State v. Widmer
State v. Widmer
Opinion of the Court
*716{1} The district court denied Defendant Ronald Widmer's motion to suppress on grounds that inculpatory statements he made without the benefit of Miranda warnings were admissible under the police officer safety exception to Miranda . We disagree and reverse.
BACKGROUND
{2} Defendant was found guilty by a jury on one count of possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine), contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-31-23 (2011). Defendant's conviction stemmed from the detention and search of his person that occurred during an Albuquerque, New Mexico Police Department (APD) investigation into whether a moped in Defendant's possession was stolen.
{3} Defendant filed a pre-trial motion to suppress statements he made, together with any drugs and paraphernalia seized from his person by the APD officers. Because Defendant's motion was untimely, the district court decided to address the merits of Defendant's motion during the trial, and together with any related constitutional issues as they arose while the evidence at trial was being presented.
{4} APD Officers Frank Baca and "Speedy" Apodaca, as well as APD forensic scientist Manuel Gomez testified. In addition, Defendant provided limited testimony outside of the presence of the jury. APD dispatch received an anonymous tip reporting two individuals in a Walgreens parking lot were trying to start a moped that appeared to have been tampered with, and Officers Baca and Apodaca were dispatched to investigate. Upon arriving at the Walgreens at around 11:00 p.m., Officer Apodaca testified that he approached Defendant and his companion, Lydia Alvarez, who were standing around a moped meeting the tip's description, and asked what was going on and what were they doing. Defendant and Ms. Alvarez, according to Officer Apodaca, cooperated with the officers and explained that their moped was having mechanical issues due to a low battery. Although Defendant told the officers that he owned the moped, Officer Apodaca said they continued to investigate because there was damage to the moped's ignition, which indicated that it may have been stolen.
{5} Officer Apodaca located a VIN number on the moped and ran that information through the National Criminal Information Center (NCIC)-a database through which police run checks on potential stolen vehicles, firearm inquiries, and warrant checks. At the same time, Officer Baca collected and ran the personal information of Defendant and Ms. Alvarez through NCIC and learned that Defendant had a possible active felony arrest warrant.
{6} As soon as the officers learned of the possible arrest warrant, within only minutes of arriving at Walgreens, and before receiving confirmation from dispatch that the arrest warrant was in fact active, Officer Apodaca detained Defendant, placed him in handcuffs, and directed him to sit near the sidewalk.
{7} While Defendant was being handcuffed, Officer Apodaca searched Defendant's person. During the search and without reading Defendant his Miranda rights, Officer Apodaca asked Defendant "Is there anything else on you that I should know about?"-which both officers testified is a routine question asked of individuals being patted down to ensure police safety. In response to Officer Apodaca's question, Officer Baca testified over defense counsel's objection (which was overruled) that Defendant admitted to having some methamphetamine in a red pill container hanging from his belt loop. As a result, Officer Apodaca seized a pill container which contained a white powdery substance from Defendant's belt loop. Shortly thereafter, APD dispatch confirmed that the arrest warrant for Defendant was outstanding and Defendant was placed in Officer Apodaca's squad car and removed from the scene.
{8} The district court gave two explanations for its ruling admitting Defendant's statement into evidence. The district court ruled that Defendant's questioning was permissible as incident to a lawful arrest under the police safety exception to Miranda . In a subsequent statement, the district court further *717explained that it refused to "get into the artfulness or lack of artfulness" of Officer Apodaca's question to Defendant.
The jury was instructed that:
Evidence has been admitted concerning a statement allegedly made by [D]efendant. Before you consider such statement for any purpose, you must determine that the statement was given voluntarily. In determining whether a statement was voluntarily given, you should consider if it was freely made and not induced by promise or threat.
{9} Officer Apodaca further testified that during the investigation at Walgreens he and Officer Baca also spoke with Ms. Alvarez. As a result of this interaction, Officer Apodaca testified that he seized a small baggie containing a white powdery substance from Ms. Alvarez, which Officer Baca had noticed was underneath Ms. Alvarez's leg where she sat on the sidewalk. Believing that all of the white powder seized from Defendant and Ms. Alvarez was methamphetamine, Officer Apodaca combined the contents of the pill container from Defendant's belt with the contents in the baggie seized from Ms. Alvarez into one bag before tagging it into evidence.
{10} Mr. Gomez, who was qualified as an expert in forensic science and analysis of controlled substances, testified that a single sample of the contents of the bag containing the mixed white powders seized from Defendant and Ms. Alvarez was tested for controlled substances. This sample tested positive for methamphetamine.
{11} The jury returned a general verdict of guilty, and Defendant appeals.
DISCUSSION
I. Standard of Review
{12} Appellate review of a motion to suppress under Miranda presents a mixed question of law and fact. State v. Olivas ,
II. Analysis
{13} On appeal, Defendant argues that Officer Apodaca's question to Defendant: "Is there anything on your person that I should know about?"-which prompted Defendant to state that he had some methamphetamine-was custodial interrogation in violation of his rights under the Fifth Amendment and Miranda v. Arizona ,
A. Custodial Interrogation Under Miranda
{14} The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "[n]o person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." U.S. Const. amend V. Based on this protection, the United States Supreme Court established in Miranda that the government may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from "custodial interrogation" of a suspect, unless effective procedural safeguards have been followed to secure the suspect's privilege against self-incrimination.
*718
{15} Therefore, we must determine if Officer Apodaca's question to Defendant concerning whether he had anything on him that Officer Apodaca should know about constituted "custodial interrogation." We consider the questions of whether Defendant was placed in custody and then subject to interrogation in turn.
{16} To determine whether a suspect was placed in custody for purposes of Miranda , appellate courts engage in an objective inquiry under which the ultimate issue is whether a suspect was either formally placed under arrest or subject to restraint from freedom of movement to the degree normally associated with a formal arrest. See State v. Wilson ,
{17} Defendant was in custody for purposes of Miranda at the time of the questioning that led to his admission to possessing methamphetamine. Almost immediately upon arriving at Walgreens and learning of a possible active arrest warrant for Defendant, Officer Apodaca detained Defendant and placed him in handcuffs. Officer Apodaca proceeded to frisk Defendant and directed him to sit down on the sidewalk. Although Officer Baca testified at trial that APD officers are not permitted to formally place a suspect under arrest until potential warrants have been confirmed by dispatch, Officer Apodaca testified that at the time Defendant was placed in handcuffs "he was arrested for the warrant." However, whether Defendant's detention constituted an investigatory stop, a de facto arrest, or formal arrest is immaterial because a suspect need not be under formal arrest to be in "custody" under Miranda . Rather Miranda custody only requires restraint from movement to the degree normally associated with an arrest, as the courts in Wilson , Quarles , and Smith concluded. In those cases, the courts determined suspects were in Miranda custody when they were handcuffed, frisked, questioned, and ordered to sit in a particular area-even if not explicitly told they were under arrest-because the suspects' movement was restrained to the degree normally associated with an arrest. Here, Defendant's freedom of movement was similarly restrained when he was handcuffed, frisked, questioned, and ordered to sit on the sidewalk by Officer Apodaca. The circumstances indicate that a reasonable person in Defendant's position would have understood himself to be in custody.
*719{18} Having determined that Defendant was placed in "custody" by Officer Apodaca for purposes of Miranda , we turn to whether Officer Apodaca's questioning of Defendant constituted "interrogation," under Miranda .
{19} "Interrogation" under Miranda certainly encompasses express questions from police to obtain an incriminating response. But, it is not limited to such express questions. "Interrogation" also includes "any words or actions," according to the United States Supreme Court, "that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response[.]" Rhode Island v. Innis ,
{20} State v. Spotted Elk ,
{21} We find Spotted Elk persuasive and adopt its reasoning. Here, Defendant was confronted by two armed police officers, handcuffed, searched, and then ordered to sit on the sidewalk. After Defendant was handcuffed and while Officer Apodaca was in the process of searching Defendant, Officer Apodaca asked Defendant "Is there anything on you that I should know about?" This was a broad, unlimited question with no explanation that Officer Apodaca was asking only about items which could jeopardize his safety. From Defendant's perception, the "question" was tantamount to a demand by Officer Apodaca that Defendant disclose to him whether anything illegal was on Defendant's person. See State v. Hermosillo ,
{22} Because Defendant was subjected to custodial interrogation under Miranda , Defendant was entitled to being advised of his constitutional rights. It is undisputed that Defendant was Mirandized after the inculpatory statements were elicited from him by Officer Apodaca. As a result, unless the circumstances of Officer Apodaca's questioning of Defendant warrant application of an exception to Miranda , the district court erred in admitting Defendant's statement to Officer Apodaca that he had some methamphetamine. We proceed by considering the state's *720argument and district court's ruling that an exception to Miranda applies in this case.
B. The Police Officer Safety Exception to Miranda
{23} In Quarles , the United States Supreme Court established a "narrow exception to the Miranda rule[,]" which allows arresting officers to ask a defendant "questions necessary to secure their own safety or the safety of the public." Quarles ,
{24} In State v. Trangucci ,
{25} Quarles and Trangucci teach that a narrow exception to Miranda exists when there is an objective, immediate threat to police officer safety and police ask questions that are necessary to secure their own safety. In each case the exception "will be circumscribed by the exigency which justifies it." Quarles ,
{26} In Spotted Elk , discussed above, after concluding that the police officer's question, "Do you have anything on your person I need to be concerned about?" was custodial interrogation under Miranda , the Washington Court of Appeals proceeded to consider whether the police officer safety exception applied. Spotted Elk ,
{27} In State v. Crook ,
{28} In United States v. Castaneda ,
{29} We hold that under the facts of this case, Defendant's response to Officer Apodaca's question, "Is there anything else on you that I should know about" must be suppressed. This was a custodial interrogation without Miranda warnings, and the "narrow exception" recognized in Quarles does not apply. The officers expressed no concern of any kind that anything at the scene or Defendant's conduct posed a danger to their safety. In fact, Defendant was cooperative and handcuffed before the pat down. If Officer Apodaca was concerned that Defendant might have something on his person which would endanger Officer Apodaca while he conducted Defendant's pat down, he did not say so. In addition, there is nothing in the record to show the reason for such a concern, if such a concern potentially existed.
*722Similar to Castaneda , the broad, undifferentiated question, "Is there anything else on you I need to know about?" was not focused on protecting officer safety.
{30} We emphasize that our holding does not prohibit a police officer from asking a focused question that is necessary to ensure the safety of the officer when there is an objective, immediate threat to the safety of the officer. However, this is not such a case. We therefore determine that the district court erred in admitting Defendant's statement that he had some methamphetamine in a red pill container hanging from his belt loop, together with the methamphetamine discovered as a result of Defendant's statement. See State v. Greene ,
C. Harmless Error
{31} Perhaps anticipating our conclusion, the State argues that even if Miranda was violated, admitting Defendant's statement into evidence was harmless error. We disagree.
{32} At issue here is the violation of Defendant's constitutional rights under Miranda . See Wilson ,
{33} With the denial of Defendant's motion to suppress, the defense strategy relied on other lapel videos recorded by the officers to challenge the State's claim that the white powdery substance presented at trial was not seized from Defendant. Defense counsel argued that the methamphetamine presented at trial had actually been seized from Defendant's companion, Ms. Alvarez. In support of the defense, Defendant's attorney wanted to admit edited clips from Officer Apodaca's lapel cam video. However, because defense counsel had not yet edited the videos, and to avoid a delay in the trial to allow counsel to redact the videos, the district court ruled that to support the defense, defense counsel would be required to admit the full videos from Officer Apodaca and Baca's lapel cams, including the audio. On one of the videos, after the methamphetamine was seized from Defendant, one of the officers asked Ms. Alvarez if she had any methamphetamine, to which she responded, "What are you talking about?" As the officer was answering, "[t]he meth that's on [Defendant,]" Defendant told Ms. Alvarez, "[t]he meth that's on me baby."
{34} The State makes two arguments of harmless error on appeal that it did not make to the district court. First, relying on State v. Fekete ,
{35} Fekete is of no assistance to the State. In Fekete , the defendant had shot and killed a man on the street, and went back to his motel room for the night.
{36} Significantly, the State overlooks the fact that Defendant's purported "voluntary" statement was admitted into evidence only because the district court denied Defendant's motion to suppress. Defendant was left with relying on lapel cam videos which would otherwise have been suppressed to support his defense that the methamphetamine came from Ms. Alvarez. Moreover, the district court mandated that the entire videos be given to the jury. Under these circumstances, there was no waiver. See State v. Zamarripa ,
{37} The State's inevitable discovery argument also fails. As set forth above, the suspected methamphetamine seized from Defendant was combined with suspected methamphetamine seized from Ms. Alvarez into one bag at the scene by Officer Apodaca. It is therefore unknown what, specifically, was tested positive for methamphetamine by Mr. Gomez. Because of its erroneous suppression ruling, the district court never developed a record for this Court to review regarding the inevitable discovery doctrine or the officer's contamination of the seized evidence. We apply the right for any reason doctrine only if doing so "is not unfair to the appellant." State v. Gallegos ,
{38} Finally, in our determination of whether the error in admitting Defendant's statement into evidence was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, we note that no better evidence was available to the State besides Defendant's statement-his confession-that Defendant had methamphetamine on his person, and knew it was methamphetamine. Our Supreme Court has recognized that the impact of a confession is virtually impossible for a jury to ignore:
Confessions have profound impact on the jury, so much so that we may justifiably doubt its ability to put them out of mind even if told to do so. A full confession in which the defendant discloses the motive for and means of the crime may tempt the jury to rely upon that evidence alone in reaching its decision. The risk that the confession is unreliable, coupled with the profound impact that the confession has upon the jury, requires a reviewing court to exercise extreme caution before determining that the admission of the confession at trial was harmless.
State v. Alvarez-Lopez ,
{39} We reject the State's arguments of harmless error and we are otherwise unable to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the admission of Defendant's statement into evidence, in violation of Miranda, was harmless.
CONCLUSION
{40} We reverse Defendant's conviction and remand to the district court for a new trial. In light of our holding, we do not address Defendant's remaining arguments.
{41} IT IS SO ORDERED.
I CONCUR:
TIMOTHY L. GARCIA, Judge Pro Tempore
Dissenting Opinion
Dissenting Opinion
{42} When a defendant is legally arrested-as is the case when an NCIC search undertaken by law enforcement officers reveals the existence of an outstanding felony arrest warrant-our precedent uniformly, plainly and consistently permits a contemporaneous search incident to arrest. It matters not that supplemental confirmation of the warrant's accuracy by APD dispatch was ongoing when Defendant was handcuffed, searched, and seated upon a curb during the remainder of the officers' on-scene investigation. Stated more simply, a legal arrest commands the constitutionality of a search incident thereto. As such, the methamphetamine found in the pill container, attached to Defendant's belt, is admissible against him at trial. Also, I would hold Defendant's constitutional rights not to have been violated when he was asked, without being first notified of his right to remain silent, whether he possessed anything on his person that officers "should know about" because such an inquiry is justified by the limited Miranda -excepted need to secure officer safety. Therefore, Defendant's ensuing statement notifying officers of the presence of the methamphetamine on his person is also admissible against him. I respectfully dissent.
{43} First, we have held that outstanding arrest warrants permit arrests. See State v. Grijalva ,
{44} Next, searches incident to arrests are as entrenched as any exception to the otherwise applicable warrant requirement that serves generally, but not always, as the constitutional prequel to police looking for things in private places such as pill boxes attached to belt loops. State v. Paananen ,
{45} The more constitutionally intriguing issue, one I suggest our Supreme Court take up, is the propriety of the un-Mirandized question asked of Defendant just before the constitutionally compliant search incident to his arrest. While the Majority's disallowance of the wording employed by the arresting officer finds some support in other jurisdictions, see Majority Op. ¶¶ 20, 27-28, I would hold differently. Quarles held that "the need for answers to questions in a situation posing a threat to the public safety outweighs the need for the prophylactic rule protecting the Fifth Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination."
{46} The Majority's holding fails to reiterate the well-established constitutional propriety of the straightforward search incident to arrest that resulted in the seizure of methamphetamine from Defendant. More regrettably, it unnecessarily reduces the day-to-day safety of law enforcement officers by disallowing one simple, safety-geared inquiry of defendants that are possibly armed, possibly in possession of hazardous paraphernalia associated with drug use, or that otherwise may pose some unknown yet avoidable threat to officers. I view Quarles to permit officers to seek such limited assurance without first providing Miranda warnings. I would affirm the district court's denial of Defendant's motion to suppress.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ronald WIDMER, Defendant-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published