Bruce v. State

92 So. 3d 902, 2012 WL 3021820, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 12101
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 25, 2012
DocketNo. 4D09-2620
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 92 So. 3d 902 (Bruce 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
Bruce v. State, 92 So. 3d 902, 2012 WL 3021820, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 12101 (Fla. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

GROSS, J.

After a drive-by shooting, appellant Ja-varis Bruce was charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder. A jury found him guilty of three counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter. We reverse because the trial court erred in failing to suppress Bruce’s statement to the police obtained in violation of article I, section 9 of the Florida Constitution.

To settle a score, Bruce drove four of his friends in his car to the Franklin Park Community Center, where they expected to find Jarvis Laramore and Eligha McFadden, the objects of their revenge. At least two of the car’s occupants brought their guns. After the car arrived, a number of gunshots sprayed from the car into the surrounding area and a stray bullet hit a person driving a car nearby. McFadden and Laramore ran away.

Several days after the shooting, Fort Lauderdale police officers arrested Bruce at his mother’s Fort Lauderdale home for the shooting. As police arrested him, Bruce instructed his mother to telephone his lawyer, Michael Rocque, to inform him of the situation. After a phone conversation with Bruce’s mother, Rocque understood that Bruce was hiring him. Rocque told Bruce’s mother to tell her son not to say anything to the police other than to express a desire to speak with legal counsel. As Bruce was being taken away by the Fort Lauderdale police, Bruce’s mother relayed the message. She also made the arresting officers aware that she was on the phone with her son’s attorney.

Immediately after receiving the.mother’s phone call, Rocque left a voice message with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department telling them that he was invoking Bruce’s right to remain silent and right to counsel. Additionally, Rocque faxed letters to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and the Broward Sheriffs Office relaying the same , information. Rocque then prepared to go to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department to meet with Bruce, but before leaving his office Bruce’s mother told Rocque that her son was being taken to the Broward Sheriffs Office. Rocque arrived at the Broward Sheriffs Office at about 2:30 p.m., but was denied access to Bruce, who was being simultaneously interrogated. The detectives questioning Bruce were unaware that Rocque was seeking access to the interrogation room to see his client. Bruce signed a Miranda waiver form at 2:38 p.m. Bruce did not invoke his right to counsel. Over an hour later, Rocque was taken to the interrogation room. By [904]*904that time, Bruce had given a statement. In his recorded statement, Bruce admitted that he went to the scene to fight and that he fired a gun “two times, I don’t know.” Neither before nor during the interrogation was Bruce informed that his attorney was in the building trying to speak with him.

Bruce’s motion to suppress his statement argued, among other things, that the police conduct violated his rights under article I, sections 9 and 16 of the Florida Constitution. The trial court denied the motion reasoning that Bruce did not “personally invoke his right to counsel” and that the interrogating officers did not have “a duty to stop the interrogation of the defendant” because they “were not aware that Mr. Rocque was present to see the defendant.”

Haliburton v. State (Haliburton II), 514 So.2d 1088 (Fla.1987) compels the conclusion that the police conduct in this case denied Bruce due process of law under article I, section 9 of the Florida Constitution. With facts similar to those in this case, Haliburton I originally found a violation under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Haliburton v. State (Haliburton I), 476 So.2d 192 (Fla.1985). The United States Supreme Court vacated that decision and remanded it for reconsideration. Florida v. Haliburton, 475 U.S. 1078, 106 S.Ct. 1452, 89 L.Ed.2d 711 (1986). On remand, the Florida Supreme Court again suppressed the defendant’s statement, basing its ruling on the Florida, and not the Federal, Constitution.

According to the facts set forth in Haliburton I, the defendant was arrested “at about 6:30 a.m., advised of his rights, and questioned until 9:30 a.m.” 476 So.2d at 193. “He submitted to a polygraph examination at 2:05 p.m.” Id.

Meanwhile [the defendant’s] sister retained an attorney to represent him. The attorney called the police near the end of the polygraph examination and requested that the questioning stop. The attorney arrived at the police station a few minutes before 4 p.m. and asked to speak with [the defendant], but was not allowed to do so. [The defendant] gave a recorded statement from 3:56 until 4:20 p.m. that was played to the jury. By 4:18 p.m. the attorney had a telephone court order requiring that the police give him access to [the defendant]. After the judge’s second phone call, the police chief ordered that the interrogation cease, and the attorney was able to see [the defendant].

Id.

The Supreme Court held in Haliburton I that “the police’s failure to notify [the defendant] that an attorney [retained on his behalf] was present and requesting to see him deprived [the defendant] of information essential to a knowing and intelligent waiver of his right to counsel under Miranda v. Arizona.” Haliburton II, 514 So.2d at 1089. See also Haliburton I, 476 So.2d at 193-94.

Under facts similar to Haliburton, the United States Supreme Court found no federal fifth or sixth amendment violation, but wrote that its decision did not disable “the States from adopting different requirements for the conduct of its employees and officials as a matter of state law.” Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 428, 106 S.Ct. 1135, 89 L.Ed.2d 410 (1986). The United States Supreme Court vacated Ha-liburton I and remanded it for reconsideration in light of Burbine. Florida v. Haliburton, 475 U.S. at 1078, 106 S.Ct. 1452.

On remand, the Florida Supreme Court held that the police conduct in Haliburton I denied the defendant due process of law under article I, section 9 of the Florida Constitution. Haliburton II, 514 So.2d at 1090. The Supreme Court based the viola[905]*905tion on the failure of the police (1) to tell the defendant of his attorney’s telephone call and (2) provide the attorney with access to the defendant after he arrived at the police station. Id. The Court explained its ruling by quoting from Justice Stevens’ dissent in Burbine:

As Justice Stevens stated in his Burbine dissent, any “distinction between deception accomplished by means of an omission of a critically important fact and deception by means of a misleading statement, is simply untenable.” [475 U.S. at 458, 106 S.Ct. 1135] (Stevens, J., dissenting). Further, “there can be no constitutional distinction ... between a deceptive misstatement and the concealment by the police of the critical fact that an attorney retained by the accused or his family has offered assistance, either by telephone or in person.” Id. (footnote omitted).
Further, the attorney in the instant case not only telephoned the police station as to the status of his client, but subsequently arrived at the station and requested access.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 So. 3d 902, 2012 WL 3021820, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 12101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bruce-v-state-fladistctapp-2012.