Barger v. State

923 So. 2d 597, 2006 WL 733576
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMarch 24, 2006
Docket5D04-1565
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 923 So. 2d 597 (Barger v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barger v. State, 923 So. 2d 597, 2006 WL 733576 (Fla. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

923 So.2d 597 (2006)

Chad BARGER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 5D04-1565.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

March 24, 2006.

*599 James S. Purdy, Public Defender, and Ailene S. Rogers, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.

No Appearance for Appellee.

LAWSON, J.

Chad Barger, ("Barger"), appeals the judgments and sentences from two separate cases involving multiple offenses raising two issues on appeal.

The material facts from the most recent case are as follows. In October 2001, Barger attacked a female manager of a Wendy's restaurant as she opened the store for business. He threw her to the floor, punched her until she lost consciousness, and dragged her to his car. He then drove to a secluded location where he raped her and forced her to perform oral sex on him. After the sexual assault, Barger drove the victim back to the restaurant and forced her to turn over money from the business' safe.

As soon as Barger left the restaurant, the victim called "911" and provided a description of Barger and his vehicle. Shortly thereafter, Barger was apprehended with the money stolen from the restaurant and the victim's bloody shirt in his possession. He was identified by the victim as her assailant both at the time of his apprehension, and at trial.

After Barger's arrest, Detective Johnny Lawson and Detective Rory Nelson of the Melbourne Police Department interviewed him. During the interview, the following relevant exchange occurred:

Lawson: You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court. You have a right to talk with a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions, and to have him present during the questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer the questions now without a lawyer being present, you still have a right to stop answering at any time. You also have a right to stop answering at any time until you talk to a lawyer. Do you understand these rights?
Defendant: Yes.
Lawson: Do you wish to speak with us without a lawyer being present?
Defendant: I want to know what I'm being charged with.
Lawson: Sure, let me tell you about that, but are you willing to talk with us now without a lawyer being present?
Defendant: (Inaudible).
Lawson: Is that a no or a yes?
Defendant: Yeah, Yeah.
Lawson: You will talk now?
Defendant: Indicates.
Lawson: Right now what we are doing is we are investigating a — (inaudible) he's your probation officer.
Defendant: (Inaudible) He has nothing to do with Probation or Parole.
Lawson: Well, he's here to represent Probation and Parole. He's not ... (inaudible).
We are investigating some things that occurred earlier this morning with a car. From what I understand is police officers, I guess, gave chase to that car, observed you bail out of it, run through some woods, and we all got involved with that (inaudible) car stolen. You know that?
*600 Defendant: (Indicates).
Lawson: A sack of money laying on the ground that you dropped when you got out of the car (inaudible). There is also some problems that occurred at a restaurant this morning (inaudible) know why you are here? ... followed her when she opened the door and smacked her a couple of times, took her and put her in the car, sexually assaulted her, brought her back in.
Defendant: I never took no girl.
Lawson: Well, this is what I'm saying. These are the allegations.

As the interview continued, Barger made incriminating statements linking him to the crimes.

In November 2001, the State filed a five-count information, charging Barger with burglary of a structure with an assault or battery (count I), kidnapping (count II), two counts of sexual battery by threats of serious personal injury (counts III and IV), and robbery (count V).

Barger moved to suppress the statements he made during the custodial interview with Detectives Lawson and Nelson, arguing that his statements were involuntary and taken in violation of his federal and Florida constitutional rights. The court held a hearing on the motion, during which the court watched a video-taped recording of the interview. During the hearing, Barger limited his motion to two arguments. First, he argued that when asked if he wanted to talk with the detectives without a lawyer present, he made both verbal and non-verbal negative responses. Specifically, he claimed that when Lawson asked him if he was willing to talk without his lawyer being present, he actually "nodded his head negatively from side to side" and said "Nah." Second, he argued that he asked a prefatory question that the detectives failed to answer before continuing with the interview. Specifically, he asserted that under Almeida v. State, 737 So.2d 520 (Fla.1999), the detectives' failure to immediately answer his question regarding the charges against him rendered his testimony involuntary and therefore subject to suppression.

Detective Lawson testified at the suppression hearing that at the time of the interview he did not know what specific charges would be filed against Barger. He also testified that he interpreted Barger's head shaking as an affirmation of his desire to speak without his lawyer present, and noted that he clarified his question by asking Barger if the gesture was intended to be a yes or a no. He stated that Barger responded to the clarifying question by stating "Yeah, Yeah."

The trial court reviewed the video tape "numerous times" and concluded that when Barger was asked whether he wished to speak without his lawyer present, he said "Yeah" not "Nah." The court also found that Barger's head gestures "were a continuation of his prior head bobbing, and were not intended by him to be a nonverbal no." The court denied Barger's motion to suppress and the case proceeded to trial. He was found guilty of all five charges.

At the time Barger committed the crimes charged in the 2001 case, he was on probation for a 1995 conviction, where the underlying charges included armed burglary of a conveyance with assault or battery (count 1), armed kidnapping (count II), and attempted sexual battery by use of threat of a deadly weapon (count III). In 1995, the court withheld adjudication on counts I and II, but adjudicated Barger guilty on count III. He was initially sentenced to six years probation, with the first served under community control. In 1997, Barger was found guilty of violating his probation, and his probation was revoked. *601 He was sentenced to 40 months prison for counts I and II, followed by probation until September 5, 2002 for count I, and sentenced to 3 years prison for count III. An affidavit of violation of probation was filed alleging that Barger had violated his probation with the 2001 charges, an unrelated indecent exposure charge, and other technical violations.

During Barger's trial on the 2001 charges, the presiding judge also sat as the finder of fact for Barger's violation of probation case.

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923 So. 2d 597, 2006 WL 733576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barger-v-state-fladistctapp-2006.