State v. I.B.
State v. I.B.
Opinion of the Court
¶1 Invocation of the right to remain silent must be unequivocal. Here, while being held
FACTS
¶2 Police arrested 15-year-old I.B. for residential burglary. Pasco Police Officer Ryan Flanagan handcuffed I.B. and took him to an interview room at the police station. During the custodial interrogation, I.B. made inculpatory statements. These statements are not part of the record on appeal. The State charged I.B. with one count of residential burglary.
¶3 The State moved to admit I.B.’s statements. At the CrR 3.5 hearing, Police Officer Ray Aparicio testified that he read I.B. his Miranda
¶4 The officers left the interview room to discuss whether they should stop their questioning. They decided that I.B.’s head shaking did not sufficiently indicate his desire for the interview to cease. After about five minutes, they returned to the interview room and resumed questioning I.B. During cross-examination, defense counsel questioned Officer Aparicio as follows:
Q. Okay, so when you come back in, did you resume questioning [I.B.] about the incident that he had told you he didn’t want to talk about?
A. He did not tell me that he did not want to talk about it.
Q. Well, I think we’re getting a little cute here, but are, do you resume the questioning about the incident to which he shook his head side to side when asked if he wants to talk about it?
A. Did I immediately resume?
Q. Did anyone?
A. Officer Flanagan talking [sic] to him about a different case.
Q. So you switched cases at that point?
A. Yes, and Officer Flanagan informed him that when he walked in.
RP at 13.
¶5 The officers did not reread I.B. his Miranda rights and questioned I.B. about a different burglary. Eventually, the officers questioned I.B. about the residential burglary Officer Aparicio was investigating. I.B. avoided eye contact during the questioning and made inculpatory statements regarding the burglaries.
¶6 At the CrR 3.5 hearing, the prosecutor argued that I.B.’s head shaking “without some sort of verbalization” was equivocal and that the break between questioning was not
He’s a child, he’s in police custody, he’s already told them, I don’t want to talk to you[,] in a way that everybody understands. And instead of ceasing to talk to him, they leave the room and they come right back in, they switch officers and they switch cases. How is he supposed to know that this doesn’t keep going until he starts talking?
RP at 32.
¶7 The trial court suppressed I.B.’s statements to the officers, concluding, “[I.B.’s] shaking his head was an unequivocal invocation of the right to remain silent.” Clerk’s Papers (CP) at 18. In its oral ruling, the court stated, “In my mind, there could not be any more unequivocal expression, other than a shaking of a head ‘no.’ No means no. A defendant need not articulate in order to have an unequivocal invocation of his rights.” RP at 36. Following suppression of I.B.’s statements, the case was dismissed. The State appeals the trial court’s suppression of I.B.’s custodial statements.
ANALYSIS
¶8 The sole issue before us is whether I.B.’s shaking his head in the negative after being asked if he was willing to talk to police was an unequivocal assertion of the right to remain silent. The State construes I.B.’s head shaking as ambiguous, arguing that “[I.B.’s] act of turning away and shaking his head could have communicated many things,” including disbelief or discomfort. Br. of Appellant at 8. I.B. counters that his conduct clearly expressed his desire to stop communicating with police and, therefore, the court properly suppressed his statements.
Standard of Review
¶9 Whether I.B. unequivocally invoked his right to remain silent is a mixed question of law and fact that is
Fifth Amendment
¶10 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.” To counteract the inherent compulsion of custodial interrogation, police must administer Miranda warnings. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 479. Miranda requires that the defendant “be warned prior to any questioning that he has the right to remain silent, that anything he says can be used against him in a court of law, that he has the right to the presence of an attorney, and that if he cannot afford an attorney one will be appointed for him prior to any questioning if he so desires.” Id. Once a suspect invokes his right to remain silent, police may not continue the interrogation or make repeated efforts to wear down the suspect. Id. at 473-74; State v. Piatnitsky, 180 Wn.2d 407, 412, 325 P.3d 167 (2014), cert. denied, 135 S. Ct. 950 (2015).
¶11 A suspect need not verbally invoke his right to remain silent. In fact, Miranda sets a low bar for invocation of the right: “If the individual indicates in any manner, at any time prior to or during questioning, that he wishes to remain silent, the interrogation must cease.” Miranda, 384 U.S. at 473-74 (emphasis added). However, suspects must “unambiguously” express their desire to be silent. Piatnitsky, 180 Wn.2d at 413; see also State v. Hodges, 118 Wn. App. 668, 673, 77 P.3d 375 (2003) (invocation of the right to remain silent must be “clear and unequivocal”).
¶13 The analysis is context-specific. We do not examine the statement or conduct in isolation; rather, we consider it in the context of the circumstances leading up to the alleged invocation. Cross, 180 Wn.2d at 682-83. While “an accused’s postrequest responses to further interrogation may not be used to cast retrospective doubt on the clarity of the initial request itself,” the defendant’s invocation “may be characterized as ambiguous or equivocal as a result of events preceding the request or of nuances inherent in the request itself.” Smith v. Illinois, 469 U.S. 91, 99-100, 105 S. Ct. 490, 83 L. Ed. 2d 488 (1984). This determination requires a case-by-case analysis. Medina v. Singletary, 59 F.3d 1095, 1101 (11th Cir. 1995) (quoting Christopher v. Florida, 824 F.2d 836, 840 (11th Cir. 1987)).
Unequivocal Invocation of Right To Remain Silent
¶14 The question of whether shaking one’s head side to side, without verbal communication, sufficiently communicates an unequivocal desire to remain silent appears to be
¶15 Cases from other jurisdictions have addressed whether nonverbal conduct can be unequivocal. In United States v. Gordon, 173 F.3d 761, 766 (10th Cir. 1999), for example, the court held that “[n] on-verbal conduct, considered with other factors, can constitute voluntary consent to search.” See also United States v. Tutino, 883 F.2d 1125, 1138 (2d Cir. 1989) (recognizing an affirmative nod of the head is evidence of an unequivocal expression of understanding); People v. Martinez, 106 Cal. App. 3d 524, 534, 165 Cal. Rptr. 160 (1980) (right to remain silent invoked by any conduct that “ ‘reasonably appears inconsistent with a present willingness on the part of the suspect to discuss his case freely and completely with police at that time’ ” (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting People v. Burton, 6 Cal. 3d 375, 382, 491 P.2d 793, 99 Cal. Rptr. 1 (1971))).
¶16 Courts in other jurisdictions have also addressed the specific issue before us and concluded that a head shake may, under certain circumstances, sufficiently establish an unequivocal assertion of the right to silence. In State v. Nash, 279 Ga. 646, 648, 619 S.E.2d 684 (2005), the Supreme Court of Georgia found that a suspect unambiguously invoked his right to remain silent based on a videotape that showed the suspect shaking his head “ ‘in the negative’ ” in response to the question, “ ‘[S]o you don’t want to talk about it?’ ” (Boldface omitted.) In affirming the trial court’s finding that the suspect had invoked his right to silence, the court noted the “appellee shook his head in the negative when asked if he wanted to talk about the victim’s death and the questioning agent took appellee’s response to be a refusal to talk about the incident.” Id.
¶18 These cases support the trial court’s conclusion that I.B. unequivocally invoked his right to remain silent. Nothing in the circumstances leading up to I.B.’s invocation renders his head movement ambiguous. The court’s unchallenged findings establish that Officer Aparicio read I.B. his Miranda rights and that I.B. understood his rights. The court also found that after being asked if he was willing to speak with police, “[I.B.] looked away and slightly shook his head side to side. [I.B.] did not speak.” CP at 17. And similar to Clarke and Nash, the court found that “[b]oth officers testified they understand shaking the head side to side to communicate the word ‘no.’ ” CP at 17.
¶19 Moreover, similar to Clarke, Officer Aparicio’s question was not investigatory but directly concerned I.B.’s right to remain silent. In response to the officer’s direct question— whether I.B. wanted to talk about “why we were [ ]here”
¶20 Affirm.
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.