Brownfield v. State

1983 OK CR 125, 668 P.2d 1165, 1983 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 298
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedAugust 29, 1983
DocketF-81-667
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1983 OK CR 125 (Brownfield v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brownfield v. State, 1983 OK CR 125, 668 P.2d 1165, 1983 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 298 (Okla. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

OPINION

CORNISH, Judge:

On February 7, 1980, two men, posing as prospective purchasers, were admitted to the home of Ms. Fanny Wilson in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After a tour of the house, they robbed Ms. Wilson and her teenage son at gunpoint, taking, among other property, a handgun. On April 17, 1980, Chris Brownfield and Arthur Neal Owens were arrested in Henryetta, Oklahoma, on an unrelated theft complaint. A search of their car revealed several handguns, including one believed to have been stolen in the Wilson robbery.

On April 23, 1980, Ms. Wilson journeyed to Okmulgee County and identified Brownfield and Owens in a line-up as the robbers. On May 15, 1980, Tulsa County officers transported the men from the Okmulgee County jail back to Tulsa County. While en route, they questioned the defendants about the crime. The defendants eventually made statements incriminating themselves in the crime.

At trial, the principal evidence against the defendants was the identification testimony of Ms. Wilson, the handgun recovered from the defendants’ vehicle, and the incriminating statements. The jury convicted the defendants of Robbery with Firearms, and set punishment at fifty-five (55) years in prison for each man.

The relevant suppression hearing testimony of the interrogating officer is set [1167]*1167out ⅛ the Appendix.1 It appears that after the defendants were placed in the officers’ vehicle for the ride back to Tulsa, they were advised of their Miranda rights. The defendants then said that they did not want to discuss the crime. They said that “their employer was an extremely bad individual [a]nd they could not talk about it for fear of their life (sic).”

The officers continued to interrogate the defendants in an effort to discover the name of the employer. The defendants eventually revealed the individual’s identity, and the officers then endeavored to convince the men that the employer was not as bad as they supposed. The defendants finally confessed their roles in the crime.

We hold that the incriminating statements were used against the defendants in clear violation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). In Miranda, the Supreme Court stated:

Once warnings have been given, the subsequent procedure is clear. 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. At this point he has shown that he intends to exercise his Fifth Amendment privilege; any statement taken after the person invokes his privilege cannot be other than the product of compulsion, subtle or otherwise. Without the right to cut off questioning, the setting of in-custody interrogation operates on the individual to overcome free choice in producing a statement after the privilege has been once invoked.

384 U.S. at 473-74, 86 S.Ct. at 1627-28. (footnote omitted.)

It is manifest that the men indicated their desire to remain silent. Their subsequent statement that they were motivated by fear fortified rather than contradicted their indication of silence. Under such circumstances,

[t]he admissibility of statements obtained after the person in custody has decided to remain silent depends under Miranda on whether his ‘right to cut off questioning’ was ‘scrupulously honored.’

Michigan v. Mosley, 423 U.S. 96, 104, 96 S.Ct. 321, 326, 46 L.Ed.2d 313 (1975). The officers wholly failed to respect the appellants’ right to cut off questioning, since there was no interruption in the interrogation after the men indicated that they wished to remain silent.

We find that the trial court erred in failing to suppress the inculpatory statements elicited from the defendants while en route from Okmulgee County to Tulsa County. However, such error does not require reversal if harmless in light of the other evidence of the appellants’ guilt. See, United States v. Hernandez, 574 F.2d 1362 (5th Cir.1978).

Aside from the confessions, the State’s case rested upon the identification testimony of Ms. Wilson and the handgun seized from the defendants. We reject the contention that Ms. Wilson’s identification testimony should have been suppressed. Although she was exposed to rather suggestive pretrial identification procedures by police investigators, the record clearly reflects that her testimony was independently reliable. See, Green v. State, 594 P.2d 767 (Okl.Cr.1979). She had an excellent opportunity to view the criminals at the time of the crime. She conducted the men on a fifteen minute tour of the house prior to the time they pulled their weapons. The men were in the house a total of about one hour during the crime. Moreover, defendant Owens had visited the house the day before the crime for twelve to fifteen minutes, arranging an appointment to see the house.

There is nothing to indicate that Ms. Wilson’s attention was distracted during the substantial periods of time she was in the presence of the robbers. She gave highly detailed descriptions of the perpetrators to the investigators, and her estimates of height, weight and age were remarkably accurate with respect to these defendants. At the line-up, she identified the defend[1168]*1168ants without serious difficulty, although expressing misgivings over certain changes in their appearance. The line-up occurred some five or seven weeks after the crime.

However, the State was impermis-sibly allowed to bolster Ms. Wilson’s identification testimony over objection of the defendants. One of the investigating officers was allowed to testify as follows:

Q. Who viewed the lineup?
A. Fanny Wilson.
Q. Did she make any identification?
A. Yes, sir, she did. .
Q. Who did she identify.
MR. MCCARTHY: To which I object.
THE COURT: Objection overruled?
A. She identified Christopher Brownfield and Arthur Owens.
MR. MCCARTHY: Excuse me, I ask jury be admonished to disregard that answer and move for a mistrial.
THE COURT: Will be denied.
[[Image here]]
BY MR. BAKER:
Q. Mike, during your time as law enforcement officer, how many lineups would you say you’ve either put together or attended?
A. Mr. Baker, it would be up in the hundreds.
Q. You’ve had a lot of victims of crimes looking at lots of lineups?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. You’ve had an occasion where some victims who could not make an identification in a lineup; is that true?
A. Absolutely.
Q.

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Brownfield v. State
1983 OK CR 125 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1983)

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Bluebook (online)
1983 OK CR 125, 668 P.2d 1165, 1983 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brownfield-v-state-oklacrimapp-1983.