules apply in hearings on motions to suppress evidence. Thus, she contends the trial court properly refused to consider Chief Ambeau's hearsay testimony. For reasons which follow, we find the trial court erred when it excluded Chief Ambeau's testimony.

After reviewing the provisions of La.Code Evid. art. 104 and 1101, it is evident confusion may exist on the question of whether hearsay evidence may be admissible at a hearing on a motion to suppress. Such confusion is exacerbated by one of the Comments to La.Code Evid. art. 1101 which states that "Subparagraph (B)(8) coupled with Paragraph A continues in effect the requirement that formal evidentiary rules generally apply in hearings on motions to suppress evidence." Notwithstanding the facial confusion and the text of the Comment, we find resolution of the question in La.Code Evid. art. 1101(C)(1) which explicitly states the provisions of the Code of Evidence are not applicable to "[t]he determination of questions of fact preliminary to admissibility of evidence when the issue is to be determined by the court under [La.Code Evid.] Article 104." As stated in Article 104, "[preliminary questions concerning ... the admissibility of evidence shall be determined by the court ... In making its determination it is not bound by the rules of evidence except those with respect to privileges." Accordingly, we find the exclusionary clause of La.Code Evid. art. 1101(B)(8), when considered in pari materiae with La.Code Evid. art. 104, may be read to generally exempt hearings on motions to suppress evidence from the rules of evidence except with respect to privileges. Thus, La.Code Evid. art. 1101(B) may be read harmoniously with the provisions of La.Code Evid. art. 104(A).

Furthermore, even though this Court has never elaborated on the interplay of Articles 104 and 1101 of the Code of Evidence, our research shows we have recognized hearsay rules do not apply in hearings on motions to suppress evidence. State v. Castleberry, 99-1388 (La.4/13/99), 758 So.2d 749;⁶ see also United States v Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 172-75, 94 S.Ct. 988, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974) (holding that "the rules of evidence normally applicable in criminal trials do not operate with full force at hearings before the judge to determine the admissibility of evidence.... There is, therefore, much to be said for the proposition that in proceedings where the judge himself is considering the admissibility of evidence, the exclusionary rules, aside from rules of privilege, should not be applicable; and the judge should receive the evidence and give it such weight as his judgment and experience counsel.")

After reviewing the jurisprudence and the provisions of La.Code Evid. arts. 104 and 1101, we find the trial court erred when it failed to consider Chief Ambeau's testimony which was drawn, at least in part, from Officer Casto's written accident report. When the trial court considered whether the defendant was under arrest or detained when she made her statement to Officer Casto and whether her statement that she consumed alcoholic beverages was admissible, it should have taken into consideration Chief Ambeau's testimony, including the portion drawn from Officer Casto's police report, when it ruled on the defendant's motion to suppress. Having addressed this preliminary evidentiary matter, we now turn our attention to the question of whether Miranda warnings were necessary as a prerequisite to the admissibility of the defendant's statement.

The obligation to provide Miranda warnings attaches only when a person is questioned by law enforcement after he has been taken "into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way." Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d...