Bliss v. United States

445 A.2d 625, 1982 D.C. App. LEXIS 350
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 6, 1982
Docket80-1060, 80-1075
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 445 A.2d 625 (Bliss v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bliss v. United States, 445 A.2d 625, 1982 D.C. App. LEXIS 350 (D.C. 1982).

Opinions

KELLY, Associate Judge:

Appellant was convicted by a jury of felony-murder while armed and armed robbery of a cabdriver (No. 80-1060) and, in another, unrelated trial, of burglary in the second degree while armed and armed robbery of the Logan Inn (No. 80-1075). In this consolidated appeal, he alleges that (1) his right to cut off questioning was not scrupulously honored; (2) his statements to the police about the shooting of the cabdriver were involuntary; (3) his confession to the Logan Inn robbery was the fruit of the statement that the police had improperly obtained from him; (4) his confession to the Logan Inn robbery was involuntary; and (5) his motion for mistrial in the Logan Inn robbery trial should have been granted because of the prosecutor’s improper cross-examination. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.

I

A. The Facts

At approximately 3:00 a. m. on June 30, 1978, Officer Beverly Medlock was awakened by the sound of gunshots outside her apartment at 78 Brandywine Street, Southwest, in Washington, D. C. She went outside and saw two men standing by a taxi that had apparently struck a tree. The body of the cabdriver was in the back seat. She identified herself as a police officer, and the person on the passenger’s side fled. With her gun drawn, Officer Medlock approached the other person, appellant, who was standing by the driver’s side of the cab. She ordered him to stop and searched him. She then asked her next door neighbor to stay with appellant while she chased the person who had fled.

Unable to catch the other suspect, Officer Medlock returned about one minute later. Appellant told her that he had been shot and that the cab driver had just jumped in the back seat and started shooting. At this point, Officer Medlock told appellant that he was under arrest and orally advised him of his Miranda rights. He told her that he understood what was being said.

Officer Ronnie Carter arrived on the scene at approximately 3:15 a. m. Appellant, who was trying to treat his injured left leg, told Carter that he had taken a taxi from the Greyhound bus terminal to another location in Southeast and that he was forced to drive the cab while the cabdriver jumped into the back seat, took a gun from the other passenger and started shooting. Carter advised appellant that anything he said could be used against him.

Soon thereafter, an ambulance arrived to take appellant to the hospital. As appellant was lying on a stretcher in the rear of the ambulance, Carter told him that he was not under arrest but orally advised him of his Miranda rights. Carter later testified that appellant told him that he understood what Carter was saying.

Appellant was taken to the emergency room at D.C. General Hospital, where he was treated for the gunshot wound to his left leg.1 Officer Bobby Parker, who had also accompanied appellant to the hospital, remained with him while he was being treated. After receiving a call from his supervisor, Parker arrested appellant for the shooting of the cabdriver. He advised appellant of his rights but did not question him.

Detective Leroy Harris, of the Homicide Branch of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), after investigating the crime scene, went to the hospital to interview appellant. When asked what happened to his leg, appellant told Harris that he had been one of two passengers in a cab, that the other passenger pulled out a gun and tried to rob the cabdriver, and that during the ensuing struggle, he was shot, and the other man fled.

Appellant was picked up from the hospital at 8:45 a. m. and was taken to MPD [628]*628headquarters. He arrived there about 9:30 a. m. and was immediately taken to an interview room and advised of his rights from a PD 47 form.2 After reading appellant his rights, Detective Harris asked him to answer the waiver questions on the back of the card.3

Detective Harris questioned appellant about the shooting, but appellant merely looked at him without saying anything. Harris told appellant that his knife had been found at the scene, and he assumed that since the knife belonged to appellant, the gun did not. Appellant smiled. Harris continued to impress upon appellant “how serious murder was.” As Harris spoke, appellant shook his head affirmatively as if to say “I understand,” and responded non-verbally to questions but did not speak. After awhile, however, he told Harris he would tell him the truth. He. repeated the same story he related at the hospital.

Harris informed appellant that he did not believe the story, advised him to think things over, then left to get appellant a shirt (appellant was bare-chested with noticeable chill bumps), a sandwich and a coke. When he returned, Harris again asked appellant what happened. This time, appellant told him a different story. He said that he and the other passenger, his friend Bongi, had planned to rob the cabdriver.

At this point, appellant executed a waiver of rights at the top of a PD 118 statement form and proceeded to give a three-page written statement in which he detailed the robbery and the shooting of the cabdriver. When the statement was finished, at about 12:30 p. m.,4 Harris questioned appellant about the identity and background of his friend Bongi. Upon learning that Bongi came from New York, Harris made a number of phone calls to the New York City Police Department. He continued his efforts to learn more about Bongi until he left work at 3:00 p. m.

Larry Williams, another homicide detective, arrived between 2:00 and 2:30 p. m. and prepared the PD 163 prosecution report of the case. Williams questioned appellant about Bongi, and appellant eventually confessed that he and Bongi had robbed a motel in the area around 14th and Q Streets, Northwest. At about 3:30 p. m., Williams took appellant to the Robbery Branch office down the hall so that the robbery detectives could obtain a more complete statement.

At the Robbery Branch, appellant was interviewed by Detective Charles Dunn. After filling out a PD 47 form, appellant answered questions. With appellant’s help, Detective Dunn located the report of the robbery at the Logan Inn. When asked what he knew about the robbery, appellant gave Dunn the details of the crime. He then gave a four-page written statement describing how he and Bongi had robbed the motel. After completion of the statement, sometime after 6:48 p. m., appellant [629]*629was taken to be fingerprinted and photographed in preparation for presentment in court. Since by this time it was Saturday evening, appellant was not presented until Monday morning.

B. The Suppression Motions

On December 11,1978, appellant’s counsel filed a motion to suppress statements on the grounds that appellant’s waiver of rights was neither knowing nor voluntary since he was in pain and had had neither adequate food nor sleep. At the conclusion of a hearing on February 16, 1979, the trial court held that appellant was properly advised of his rights as required under Miranda, that his confessions were freely and voluntarily given and that his physical condition did not affect the voluntariness of his statements.

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Bluebook (online)
445 A.2d 625, 1982 D.C. App. LEXIS 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bliss-v-united-states-dc-1982.