State v. Tapp
| Decision Date | 20 July 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 25295.,25295. |
| Citation | 33 P.3d 828,136 Idaho 354 |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Christopher C. TAPP, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Idaho Court of Appeals |
Ronaldo A. Coulter, State Appellate Public Defender; Sara B. Thomas, Deputy Appellate Public Defender, Boise, for appellant. Sara B. Thomas argued.
Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Kenneth K. Jorgensen, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent. Kenneth K. Jorgensen argued.
Christopher C. Tapp appeals from his conviction for first degree murder and rape. Tapp argues that the district court erred by not suppressing the statements he made in a series of police interviews. In the alternative, he contends the sentences imposed are excessive.
Early in the morning of June 13, 1996, Angie Dodge was raped and stabbed to death in her apartment in Idaho Falls. On January 7, 1997, twenty-year-old Christopher Tapp voluntarily submitted to police questioning about this crime at the Law Enforcement Building (LEB) in Idaho Falls. Tapp again voluntarily went to the LEB for questioning on January 10. After this interview, Tapp's parents retained private counsel for their son. When Tapp did not appear at the LEB for another scheduled interview on January 11, police officers went to his home to find him. They were informed by Tapp's mother that an attorney had been retained and that Tapp would appear on January 13, with counsel, to answer more questions. Approximately an hour later, the Idaho Falls chief of police arrived at the Tapp home and attempted to convince Tapp's mother to change her mind about her son's refusal to be interviewed without assistance of counsel. She refused. Rather than waiting for a voluntary interview on January 13, law enforcement officials obtained a warrant to arrest Tapp on a charge of accessory to a felony, Idaho Code §§ 18-205, -206, and he was arrested on January 11.
After making the arrest, an officer put Tapp in an interview room and called Tapp's attorney. Before the attorney's arrival, the officer initiated a discussion with Tapp about the type of information the police wanted to obtain from him.1 On January 13, another attorney joined in Tapp's representation as co-counsel. Thereafter, Tapp was interviewed, while under arrest and in police custody, on January 15 and 17. During all interviews at the LEB from January 15 forward, Tapp was separated from his attorneys. The attorneys were placed in a nearby office in the LEB where they were allowed to observe the interviews on a closed-circuit television. Tapp's only contact with his attorneys was during breaks in the interviews. His attorneys apparently made no objection to this arrangement.
In the first few interviews Tapp denied having any knowledge of the crime, then claimed that Ben Hobbs had confessed to killing Dodge and had asked Tapp to help him with an alibi. Tapp denied having ever been at the crime scene. By January 15 and 17, however, Tapp's story was changing, and he admitted that he had accompanied Hobbs to Dodge's apartment on the night of the murder. Tapp told police that Hobbs wanted to confront Dodge because Hobbs believed that she had convinced Hobbs's wife to leave him. Tapp claimed that Hobbs and Dodge started fighting and that Hobbs punched Dodge and then stabbed her twice. Tapp asserted that he ran from the apartment at that point. He admitted that he returned later and found Dodge dead and no one else present. Tapp also implicated a man named Jeremy Sargis in the crime. Tapp said he believed that the murder weapon belonged to Sargis, but he initially claimed that Sargis was not in the apartment that night. Eventually, however, Tapp accused Sargis of helping to rape and murder Dodge.
On January 15, Tapp and the State entered into a "limited use immunity" agreement, and on January 17 they entered into a "cooperation and settlement agreement." These agreements (hereinafter referred to collectively as the "immunity agreements") required Tapp to cooperate with the police investigation of Dodge's death and to provide the police with truthful information about the crime. Tapp also agreed to plead guilty to aiding and abetting an aggravated battery, a felony, I.C. §§ 18-903, -907, and the State agreed not to file any other charge against Tapp related to Dodge's death. The State also promised to recommend at the sentencing hearing that the district court retain jurisdiction for a limited period pursuant to I.C. § 19-2601(4), and to allow withdrawal of the guilty plea if the judge did not follow the recommendation. The State also agreed not to use any of Tapp's statements against him except for impeachment purposes. As a consequence of the immunity agreements, the pending charge against Tapp for accessory to a felony was dismissed on January 17 and he was released from custody.
Tapp was again questioned on January 18 and 29. Before the January 29 interview began, the prosecutor informed Tapp and his attorney that the prosecutor considered the immunity agreements with Tapp to be void because Tapp had not been truthful in describing the crime. The prosecutor explained that Tapp's contention that Hobbs and Sargis were the rapists was contradicted by DNA tests showing that semen found on Dodge's body and clothing did not come from either of those men (or from Tapp). Despite this declaration from the prosecutor, Tapp and one of his attorneys continued with the January 29 interview. On that date, Tapp was given a polygraph test, during which he asked to be taken to the apartment where the murder occurred. Tapp's attorney agreed that the police could take Tapp to the crime scene for further questioning, but the attorney declined to accompany Tapp and the officers. Once at the crime scene, Tapp made statements implicating himself in the crimes. At the crime scene and later the same day at the LEB, Tapp admitted that he had held Dodge's arms and shoulders down throughout the rape and stabbing. In his new account of the events, Jeremy Sargis was replaced by a different male whose name Tapp could not remember. Some details of his story about how Dodge was raped and details of other events of that night changed during this and two subsequent interviews.
Tapp was rearrested after the January 29 interview. The next day, he was again charged with being an accessory to a felony. Tapp was further interviewed on January 30 and 31. On February 3, 1997, charges of rape, I.C. § 18-6101(3), (4), and first degree murder, I.C. §§ 18-4001, -4002, -4003(a), replaced the accessory charge.
Tapp moved to suppress the statements that he made to police on the grounds that his right to counsel was violated during police interviews, that his statements to police were involuntary, and that the immunity agreements were still binding on the State. Before this motion was decided, Tapp's original attorneys withdrew and other attorneys were appointed to represent him. The district court denied the suppression motion except as to statements made on January 11 after Tapp was arrested and before his attorney's arrival.
A jury trial ensued, and Tapp was found guilty of first degree murder and rape. The State's case was based almost entirely upon Tapp's confessions to having helped other men rape and murder Dodge; no physical evidence linked Tapp to the crime. At sentencing, the district court rejected the State's request for the death penalty and instead imposed a unified sentence of life plus fifteen years' imprisonment with a thirty-year minimum term for first degree murder and a concurrent unified twenty-year sentence with a ten-year minimum term for rape.
On appeal, Tapp argues that his statements should have been suppressed for a number of reasons. He asserts that the prosecution's use of Tapp's statements given to police violated the immunity agreements of January 15 and 17, which included clauses precluding the State from using Tapp's statements against him, that his right to counsel under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments was violated, and that the use of his statements violated due process because they were involuntarily given. In the event that his conviction is upheld, Tapp also argues that the sentences imposed are excessive. We address each of these claims in turn.
Tapp argues that by prosecuting him for rape and murder and utilizing in that prosecution the statements that Tapp gave to the police, the prosecutor violated the immunity agreements. The State responds that it was relieved of its obligations under the agreements because Tapp himself breached the agreements by giving false information to the police.
As noted above, in the immunity agreements the State made various concessions which included refraining from the use of Tapp's statements against him except for impeachment purposes. These concessions were made by the State in exchange for Tapp's agreement to "cooperate" with the State in its investigation of Dodge's death. The immunity agreements defined "cooperation" to mean:
The agreements further specified consequences if this standard of cooperation was not met by Tapp as follows:
In the event that Christopher Conley Tapp refuses to cooperate as specified above, this agreement shall become null and void...
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Tapp v. State, Docket No. 35536 (Idaho App. 3/31/2010)
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