State v. Sturgill

• Decision Date: 05 March 1996
• Docket Number: No. COA95-743,COA95-743
• Citation: 121 N.C.App. 629,469 S.E.2d 557
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Dennis Leo STURGILL, Defendant.
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals

Page 557

469 S.E.2d 557

121 N.C.App. 629

STATE of North Carolina v. Dennis Leo STURGILL, Defendant.

No. COA95-743.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

March 5, 1996.

Attorney General Michael F. Easley by Assistant Attorney General J. Philip Allen, for State.

C. Orville Light, Eden, for defendant.

SMITH, Judge.

The central issue on appeal is whether any remedy is available to defendant, who detrimentally relied on a police promise not to prosecute him, which promise was broken. In this case, the police promised defendant that he would not be prosecuted as an habitual felon if defendant gave information relevant to his involvement in five break-ins. Based on this offer, defendant provided police with self-incriminating statements pertinent to the break-ins. Subsequently, the State refused to honor the bargain. Defendant was indicted and convicted on five counts of breaking or entering and larceny as an habitual felon. At trial, defendant's statements to police were received in evidence as part of the State's case.

We hold that a remedy exists to cure a broken police nonprosecution promise, when that promise induces detrimental reliance by a defendant in derogation of his constitutional rights, and fundamental fairness requires the fashioning of a curative remedy. Since defendant reasonably relied on police promises not to prosecute, and those promises were disregarded by the State, we hold that traditional notions of substantial justice and fair play, as well as defendant's substantive due process rights, mandate a new trial, and suppression of defendant's confession. We also conclude, independent of constitutional issues, that suppression is warranted by N.C.Gen.Stat. §§ 15A-1021, -974 (1988) (statutes concerning the conduct of governmental officers in criminal matters).

The State's evidence at trial tended to show the following facts. On 13 January 1994, Lieutenant Barry Carter and Detective Greg Moore of the City of Eden Police Department arrested defendant on an outstanding warrant for felonious breaking or entering and larceny. The detectives transported defendant to the police department and advised defendant of his Miranda rights. Next, Detective Moore began a custodial interrogation. Detective Moore told defendant that several break-ins had occurred in the old Leaksville area of Eden, that the police had overwhelming evidence against him, and that he was going to be charged with those break- ins even though only one warrant for his arrest was outstanding.

According to defendant, Detective Moore told him that if defendant did not provide requested information, the police would "[jack] the bond up" so that defendant would have to stay in jail, and would not be able to have surgery performed on a previously injured hand. Defendant then indicated the only statement he wanted to make was that he did not commit any of the crimes. Defendant made this statement orally and in writing. At this point, Detective Moore terminated questioning and got up to leave the room.

As Detective Moore started to leave the room, the State's evidence indicates that defendant asked "what would be in it for him" if he provided information regarding the break-ins. Defendant testified "[t]hey said they would not charge me with the habitual felon [sic ]" if he signed such a statement. Detective Moore then described the location of the break-ins and asked defendant to tell him about each one. Lieutenant Carter transcribed defendant's descriptions of how he broke into each location and what he took. Defendant signed the second statement, confessing to participation in the break-ins.

Defendant raises six assignments of error on appeal. However, since we find the issues raised in defendant's first assignment of error dispositive, we do not reach any other issues posed by defendant. Defendant's first assignment of error addresses the trial court's refusal to quash the indictment against him for being an habitual felon. Defendant argues the State should be bound by the promises made to him by police, as defendant relied on those promises by relinquishing his constitutional rights. Accordingly, defendant argues the trial court should have quashed the habitual felon indictment. We agree defendant is entitled to a remedial cure for the abrogation of the nonprosecution agreement. However, we do not agree that the proper remedy is specific performance. Instead, we hold that defendant is entitled to a remedy which returns him to the status quo ante, because of defendant's detrimental reliance on the promises of the police, which resulted in violation of defendant's due process rights. Since the State admitted defendant's confession in evidence at trial, no remedy short of suppression suffices to accomplish this goal.

By detrimental reliance, we mean that defendant has shown such actual reliance on police nonprosecution promises that a fair trial was not possible, State v. Bogart, 57 Wash.App. 353, 788 P.2d 14 (1990), and that "no other remedy is available which will return defendant to the position he enjoyed prior to making the agreement at issue." People v. Gallego, 430 Mich. 443, 424 N.W.2d 470, 475 n. 10 (S.Ct.1988) (Gallego II).

Defendant's due process argument has, as its genesis, the following colloquy between the prosecution and the police:

[Police witness]: Obviously I told him that we were not able to promise him anything, nor was anybody in a higher position able to promise him anything. I told him that I knew his record. I had run a criminal history on him. I told him that he would probably qualify as an habitual felon. And all that I could tell him, if he told the truth and helped us get back as much of the stolen property as we could that we would not seek to indict him as an habitual felon.

....

[Prosecutor]: You mentioned about if he told you the truth and helped to get the property back, you mentioned something about him not being charged as an habitual felon?

[Police Witness]: I told him that I would not seek an indictment as an habitual felon if he told the truth and helped to get as much of the stolen property as we could.

[Prosecutor]: Did you promise that he would not be indicted as an habitual felon?

[Police Witness]: No, sir, I just told him that I would not do it.

(Emphasis added.) Defendant maintains the State, "as a matter of sound judicial policy," should be bound by Detective Moore's bargain with defendant. Defendant's argument has particular force, because defendant's confession was offered in evidence by the State at trial. This is a case of first impression because defendant does not argue in this assignment of error that coercion or inducements rendered his confession involuntary. See State v. Richardson, 316 N.C. 594, 602, 342 S.E.2d 823, 829 (1986). Rather, defendant avers that police promises deliberately induced a confession which was voluntary, but accomplished through purposeful deception.

Our Supreme Court addressed a somewhat similar issue in State v. Collins, 300 N.C. 142, 265 S.E.2d 172 (1980). In Collins, the defendant moved to dismiss possession of controlled substances charges because the State failed to honor a plea arrangement reached between the defendant's attorney, a police officer, and an assistant district attorney. The negotiations resulted in a written plea agreement, which provided that defendant would give information and assistance to the police in return for: (1) the State's guarantee that upon his guilty plea, the defendant would not receive active time; and, (2) dismissal of the defendant's pending district court cases.

Later the same day, at a probable cause hearing on the felony charges, a different assistant district attorney refused to honor the existing plea agreement, based on his opinion that the plea bargain was inappropriate, and he had not been consulted. The defendant was subsequently indicted on the felony charges, pled not guilty, and the case went to trial. The defendant's motion to dismiss, for failure of the State to abide by the plea negotiation, was denied. The defendant was found guilty and imprisoned.

Recognizing the Collins case as one of first impression, our Court relied on the decision in Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 92 S.Ct. 495, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971), as the foundation for its analysis. The Collins Court stated that an acceptance of a plea of guilty, after plea promises have been made:

"must be attended by safeguards to insure the defendant what is reasonably due in the circumstances. Those circumstances will vary, but a constant factor is that when a plea rests in any significant degree on a promise or agreement of the prosecutor, so that it can be said to be part of the inducement or consideration, such promise must be fulfilled."

Collins, 300 N.C. at 145, 265 S.E.2d at 174 (quoting Santobello, 404 U.S. at 262, 92 S.Ct. at 498-99, 30 L.Ed.2d at 433). Relying on this language in Santobello, the Collins Court held that "[t]he State may withdraw from a plea bargain arrangement at any time prior to, but not after, the actual entry of the guilty plea by defendant or any other change of position by him constituting detrimental reliance upon the arrangement." Collins, 300 N.C. at 148, 265 S.E.2d at 176 (emphasis added).

The Court further elaborated that, "[w]hen viewed in light of the analogous law of contracts, it is clear that plea agreements normally arise in the form of unilateral contracts. The consideration given for the prosecutor's promise is not [the] defendant's corresponding promise to plead guilty, but rather is [the] defendant's actual performance by so pleading." Id. at 149, 265 S.E.2d at 176. Applying these principles, the Court found the defendant there had neither entered a guilty plea, nor in any way relied on the plea agreement to his detriment; and, therefore, the State's rescission of the agreement did not prejudice defendant or violate his constitutional rights.

Our Courts have relied on Collins in...