Commonwealth v. Tremblay
Commonwealth v. Tremblay
Opinion
**646 The defendant stands accused of murder in the first degree in connection with the beating death of a woman who had obtained a restraining order against him. The Commonwealth appeals from an order suppressing both the statements that the defendant made during custodial interrogations and the forensic testing results obtained from his bloodstained clothing.
The motion judge heard testimony from police witnesses and watched an audio-video recording of a second custodial interrogation, which took place soon after the police realized that they inadvertently had failed to record the defendant's first interrogation. The judge concluded that the defendant was too intoxicated during both interviews to make a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary Miranda waiver. Consequently, the judge determined that the Commonwealth had not met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant validly waived his Miranda rights at the unrecorded first interview. See
Commonwealth
v.
Hoyt
,
As to the suppression of the defendant's statements, the case calls upon us first to examine unsettled aspects of the standard of review to be applied to the judge's subsidiary findings, some of which were drawn from documentary evidence. We decline to adopt the Federal approach, which does not permit a reviewing court to make an independent assessment of pertinent documentary evidence, and instead requires deference to all subsidiary fact findings that are not clearly erroneous. See
Anderson
v.
Bessemer City, N.C.
,
**647
In such circumstances, the case should be decided "upon the entire evidence," see
Berry
v.
Kyes
,
In the recording of the second interrogation, the judge saw a man then so intoxicated that his level of sobriety one hour or so earlier -- the pertinent time for assessing the validity of the Miranda waiver -- could only have been much worse. The recording of the second interview thus formed part of the predicate for the judge's conclusion that the defendant had been too intoxicated at the beginning of the unrecorded first interview to give a valid waiver. Our de novo review of that documentary evidence instead reveals that, for the duration of the recording of the second interview, the defendant appeared to be lucid, coherent, responsive, and in control of his mental faculties. Thus, the judge's findings regarding the defendant's condition during the second interview -- and, to the extent that they are premised on extrapolations from that interview, his findings concerning the defendant's capacity validly to waive his Miranda rights during the first interview -- are not supported by that evidence and cannot stand.
Mindful that the judge also made findings relating to the defendant's condition that are based on oral testimony, and to which we must defer, the case on appeal is to be decided on the "entire evidence." See
Berry
,
This being so, it is the better part of wisdom to remand this case so that the judge can make findings and credibility determinations regarding all pertinent evidence in light of our de novo assessment of the recording of the second interview. Cf.
**648
Commonwealth
v.
Jones-Pannell
,
The situation is otherwise as to the suppressed forensic testing results. The police lawfully seized the defendant's clothing incident to arrest, and thereafter did not need a separate warrant to test the clothing for the presence of human blood. See
Commonwealth
v.
Arzola
,
1. Background . a. Findings of fact . The judge held an evidentiary hearing on the defendant's motion to suppress at which three officers testified and an audio-video recording of the defendant's second interview *1126 was submitted. 1 The judge did not make any explicit adverse credibility findings, but stated that he credited the officers' testimony "to the extent it [was] consistent with [his] explicit findings of fact." The judge found as follows. Shortly after 2 A.M. on November 18, 2014, Boston police received a 911 call stating that the victim had died at her apartment. Her body was found, covered with a blanket, on a "very bloody" couch; her face was bruised and bloodied. Two of the defendant's friends were in the apartment when the officers arrived, but the defendant was not present. One friend appeared to be intoxicated; the other, who did not, had telephoned 911. **649 Sergeant Scott Yanovitch of the Boston police department requested a dispatch to all relevant units; the dispatch went out around 2:50 A.M. Officer Shawn Roberts heard the dispatch and recognized the address because he had responded there to some previous complaints by the victim of domestic violence by the defendant. Roberts used his mobile data terminal to perform a search of the prior police reports regarding that address, found the defendant's name, and checked his criminal record. Roberts discovered that an active restraining order was in place requiring the defendant to stay away from the victim's residence, and that there was an outstanding warrant to arrest the defendant for failing to register with the Sex Offender Registry Board. Roberts also examined the defendant's booking photographs.
Over the next hour or so, Yanovitch saw a man who was later identified as the defendant "hanging out" near the victim's apartment. The first time, Yanovitch briefly stepped outside the victim's apartment to get some fresh air and saw the defendant walk past him, talking and mumbling to himself. The second time, when Yanovitch escorted one of the defendant's friends outside the apartment to smoke a cigarette, the defendant approached and asked the friend for a cigarette. Around the same time, Roberts completed his research and contacted Yanovitch over the police radio to tell him what he had learned about the defendant. Yanovitch asked Roberts to come to the scene to determine if the friend that he had escorted outside to smoke was the person Roberts had researched. Roberts arrived, confirmed that the friend was not the same individual, and left.
Back inside the apartment, Yanovitch heard the defendant, standing on the sidewalk, yelling loudly; he was yelling statements such as "What's going on in there?"; "I know what happened"; and "She was my friend." Yanovitch went outside again. The defendant approached him, asked, "What's going on in there?" and repeated, "She was my friend." Yanovitch asked the defendant for his name, and the defendant responded, "What, are you going to run me?" Yanovitch then asked Roberts to return to the scene to determine if the defendant was the person he had researched; by this time it was approximately 3:40 A.M.
*1127 When Roberts returned and approached the defendant, Roberts smelled alcohol. He identified the defendant and placed him under arrest pursuant to the outstanding warrant. The defendant stated that he had paperwork showing that the arrest warrant had been recalled, but the paperwork concerned a different warrant. Roberts **650 read the defendant the Miranda rights; the defendant did not indicate whether he understood. Roberts and another officer then drove the defendant to Boston police headquarters. During the drive, the defendant repeatedly asked if he would be released because the warrant was a mistake; he said nothing about the victim.
Sergeant Detective Michael Stratton interviewed the defendant for approximately one hour, starting at around 4:30 A.M. , while Roberts observed. Stratton told the defendant that they were being recorded, but, for the duration of the defendant's interview, the officers inadvertently recorded a different interrogation room. Stratton read the defendant the Miranda rights from a preprinted form, and the defendant initialed the form and signed his name. 2 , 3 The defendant then made statements implicating himself in the victim's death; the defendant said that he and the victim had gotten into an argument and that he had hit her in the head twelve to fifteen times. The defendant said that he "got her good," and, "I think I killed her."
The defendant also said that, when he woke up the next morning, the victim's body was cold and he thought she was dead. He stated that he then left the apartment and found his friend, and they drank beer together before returning to the victim's apartment. Once there, the defendant mopped puddles of blood from the floor and took out the trash. He then drank more beer, finishing the last of the beer as his other friend telephoned 911. Throughout the interview, the defendant also repeatedly insisted that the warrant was a mistake and asked when he would be released.
When he learned of the mistake in recording, Stratton asked the defendant if he would agree to a second interview; the defendant assented, but wanted a cigarette first. During the ten-minute cigarette break, the defendant continued to ask when he would be released.
Stratton interviewed the defendant a second time beginning at around 5:50 A.M. This interview was audio-video recorded. The judge found that the defendant was "quite intoxicated" throughout **651 the interview, and that Stratton knew this but did not attempt to discern the defendant's level of intoxication. The judge found that the defendant was "stumbling around and very unsteady on his feet" when he re-entered the interview room, and that he "sound[ed] drunk and seem[ed] to have trouble speaking clearly." The defendant paid "very little attention while Stratton tried to review the Miranda form with him," and "reached across the table and started playing with Stratton's pen and papers." The judge found that, at that point, the defendant still did not realize that he had incriminated himself, as he was again arguing that the warrant was only a "straight warrant," a "mistake," and asking if he would be *1128 released. The defendant also made statements such as, "She's dead because of me," and, "I did whack her." The judge stated that, "[s]ince it is apparent that [the defendant] was quite intoxicated throughout the second police interrogation, the Court infers and therefore finds that he was even more drunk during the first interview."
After the second interview, Stratton arrested the defendant for murder. Stratton also seized all the defendant's clothing after he noticed apparent bloodstains on the defendant's shoes and socks. The officers had not obtained a warrant to seize or test the clothing. Every piece of clothing the defendant had been wearing tested positive for the presence of human blood.
b. Prior proceedings . The defendant was indicted on charges of murder in the first degree, G. L. c. 265, § 1, and violation of an abuse prevention order, G. L. c. 209A, § 7. He moved to suppress all statements he had made to police and all evidence seized from him. The judge allowed the motion to suppress in part. He ordered suppressed all statements the defendant made once he had been transported to the police station, but found that suppression was not required for statements made before the defendant had been transported to the police station. The judge found that the Commonwealth had not met its burden of demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had validly waived his Miranda rights. The judge also ordered that the results of forensic testing of the defendant's clothing be suppressed, because no warrant had been obtained to test the clothes; he denied the motion to suppress the clothing itself, on the ground that the seizure was permissible under the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement.
A single justice of this court allowed the Commonwealth's petition for interlocutory review of the partial allowance of the
**652
motion to suppress. The defendant's motion for leave to file a cross appeal of the partial denial of the motion to suppress also was allowed, and the appeals were consolidated and reported to the Appeals Court. The Appeals Court reversed the judge's partial allowance,
Commonwealth
v.
Tremblay
,
2.
Discussion
. a.
Standard of review
. "In general, in reviewing a ruling on a motion to suppress, we accept the judge's subsidiary findings of fact absent clear error but conduct an independent review of his ultimate findings and conclusions of law" (quotation, citation, and alterations omitted).
Commonwealth
v.
Clarke
,
i.
Origins
. Traditionally, "[g]reat weight is justly given to the conclusions on questions of fact of the justice who hears the case."
Chase
v.
Hubbard
,
Initially, this court held that, where the record consists entirely of documentary evidence, it is "proper to re-examine the evidence, and determine if on the whole the judgment was right."
Olivieri
,
ii.
Rule 52 (a) of the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure
. The standard of review for subsidiary findings based on documentary evidence originated in civil cases, but such cases were later relied on in the criminal context as well. See, e.g.,
Commonwealth
v.
Novo
,
Rule 52 (a) provides, in relevant part, "[f]indings of fact shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge of the credibility of the witnesses." It does not exempt findings drawn from documentary evidence. 4
The Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure were "patterned on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure."
Van Christo Advert., Inc.
v.
M/A-COM/LCS
,
Since 1985, Federal courts have not independently reviewed documentary evidence, and instead have applied the "clearly erroneous"
**654
standard to all lower court findings.
5
See
*1130
Anderson
,
Furthermore, one month after the Supreme Court's decision in
Anderson
,
We now affirm the principle that an appellate court may independently
**655
review documentary evidence, and that lower court findings drawn from such evidence are not entitled to deference.
6
See
Clarke
,
While there is no direct counterpart in the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure to Mass. R. Civ. P. 52 (a), we also defer to subsidiary factual findings in criminal cases unless they are clearly erroneous. See, e.g.,
Commonwealth
v.
Leahy
,
We emphasize, however, that this does not give appellate courts carte blanche with respect to fact finding. "[A]s our long-standing jurisprudence makes plain, in no event is it proper for an appellate court to engage in what amounts to independent fact finding in order to reach a conclusion of law that is contrary to that of a motion judge who has seen and heard the witnesses, and made determinations regarding the weight and credibility of their testimony."
Jones-Pannell
,
b.
Suppression of statements
. In order for a defendant's statements to be admissible at trial, the Commonwealth bears the "particularly heavy burden" of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant's Miranda waiver was valid. See
Hoyt
,
The Commonwealth does not appear to have presented evidence concerning most of the aforementioned factors, such as age, education, or intelligence, nor did the judge address them. The evidence primarily concerned the defendant's outward behavior and demeanor, particularly with regard to his intoxication. The judge, in turn, concentrated his findings and conclusions on the defendant's level of intoxication, without establishing the nexus between the defendant's intoxication and his ability validly to waive his rights. Expressly relying on the audio-video recording, the judge concluded that the defendant was "quite intoxicated" during the second interview, and inferred that the defendant therefore must have been even more intoxicated during the first interview.
i.
The recording
. As the recording is documentary evidence, the judge's findings drawn from it are not entitled to deference and we may review such evidence de novo. See, e.g.,
Commonwealth
v.
Monroe
,
*1132
Hoyt
,
As the judge noted, at the beginning of the audio-video recording, the defendant was a bit unsteady on his feet when he was led into the interrogation room; this unsteadiness dissipated quickly, however. For example, the defendant was able to stand and pantomime hitting the victim repeatedly, without any instability or stumbling. He also spoke coherently; as he entered the interrogation room he was clearly arguing with the officers about the warrant for his arrest, and was insisting that it was a "straight warrant" rather than a "default."
**657 The recording also shows that the defendant was paying attention while Stratton reviewed the Miranda rights, and told Stratton he already knew what Stratton was going to say. The defendant did not "play" with Stratton's pen and paper, as the judge found, but rather grabbed them while stating that he would sign the Miranda waiver form again. He indicated that he understood each right and remembered his earlier waiver, stating "I understand everything.... I initialed everything, I signed it, and I dated it." When Stratton asked if the defendant understood that he had a right to remain silent, he exclaimed, "I'll tell you whatever you want!"
Throughout the recording, the defendant was very responsive to questions. He was able to recall details of the incident, such as times, locations, and the specific bus he took, and even corrected a few of Stratton's statements. His account of hitting the victim repeatedly in the head was consistent with his statements during the first interview, and he made some of the same incriminating statements. When Stratton asked for the defendant's friend's last name, he declined to provide it. The defendant also minimized his culpability, insisting that he only hit the victim in the face with an open hand, and that he had her permission to be in the apartment and had not stolen her keys.
The defendant was cooperative and cordial throughout the interview, but when asked pointed questions about the victim, his demeanor would become more grave and reticent, and he made statements such as, "It shouldn't have happened," and "I fucked up." Thus, although the defendant repeatedly asked when he would be released, and disputed the technicalities of the prior outstanding warrant, he also, contrary to the judge's findings, understood the gravity of the situation. In addition, he understood that he had incriminated himself; regarding the victim's condition, he made statements such as, "You're not going to let me go now, are ya?"; "I'm going to jail, aren't I?"; and "Are you going to charge me with something?"
In sum, our de novo review of the audio-video recording reveals that, during the second interview, the defendant's demeanor was lucid, coherent, and responsive, and he appeared to be in control of his mental faculties. Although intoxication "bears heavily on the validity of a Miranda waiver," and there is no dispute that the defendant drank at least some alcohol in the hours prior to his arrest and interrogation, intoxication is "insufficient alone to require a finding of involuntariness" (citation omitted).
**658
See
Wolinski
,
This conclusion, however, is not sufficient to resolve the matter.
9
The recording captured the defendant's condition more than one hour after he had made the waiver, when the effects of his intoxication presumably had declined to an unknown extent. Unlike in
Clarke
,
ii.
The entire evidence
. "It is the motion judge's responsibility to make credibility assessments, weigh the evidence, and make findings of fact; it remains the responsibility of an appellate court to evaluate whether those findings are clearly erroneous." See
Jones-Pannell
,
Our ability fairly to assess the entirety of the evidence in this case is complicated by two factors. First, we do not know the extent to which the recording had an impact on even those findings that did not expressly rely on it. Second, the judge failed to address certain testimony plainly material to the issue before him, calling into question the adequacy of the facts found to support his conclusion as to the ultimate issue in this case, i.e., the defendant's capacity validly to waive his Miranda rights at the time of the first interview.
As to the first complicating factor, to the extent the judge expressly relied on the recording of the second interview to make findings concerning the defendant's condition during the unrecorded first interview, these findings must be set aside in light of our independent assessment of the recording. To the extent that the judge made findings about the defendant's condition that do not rest on the recording, they are drawn from oral testimony and are entitled to deference. See
Clarke
,
As to the second complicating factor, our ability fairly to evaluate the entirety of the evidence is compromised by the inadequacy of the findings made as to certain material matters. For example, the judge credited police officer testimony that, at the crime scene, approximately one hour before the first interview, the defendant was talking and mumbling to himself repeatedly, and yelling statements loudly at the officers such as, "What's going on in there?"; "I know what happened"; and "She was my friend." This testimony is not self-explanatory, however, and the judge made no further findings regarding what, if any, relationship this bore to the defendant's condition at the time of the first interview.
Further, the judge did not address certain oral testimony by the same police witnesses that was plainly material to the ultimate issue in this case. This would include their testimony that the **660 defendant did not appear intoxicated at the crime scene, and that the defendant was cooperative, lucid, articulate, and even strategic in answering questions during the first interview. In addition to not making any findings as to this testimony, the judge also did not make any express credibility determinations as to these three police witnesses.
The judge's prefatory statement that he credited the officers' testimony "to the extent it [was] consistent with [his] explicit findings of fact" does not relieve him of his obligation to make adequate findings. Of course, motion judges need not make findings with respect to every piece of evidence in the record, irrespective of pertinence. It is understandable that busy trial court judges will use brief, prefatory language as shorthand to indicate that they are aware that the record contains additional testimonial evidence, but find only certain portions of the testimony credible or relevant.
10
See
Jones-Pannell
,
Here, the portion of the officers' testimony that was omitted from the judge's findings was the only evidence directly addressing the defendant's condition during the unrecorded first interview. As such, it warranted the judge's attention. While the credibility of this testimony was for the motion judge alone to assess, the testimony should have been addressed, and not ignored. This omission unnecessarily impairs our ability on the entire evidence to evaluate whether the judge's findings adequately support his ultimate conclusions of law.
Nevertheless, appellate courts must not overstep our boundaries by substituting our view of the testamentary evidence, appearing in a cold transcript, for that of the motion judge who, as it were, "eyeballed"
*1135
the witnesses when in a unique position to assess credibility. See
Jones-Pannell
,
Because of the unusual circumstances here, including the factors complicating our ability fairly to assess the entire evidence, this case is the exception, not the rule. Now, as before, what is needed from a trial court judge are credibility determinations as to pertinent matters, and concise, clear, and adequate findings of fact. See
Isaiah I.
,
c.
Voluntariness of statements
. Remand also is appropriate here because the judge made no separate findings concerning the voluntariness of the defendant's statements. "Due process requires a separate inquiry into the voluntariness of [a defendant's statement] apart from the validity of the Miranda waiver" (citation omitted).
Commonwealth
v.
Morales
,
**662 On remand, the judge therefore should assess separately the voluntariness of the defendant's statements.
d.
Suppression of clothing and forensic testing
. "The Fourth Amendment [to the United States Constitution] and art. 14 [of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights] provide that every person has the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures of his or her possessions" (quotation and citation omitted).
Commonwealth
v.
White
,
In this case, the defendant's clothing was validly seized incident to his arrest. The officers had probable cause to arrest the defendant even in the absence of his incriminating statements. See
Commonwealth
v.
Williams
,
Specifically, although the defendant initially was arrested at the crime scene pursuant to a warrant for failure to register as a sex offender, police also had probable cause at that time to arrest him for the victim's death. That arrest took place after police observed him standing outside the apartment where the victim's body had been found, shouting that he knew the victim and knew what had happened to her. The officers knew that the defendant had been involved in prior incidents of domestic violence involving the victim, at the same address, and his proximity to the victim's apartment indicated that he was in violation of the abuse prevention order. Since the officers could have arrested the defendant for
**663
murder at the crime scene, their later observation
11
of apparent bloodstains on his socks and shoes provided a substantial basis to conclude that his clothing contained evidence of the victim's death. See
Robles
,
Once the defendant's clothing was properly seized, the officers did not need a separate warrant for forensic testing. We repeatedly have rejected such a requirement in the context of clothing. See
Robles
,
The judge's reliance on
Kaupp
,
So ordered .
The remaining evidence presented consisted of the defendant's Miranda waiver form, a restraining order obtained by the victim against the defendant, a video recording of the wrong interrogation room, photographs of the crime scene, and a video recording of the defendant with his friend at a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) station more than four hours before he was interrogated. At the hearing, the witnesses also referenced video surveillance from a liquor store more than five hours before the defendant was interrogated, but that footage was not played or submitted. The judge did not discuss these other pieces of evidence in his findings. Although the record on appeal does not include the video recordings of the defendant with his friend at the MBTA station and the liquor store, these materials would not aid our analysis, because they were recorded four or five hours before the defendant's first interrogation.
The defendant's waiver form states that his waiver was obtained at 5 a.m. The judge credited the time stamp on the recording that was taken of the wrong interview room, however, which indicated that the first interview began at 4:30 a.m. We defer to this finding, which also is consistent with the fact that the interview lasted for approximately one hour and was followed by a ten-minute cigarette break before the defendant was reinterviewed at 5:50 a.m.
References to the "unrecorded" waiver denote the fact that the defendant's waiver process was not captured on an audio-video recording, and are not meant to suggest that the defendant failed to sign a waiver form.
Nonetheless, in the four decades since the adoption of rule 52 (a), Massachusetts courts have continued the practice of reviewing de novo subsidiary findings based wholly on documentary evidence. See, e.g.,
Commonwealth
v.
Hoose
,
The United States Supreme Court held that the clearly erroneous standard should apply to all lower court findings, not just those involving credibility determinations, because trial judges have expertise in fact finding, and "[d]uplication of the trial judge's efforts in the court of appeals would very likely contribute only negligibly to the accuracy of fact determination at a huge cost in diversion of judicial resources."
Anderson
v.
Bessemer City, N.C.
,
This principle was articulated differently in
Commonwealth
v.
Novo
,
"A finding is 'clearly erroneous' when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.' " See
Building Inspector of Lancaster
v.
Sanderson
,
The fact that the defendant's waiver was documented in writing is not dispositive; the validity of a waiver depends on the totality of the circumstances. See
Commonwealth
v.
Magee
,
The Commonwealth contends that the defendant validly waived his rights before both interviews. The recording instead demonstrates that at the start of the second interview, the defendant and the officers simply reviewed the waiver form he signed during the first interview. In any event, even if the defendant had waived his rights at the start of the second interview, the Commonwealth would still be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the first, unrecorded waiver was valid. "In this Commonwealth, there is a presumption that a statement made following the violation of a suspect's Miranda rights is tainted, and the prosecution must show more than the belated administration of Miranda warnings in order to dispel that taint" (quotations and citation omitted).
Commonwealth
v.
Osachuk
,
We are not unaware that the widespread use of such prefatory language also may have arisen in response to perceived appellate overreaching in the form of augmented or substituted fact finding, often to reach a different outcome from that reached by the trial court. Such perceived overreaching may occur when the reviewing court supplements findings by relying upon apparently uncontroverted witness testimony of record that has not been otherwise specifically discredited by the trial court judge. See
Jones-Pannell
,
The officers first noticed the bloodstained clothing during the booking process after they had arrested the defendant for murder following the second interview.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- COMMONWEALTH v. Randall TREMBLAY.
- Cited By
- 70 cases
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- Published