State v. Thibodeau

• Citation: 496 A.2d 635
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Jay G. THIBODEAU.
• Decision Date: 31 July 1985
• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (US)

Page 635

496 A.2d 635

STATE of Maine v. Jay G. THIBODEAU.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued Jan. 9, 1985.

Reargued June 12, 1985.

Decided July 31, 1985.

Wayne S. Moss (orally), Charles K. Leadbetter, Michael N. Westcott, Anita M. St.Onge, Asst. Attys. Gen., Augusta, for the State.

Vafiades, Brountas & Kominsky, Jeffrey L. Hjelm (orally), Rudman & Winchell, Paul W. Chaiken, Bangor, for defendant.

Before McKUSICK, C.J., and NICHOLS, ROBERTS, VIOLETTE, WATHEN, GLASSMAN and SCOLNIK, JJ.

NICHOLS, Justice.

The Defendant, Jay G. Thibodeau, appeals from his conviction of murder, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1)(A) (1983), following a jury trial in Superior Court, Penobscot County. He argues that the Superior Court erred in denying his motions: (1) to suppress certain statements that he made to investigating officers on three different occasions; and (2) to strike evidence concerning the test firing of the murder weapon. He further challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction.

Because we conclude it was reversible error to deny the Defendant's motion to suppress the statements he made in the afternoon of October 28, 1983, we must vacate the judgment of conviction.

On October 30, 1983, a hunter found the body of John Tower, Jr., of Patten, near Shin Pond in that town; the body was partially covered by a piece of carpeting. Death was attributed to a bullet wound to the head and brain. A small caliber bullet, probably fired from at least a foot and a half, had entered behind the victim's right ear. A pool of blood and Tower's broken glasses were found next to each other approximately 17 feet from his body. A new spent casing, later confirmed to be one fired from a .22 caliber rifle that the Defendant had purchased on October 18 and traded on October 29 for another rifle, was found at the scene approximately 51 feet from the glasses in a direction towards the water. Subsequent test firings of the weapon had revealed that the maximum distance a casing would be ejected was 13 feet and 9 inches.

Tower had been reported missing by his brother in the afternoon of October 27, 1983. That evening Trooper Ronald Graves, of the State Police, found Tower's automobile, a green 1973 Ford Galaxy, parked near Route I-95 in Sherman. A "for sale" sign rested on the seat of the vehicle. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the abandoned vehicle and Tower's disappearance commenced the next morning, October 28. The victim's mother had informed Trooper Malcolm Dow, of the State Police, that the last time she saw her son was the day before when he had told her that he was taking a prospective buyer for his car on a test drive. She remembered seeing the prospective buyer and offered a description that proved to match that of the Defendant. She also that day noticed a gun lying on the concrete near the passenger's door of Tower's car as it was parked near her home. A neighbor of Tower's identified the Defendant as the person who was talking to Tower and holding a rifle.

Sergeant Schofield, Trooper Graves and Trooper Dow, of the State Police, went to the Thibodeau apartment at approximately 8:00 A.M. on October 28 to speak with the Defendant, then barely eighteen years old, concerning the information that had been collected. The officer's conversation with the Defendant, took place in a kitchen area, with the Defendant's parents both present, and lasted for five to ten minutes. During that time the Defendant declared that he had left his house to go hunting and had walked past the Tower residence when he noticed a "for sale" sign in Tower's automobile. He told the officers that he and Tower went for a test drive down the road, bought ten dollars worth of gasoline, and proceeded around the block where Thibodeau was dropped off at his home. He told them that Tower then drove away as the Defendant walked along Route 11 with his rifle, eventually going hunting on Happy Corner Road.

At approximately 3:15 P.M. of the same day came the critical confrontation. At that time Troopers Graves and Porter, of the State Police, returned to the Thibodeau residence. They asked the young Defendant to accompany them and show them the route he had taken the day before. Because by afternoon the officers had come to regard the Defendant as a prime suspect of foul play in Tower's disappearance, their ploy was to separate him from his parents. He had not been so regarded at the time of their brief conversation with him that morning. Nevertheless, no Miranda warnings were given.

When the youth complied with the officers' request and the three got into a two-door cruiser, they seated the young Defendant alone in the back of the vehicle. Instead of thereupon retracing the route taken on October 27, the asserted purpose of this second confrontation, once in the cruiser, he was driven to a side street where the two troopers talked with him for up to 40 minutes. In response to the officers' questions, the Defendant disclosed to them that: (1) he did not take his rifle with him during the test drive, but rather hid it across the street under a boat; (2) he and Tower drove down back roads; (3) he was dropped off at his parents' apartment at around noon; and (4) he went hunting until 4:00 P.M. or later and then had returned home. Only after this extensive questioning did the Defendant show the officers the route he claimed he had travelled. At one point during the drive he asked if he was a suspect; Trooper Porter responded that the Defendant was the last person to be seen with Tower. Thereupon the Defendant declared, "Well, I guess I am."

Four days later, Troopers Porter and Graves went to the Thibodeau residence at 9:30 A.M. to arrest the Defendant for the murder of John Tower, Jr. The officers did not possess an arrest warrant, but upon representing to the Defendant's mother and the Defendant that they were there to "talk to Jay and fingerprint him for elimination," the Defendant left with the officers and was placed in a cruiser; this time the officers read to him his Miranda rights. Upon arriving at the Houlton Police Department, the Defendant was taken to an interrogation room and asked if he wished to have a lawyer present. The Defendant responded that he was willing to proceed without a lawyer and gave a statement which was tantamount to a confession; this statement was recorded and subsequently played for the jury at his trial. In the recorded statement the Defendant stated that he left his house on October 27 at 9:30 or 9:45 A.M. to go hunting. His rifle was not loaded at the time. He had walked by Tower's car that was for sale and had stopped to talk with Tower for 15 to 20 minutes, prior to going on a test drive with him. The Defendant put his rifle on the back seat. They stopped for gas and eventually drove to Shin Pond. The Defendant pointed out his grandfather's camp and, when the Defendant thought they were leaving to go back to town, Tower drove toward the shore of the pond. The Defendant loaded his gun and went into the woods to look for birds. He returned to the car, put his loaded gun on the back seat, and walked to the water with Tower. They talked for a while about Tower's father who had been ill and, as they walked back to the car, Tower grabbed the Defendant's arm. The Defendant broke away and Tower ran after him. The Defendant rushed to the car, grabbed his gun, and shot Tower. The Defendant moved the body and drove away in Tower's car. After completing his oral confession, the Defendant provided a written confession, which encompassed essentially the same information as his oral statements, except that in writing the Defendant claimed that Tower walked after him rather than ran in pursuit.

A few days later the Defendant was indicted for murder, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 201(1)(A) (1983), and trial commenced on May 21, 1984. The taped and written confessions vary slightly from the Defendant's testimony at trial. The Defendant testified that he was scared when Tower grabbed him. His recollection was that Tower had started to follow him after the Defendant had retrieved his gun, but that Tower had stopped at the car door. It was at that point, the Defendant turned around and fired a shot. He testified, "I didn't even spot my gun, I just shot--I didn't sit there and aim at him. I just brought up the gun and shot." When he pulled the trigger, the butt of the rifle allegedly rested on his hip. The Defendant reiterated that he did not know why he shot Tower.

Upon appeal the Defendant asserts that his motions to suppress statements that he made to investigating officers in the morning and afternoon of October 28, 1983 should have been granted because, in both instances, he had been subjected by the State Police to a custodial interrogation without being given the Miranda warnings. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). A trial court's ruling on whether Miranda warnings were required because there had been a custodial interrogation "will be upheld if the record 'provides rational support for [the] determination.' " State v. Longley, 483 A.2d 725, 730 (Me.1984) quoting State v. Bleyl, 435 A.2d 1349, 1358 (Me.1981). We have found that "[a] person is in custody for the purpose of Miranda only when he is deprived of his freedom in some significant way, or would be led, as a reasonable person, to believe he was not free to leave the presence of the police." Bleyl, 435 A.2d at 1358 (citations omitted); see also United States v. Rule, 594 F.Supp. 1223, 1234 (D.Me.1984) (whether a reasonable person in defendant's position would likewise have thought he was not free to go). The latter portion of our definition of "custody" is consistent with the United States Supreme Court's analysis of when a person has been "seized" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1877, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980). An interrogation refers "not only...