Commonwealth v. Vasquez
Commonwealth v. Vasquez
Opinion
**851 Following the January 2015 shooting death of the defendant's girlfriend, the defendant quickly became the primary suspect. He was arrested after three members of the victim's family identified him from surveillance audio and video footage taken from a private house across the street from the shooting. After officers arrested the defendant, and sought to question him, they attempted to advise him of his Miranda rights. It became apparent that the defendant did not have much command of the English language. The detectives asked a Spanish-speaking officer, who was untrained in interpretation, to translate the Miranda warnings and the interrogation into Spanish. Based on the officer's rendering of the Miranda warnings, the defendant ostensibly waived his rights and spoke with police. He also *181 provided officers, on their request, with the passcode to unlock the cellular telephone they had seized from him upon arrest, and gave them permission to search it. Police later used that information to obtain a warrant for the cell site location information (CSLI) for the defendant's telephone.
The defendant was indicted on charges of murder in the first degree and two related firearms offenses. In a series of motions, he moved to suppress the witnesses' identifications of him from the surveillance footage, his statements to police, evidence obtained from the search of his cellular telephone, and the CSLI. A judge of the Superior Court (first motion judge) denied the motions as to the identifications and the search of the telephone. The judge allowed the motions with respect to the custodial statements.
**852 A different Superior Court judge (second motion judge) denied the motion to suppress the CSLI.
The Commonwealth sought interlocutory review of the order suppressing the defendant's statements, and the defendant sought review of the denial of his various motions to suppress. Single justices of this court allowed the petitions, and the cross appeals were consolidated. We subsequently allowed the defendant's application for direct appellate review.
We discern no error in the decision that the identifications do not require suppression. We also agree that the translation of the Miranda warnings into Spanish was inadequate to apprise the defendant of his rights, and that the defendant's limited comprehension of English did not suffice to compensate for these deficiencies. Because the search of the defendant's cellular telephone arose from the statements he made following those incomplete warnings, the evidence obtained as a result must be suppressed. We conclude also that, when the tainted information is excised from the search warrant application for the CSLI, the affidavit does not establish probable cause to access the CSLI for the defendant's device. Accordingly, the order on the motion to suppress the CSLI shall be reversed.
1.
Background
. The following facts are drawn from the first motion judge's findings on the motions to suppress concerning the identifications, the Miranda warnings, and the search of the cellular telephone. The facts are supplemented, as relevant, with uncontroverted testimony implicitly or explicitly credited by the judge, in support of his findings, after evidentiary hearings.
1
See
Commonwealth
v.
Jones-Pannell
,
a. Identifications . In January of 2015, police officers discovered the victim's body inside a parked sport utility vehicle (SUV); she had been shot in the head. The investigating officers noted a surveillance **853 camera on a building located across the street from the SUV. The black and white footage, while dark, captured the shooting. It *182 shows the SUV stopping at the curb and parking. After a few moments, the rear passenger door on the driver's side of the vehicle opens. An argument, in Spanish, can be heard emanating from the individuals inside the vehicle. A single gunshot is heard, and a man is seen getting out of the vehicle and running off camera.
Based on this footage, police wanted to identify promptly the individual who could be seen and heard on the audio-video recording. Officers first went to the home of the victim's brother, Martino Diaz. 2 His girlfriend, Abigail Martinez Melende, also was present. Police told the two that a vehicle registered to Martinez Melende had been involved in a shooting and that police had some questions for them. Diaz and Martinez Melende drove together to the police station to be questioned. They both surmised that the victim had been shot. 3 They also speculated that the defendant had been involved. 4
At some point, Diaz contacted his father, who immediately went to collect the victim's then teenage son, Juan Mendoza, 5 from school. As with the other members of his family, the victim's son was aware that a shooting had occurred and, before talking to police, harbored a similar suspicion that the defendant had harmed his mother in some way. 6 The victim's son and his grandfather drove to the police station together; when they arrived, Diaz told them that he believed the defendant may have killed the victim.
Each witness was then interviewed separately by police. Each witness was shown a photograph of the defendant and was asked whether that person was the victim's boyfriend, whom Diaz and Martinez Melende had mentioned to the police earlier. The witnesses agreed that the photograph showed the victim's boyfriend.
Police then had the witnesses attempt to make an identification **854 from the surveillance footage. 7 First, they had each witness listen to the audio segment of the recording, without displaying the video portion, to determine if anyone could recognize the voices of the individuals in the vehicle; each listened to the recording separately. The recording was stopped immediately prior to the sound of a gunshot. Diaz, Mendoza, and Martinez Melende each identified the voices as belonging to the victim and the defendant. 8
After listening to the audio recording, each witness was shown the video recording, without the accompanying audio, to determine whether the witness could identify the individual who got out of the vehicle and ran down the street. 9 As with the audio recordings, the witnesses were separated throughout this process. Although the video recording is too indistinct to *183 display any facial features, all three witnesses believed that the individual seen leaving the vehicle and running down the street was the defendant.
Diaz reported that he believed the individual was the defendant based on "his sneakers," "his voice," and "the way he is," and because the victim "mentioned his name two times." 10 Mendoza expressed a belief that the defendant was the individual depicted in the videotape based on the clothing and the way in which he moved. Martinez Melende reported that she believed that the individual was the defendant based on his "size, body type, weight and height," as well as his sneakers.
The police did not suggest to the witnesses that the defendant was a suspect, and none of the witnesses was permitted to speak to any of the others until after each witness had made an identification. 11
b. Interrogation . Shortly after the identifications, the defendant was arrested and brought to the Springfield police station. During **855 the subsequent interrogation, one of the detectives attempted to inform the defendant that he had been arrested for the murder of the victim and for firearms violations relating to her death. The detective also attempted to advise the defendant of his Miranda rights. Because the defendant was illiterate in English and Spanish, the officers understood that the defendant would need the Miranda warnings explained to him orally. They also understood that, because the defendant did not appear to have much command of English, they had to deliver the warnings in Spanish, the defendant's native language. One of the officers, who was not formally trained as an interpreter, translated the warnings as follows:
"1. You have the right to remain quiet.
"2. Any thing that you say can be against you ... the, of the court.
"3. You the right to consult with a lawyer for advice before being and to have him present with you during the interrogation.
"4. If you do not have the means to pay, to pay a, and if you wish for it, you the right to be a law, lawyer before being interrogated.
"5. If you decide to be now, without the presence of a lawyer, you still have the right to stop the, that any moment until you talk with a lawyer." 12
Police subsequently directed the defendant to initial each of the warnings on a printed Miranda form written in English. He did so.
During the course of the interview, the defendant consistently denied his involvement, even as officers became "confrontational and accusatory" in their questioning. As the interview drew to a close, the defendant told officers that they "could check" many of the details surrounding his account because they had his cellular telephone. At that point, police asked, in English, if they could search the device, and expressed some confusion whether they or the defendant were in possession of the *184 device. The defendant **856 gave them "verbal permission" to search the device. 13
c. Search warrant for CSLI . When police searched the defendant's cellular telephone , they "extracted" the incoming and outgoing telephone calls, incoming and outgoing text messages, incoming and outgoing multimedia messages, contact information, and photographs and video recordings on the device.
Approximately ten days after that search, police applied for a warrant to obtain the CSLI data for the device. 14 In support of the warrant request, the affidavit described the evidence that police had gathered, which included the witnesses' identifications of the defendant from surveillance footage and a history of domestic violence. The affidavit also noted that a cellular telephone was recovered from the defendant when he was arrested at his house, and described information obtained from the police search of that device, namely, the defendant's telephone number. 15 Based on this evidence, police requested all CSLI for the thirty-two days from December 5, 2014, through January 5, 2015, the month immediately preceding and including the day on which the victim was killed. A warrant for the requested information was issued.
d. Suppression hearings . In April of 2017, the first motion judge held an evidentiary hearing concerning the motions to suppress the defendant's statements, the identifications, and the initial search of the cellular telephone. The judge then allowed the defendant's two motions to suppress his custodial statements, and denied the motions to suppress the identifications and the search **857 of the cellular telephone. Both parties sought leave to pursue interlocutory appeals from those orders, and a single justice of this court allowed their petitions.
While these proceedings were underway, the defendant also filed a separate motion to suppress the CSLI. After a nonevidentiary hearing, the second motion judge denied the motion; a single justice of this court allowed the defendant's request to appeal from that order. The parties' cross appeals were consolidated in the Appeals Court, and we subsequently allowed the defendant's request for direct appellate review.
2.
Discussion
. "In reviewing a decision on a motion to suppress, we accept the judge's subsidiary findings absent clear error, but conduct an independent review of his [or her] ultimate findings and
*185
conclusions of law" (quotations and citation omitted).
Jones-Pannell
,
a. Identifications . The defendant contends that, because the witnesses harbored preconceived biases against him, and because police had those witnesses view a photograph and listen to an audio recording depicting the defendant, their subsequent visual identifications were inherently suggestive of him and violated due process and common-law principles of fairness. To the extent that the defendant challenges the procedures employed by police to obtain a visual identification, we apply a due process analysis under art. 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. As to whether the witnesses' own biases and the unreliable nature of the video footage otherwise caused a suggestive confrontation with the defendant, we turn to common-law principles of fairness.
i.
Due process
. An out-of-court eyewitness identification conducted by police is inadmissible under art. 12 "if the defendant proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the identification was 'so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable misidentification that its admission would deprive the defendant of his right to due process.' "
Commonwealth
v.
Johnson
,
Insofar as the defendant challenges police conduct in the identification process, we agree with the first motion judge that the identification protocol devised and implemented by the detectives in this case was not so unnecessarily suggestive as to mandate per se exclusion under art. 12.
16
Although an identification stemming
*186
**859
from a videotape containing only one individual is analogous to a one-on-one identification, it raises due process concerns only if it is "unnecessarily suggestive of the defendant ... so as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of a mistaken identification" (citation omitted). See
Commonwealth
v.
Forte
,
ii.
Common-law principles of fairness
. When an out-of-court identification is suggestive through no fault of the police, "suppression cannot deter police misconduct because there is none." See
Johnson
,
"Among our 'common law principles of fairness' is the evidentiary rule that a judge has discretion to exclude relevant evidence 'if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.' " See
Johnson
,
In this regard, the defendant contends that the out-of-court identifications must be suppressed because the video footage is so inherently unreliable that no one could identify the defendant unless he or she were predisposed to do so. After hearing testimony from the three witnesses and from police, and after reviewing the video footage himself, however, the first motion judge rejected the notion that the witnesses' prior suspicions of the defendant's involvement, and their ability to ascertain his voice from the audio recording, precluded them from making a reliable visual identification. 18 Applying our common-law principles of fairness, we discern no abuse of discretion in this determination.
**861
Notably, the video quality in this case is poor, and likely would not permit an eyewitness who is unfamiliar with the suspect to make a visual identification from the recording. The individuals who made an identification here, however, were not eyewitnesses to a crime perpetrated by a stranger, who may be, perhaps, more susceptible to a mistaken identification given a "single" or "brief" exposure to a suspect in frightening conditions. See
Commonwealth
v.
Chamberlin
,
b. Miranda warnings . The Commonwealth challenges the allowance of the motion to suppress custodial statements on the ground that the first motion judge erred in concluding that the Miranda warnings were inadequately conveyed.
"In
Miranda
, the United States Supreme Court held that 'the prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodial interrogation of the defendant unless
**862
it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the privilege against self-incrimination.' "
Commonwealth
v.
Vuthy Seng
,
We agree that the defendant was not adequately informed of his rights in Spanish in several key respects. First, the defendant was not apprised that anything he said could be used against him in court. "As we have stated: 'The warning of the right to remain silent
must
be accompanied by the explanation that anything said can and will be used against the individual in court.' " See
Vuthy Seng
,
Here, those consequences were conveyed to the defendant as "[a]ny thing that you say can be against you ... the, of the court," which, as the Commonwealth concedes, is problematic at best.
23
Indeed, we do not view this translation as a minor variation in interpretation, see
Bins
,
There were similar defects in the translation of other warnings. For example, the defendant was informed that if he did not have the means to pay for an attorney, and if he "wish[ed] for it," that he had the right "to be a law, lawyer before being interrogated." Cf.
*190
Vuthy Seng
,
The Commonwealth contends that, notwithstanding these deficiencies, the totality of the circumstances otherwise suggests **864 that the defendant understood his rights; he "nodded" throughout the interview and demonstrably could understand some words, such as "lawyer," which he supplied in Spanish when the interpreting officer was struggling to find the word. Based on expert testimony on the coping mechanisms of non-native speakers, however, the first motion judge ascribed the defendant's nodding along as an indication that he was attempting to listen to the officer, and not as proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he understood the warnings. The judge also determined that the defendant's ability to understand basic English words did not equate to an ability to comprehend them when used as technical concepts within complex sentences, particularly where the defendant did not understand other words in the sentence, and where they involved a fragmented recitation of his constitutional rights.
Although we have recognized that the translation of Miranda warnings into a defendant's native language need not be "word for word," see
Commonwealth
v.
The Ngoc Tran
,
c. Search of the cellular telephone . Because the request to search the defendant's cellular telephone directly followed the failure to provide him with adequate Miranda warnings, and was derived from statements he made during the interrogation, the defendant contends that the search was presumptively invalid and the fruits obtained from it should have been suppressed. The Commonwealth concedes that if the court concludes that the warnings were inadequate, the cellular telephone evidence must be suppressed. We agree as well.
Pursuant to art. 12, any physical or testimonial evidence that is "derived from unwarned statements where Miranda warnings would have been required ... in order for them to be admissible, is presumptively excludable from evidence at trial as 'fruit' of the improper failure to provide such warnings."
Commonwealth
v.
Martin
,
The request to search the defendant's cellular telephone here was not so attenuated; the search arose directly from the defendant's unwarned statements, and the Commonwealth does not suggest that it has met its burden of proving that the taint was dissipated through some other intervening circumstance. Compare
Martin
,
d. Search of the CSLI . Police filed an application for a search warrant, supported by an affidavit, in order to obtain thirty-two days of the defendant's CSLI, spanning the period of time from **866 December 5, 2014, to January 5, 2015. 25 Following the issuance of the search warrant, the defendant moved to suppress the CSLI. The motion was denied.
On appeal, the defendant argues that the affidavit filed in support of the Commonwealth's application did not establish the requisite probable cause to obtain a search warrant. The Commonwealth concedes that if the Miranda warnings were inadequate, the affidavit relied on tainted information obtained as a result of the invalid search, including the defendant's telephone number. The Commonwealth contends, however, that when the tainted information is excised from the affidavit, sufficient probable cause remained to obtain CSLI for the defendant's movements during the roughly month-long period.
*192
Whether a search warrant is supported by probable cause "is a question of law that we review de novo."
Perkins
,
There is no dispute here that the Commonwealth established probable cause to believe that a particularly described offense had been committed. See
Augustine
,
Ordinarily, police may be able to demonstrate the requisite nexus by connecting the defendant to ownership of a particular device and by showing a substantial basis that the device will contain relevant evidence of the crime -- that is, the defendant's location at or around the time the crime was committed. See
Hobbs
,
Nor has the Commonwealth demonstrated any connection between the commission of the crime and the thirty-two days for which the Commonwealth sought the
*193
CSLI. Indeed, there is nothing in the affidavit that might suggest that the location of the defendant's telephone, beyond the night of the shooting itself, would produce any evidence of the crime. Compare
Hobbs
,
As such, the information contained within the four corners of the affidavit does not support a determination of probable cause, and the CSLI obtained as a result must be suppressed. 27
3. Conclusion . That portion of the order allowing the defendant's motions to suppress his custodial statements is affirmed. The denial of the motion to suppress the out-of-court identifications is affirmed. So much of the orders as deny the motions to suppress evidence obtained from a search of the defendant's cellular telephone and the CSLI are reversed.
So ordered .
An evidentiary hearing was conducted over four days on the motions to suppress the identifications, custodial interrogation, and initial search of the cellular telephone. At that hearing, the first motion judge heard testimony from Abigail Martinez Melende; the victim's son, brother, and father; and a Springfield police officer, with respect to the identification procedures. Testimony was also introduced from a police officer and an expert witness concerning the custodial interrogation and the search issues. A nonevidentiary hearing was conducted by the second motion judge on the motion to suppress the cell site location information (CSLI).
A pseudonym.
Diaz's neighbor had seen a news report of the shooting, and told Diaz and Martinez Melende, as they were leaving for the police station, that a woman had been killed.
Diaz and Martinez Melende also were aware that there was a history of domestic violence between the defendant and the victim over the years.
A pseudonym.
Mendoza also had seen a news report that the vehicle his mother drove had been involved in a shooting.
The victim's father did not participate in the identification procedure.
Diaz was able to make a voice identification, in part, because the victim purportedly mentioned the defendant's name twice during the argument.
The witnesses were shown only the portion of the video recording that began after the sound of the gunshot.
Although Diaz did not listen to the audio portion while he viewed the video footage, his statements make clear that he understood the two segments were connected.
It appears as though the witnesses spoke to each other before arriving at the police station and while waiting at the police station; at these points, none of the witnesses had made an identification from either the audio or video portions of the surveillance tape.
The first motion judge "accept[ed] this transcription and translation as the official and accurate version of the conversation between and among the participants to the interview."
When the officers asked if they or the defendant were in possession of his cellular telephone, he responded that they had it. Officers then asked if they could search the device, and the defendant responded, "Si." The officer who was interpreting followed up in Spanish, "You understand what he say? They can take your phone in order, to search the phone?" The defendant responded, in Spanish, "Yes, they can search."
"The term ['CSLI'] refers to a cellular telephone service record or records that contain information identifying the base station towers and sectors that receive transmissions from a [cellular] telephone" (quotation and citation omitted).
Commonwealth
v.
Augustine
,
The warrant affidavit also noted that, on an unspecified date and with the same information, police sent an administrative subpoena to the defendant's cellular service provider, pursuant to G. L. c. 271, § 17B, seeking to obtain all the defendant's billing and call detail records for the one-month period leading up to the victim's death.
It is certainly not ideal that, prior to making an identification, each witness was apparently aware that the victim had been killed and suspected the defendant's involvement. Nonetheless, we agree with the first motion judge's determination that the identification procedure was not unduly suggestive under the circumstances. For example, police officers separated each witness during the identifications, presented the audio portion as distinct from the video portion, and did not allow the witnesses to see or hear the portion containing the gunshot. Moreover, police themselves made no suggestion of the defendant's involvement, and no confirmatory feedback was provided to the witnesses. See, e.g.,
Commonwealth
v.
Johnson
,
Even so, where there is more than one potential identifying witness, and where it is feasible to do so, we caution that police should avoid affording those witnesses the opportunity to speak with other witnesses about their perceptions prior to the identification proceeding. Of course, police cannot be expected to prevent every conceivable exposure to external information. Precautions should be taken, however, to guard against the risk that a witness may be influenced by his or her conversations with police, family members, or other witnesses before making an identification.
Moreover, to the extent that the defendant complains of the photograph being shown to the witnesses before they made an identification, those witnesses already had suggested to police that the victim's boyfriend likely was involved. Although it is better practice not to have shown a photograph of the defendant, police did so to confirm that this was the individual to whom the witnesses were referring when they spoke of the victim's boyfriend. In these circumstances, given that the witnesses were familiar with the defendant and were not eyewitnesses to a crime, it is unlikely that the witnesses made an identification from the videotape based on their having viewed his photograph. Compare
Commonwealth
v.
Forte
,
The defendant does not appear to challenge the audio identifications in this appeal, but, to the extent that he may, we discern no abuse of discretion in the first motion judge's determination that those identifications need not be suppressed. The witnesses had significant familiarity with the defendant's and the victim's voices, both in person and over the telephone, such that the witnesses were able to identify the voices from the audio recording reliably. Moreover, the police employed an appropriate procedure to separate the audio from the video segments, to ensure that the witnesses did not hear the gunshot, and to separate each witness while he or she attempted to make an identification. See
Commonwealth
v.
Chamberlin
,
The defendant maintains that we should review the question de novo because the first motion judge did not apply common-law principles of fairness under
Johnson
,
Whether, and to what extent, the nonpercipient witnesses will be permitted to make an in-court identification or to testify as to what they could perceive in the video footage is a matter reserved to the trial judge. See
Commonwealth
v.
Vacher
,
It is undisputed that the defendant was in custody for Miranda purposes. See
Commonwealth
v.
Clemente
,
The first motion judge considered the transcript and videotape of the interrogation in light of expert testimony. Where a judge made credibility determinations as to a witness's testimony that were relevant to his or her subsidiary findings of fact, we adhere to the ordinary standard of review and afford deference to the judge's findings. See
Commonwealth
v.
Tremblay
,
The expert testified that the defendant understood only one of nine critical words in the Miranda warnings.
The defendant also was not asked, either in Spanish or in English, whether he understood this right.
Although the United States Constitution permits the prosecution to introduce the physical fruits of a voluntary but unwarned statement to police, see
United States
v.
Patane
,
Police initially sent an administrative subpoena to the defendant's cellular service provider, pursuant to
"This test requires a higher degree of confidence that the CSLI will yield evidence of criminal activity than that which is necessary for an order under [18 U.S.C.] § 2703(d), which requires only that the government show specific and articulable facts that the CSLI is relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation" (quotations and citation omitted). See
Augustine
,
"Even though the exclusionary rule generally bars from admission evidence 'obtained during an illegal search as fruit of the poisonous tree, evidence initially discovered as a consequence of an unlawful search may be admissible if later acquired independently by lawful means untainted by the initial illegality' " (citation omitted).
Commonwealth
v.
Estabrook
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- COMMONWEALTH v. Pedro VASQUEZ.
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published