Commonwealth v. McCord

21 Va. Cir. 334, 1990 Va. Cir. LEXIS 288
CourtFairfax County Circuit Court
DecidedOctober 10, 1990
DocketCase No. (Criminal) 67003
StatusPublished

This text of 21 Va. Cir. 334 (Commonwealth v. McCord) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Fairfax County Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. McCord, 21 Va. Cir. 334, 1990 Va. Cir. LEXIS 288 (Va. Super. Ct. 1990).

Opinion

By JUDGE ROSEMARIE ANNUNZIATA

The matter before the Court is defendant Joseph S. McCord’s Motion to Suppress certain statements he made as a result of questioning by two Fairfax County Police Department investigators. In support of his motion, defendant invokes the Fifth Amendment and its due process guarantees.

Defendant is accused of the aggravated sexual battery of a seven-year old boy who lives in the accused’s residential complex. The defendant was questioned after police received complaints about the conduct of an individual in the complex from a number of parents of young children and after having spoken to some of the children themselves.

The alleged victim in this case identified the defendant’s apartment as the site of the battery and provided the investigator with a description of the perpetrator, including the perpetrator’s first name, to wit "Joseph." The child also gave the investigators a description of the apartment interior. Through further investigation and record checks, defendant’s last name and physical description were obtained from D.M.V. records. A criminal record check revealed defendant had one conviction for driving under the influence and had been involved in several criminal cases as a complaining witness.

[335]*335On the day in question, the investigators, dressed in civilian clothes, staked out the defendant's apartment and parking lot. Once the defendant was identified as the individual they were seeking to question, the two officers approached the defendant and asked to talk to him. When the defendant agreed, the officers followed him some thirty-five feet to his apartment, where the questioning was conducted, with all three seated around a table. The defendant was not given his Miranda rights.

In Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), the United States Supreme Court held that answers to questions posed to a suspect in custody without administering certain prescribed warnings are presumed compelled and must be excluded at trial. The Court subsequently held that a confession obtained in full compliance with Miranda may, nevertheless, be inadmissible, if it was not voluntary. Miller v. Fenton, 474 U.S. 104 (1985). Thus, the inquiry here is two-fold.

The critical issue in the first inquiry is whether the defendant was in custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444; Wass v. Commonwealth, 5 Va. App. 27, 31 (1987). Custodial interrogation, requiring the Miranda safeguards, can occur in locations other than the police station, see Orozco v. Texas, 394 U.S. 324 (1969), including the suspect's home. Id.; Smith v. Commonwealth, 219 Va. 455 (1978).

However, not all questioning of suspects detained by the police constitutes custodial interrogation for purposes of Miranda. Wass v. Commonwealth, 5 Va. App. at 32. "It is only when a suspect's freedom of movement is curtailed to a degree associated with a formal arrest that the suspect is entitled to the full protection of Miranda." Id. at 32. The question is viewed from the vantage point of "how a reasonable man in the suspect's position would have understood his situation." Berkermer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 442 (1984).

In the present case, McCord was questioned at his home, a setting presumed to be non-coercive. Wass v. Commonwealth, 5 Va. App. at 33. McCord was not under physical restraint. Arguably, the presence of the police officers, one of whom was armed, may have had some coercive effect. See generally, Oregon v. Mathiasan, 429 U.S. 492, 495 [336]*336(1977). However, in my opinion, the evidence establishes McCord did not consider himself to be under arrest. McCord felt sufficiently unrestrained to drink two beers during the interview, having been assured by the investigators that "it was his house and he could do whatever he wanted Indeed, knowing he was not under arrest, he sought a delay in his arrest so he could attend a National Guard training weekend. Such a request is inconsistent with a belief that one’s freedom of movement was restrained to the decree associated with a formal arrest. In fact, McCord was not under arrest, and the police officers left without putting him under arrest.

Defendant also contends that the investigators had become accusatory and that he had become the focus of. the investigation even before the interview began or certainly shortly thereafter. Defendant also points out he was made to confront certain evidence of his guilt. In particular, he was asked to explain how the alleged victim could describe the interior of defendant’s apartment if he had never been in the apartment.

While these are relevant factors to consider, as is the existence of probable cause to arrest, Wass v. Commonwealth, 5 Va. App. at 33, they are not determinative when weighed against other relevant factors evidencing a non-custodial setting. See Smith v. Commonwealth, 219 Va. 455 (1978). The probative evidence regarding the custodial nature of the interrogation in this case is certainly no more compelling than the facts established in Smith v. Commonwealth, supra. In Smith, the Virginia Supreme Court held that the in-home confession of an individual who police suspected of rape and murder, even when preceded by accusations and feigned inculpatory evidence, was not the product of a custodial interrogation for the purposes of Miranda. Smith v. Commonwealth, 219 Va. at 470.

In summary, I find that the Miranda warnings were not required before defendant was questioned with regard to the complaint at issue in this case.

With respect to the second inquiry, in deciding whether defendant’s statement was voluntary* the Court "must determine whether, in light of the totality of the circumstances, including not only the details of the interrogation, but also the characteristics of the accused, the statement was the product of an essentially free and unconstrained [337]*337choice by its maker, or whether the maker's will was overcome and his capacity for self-determination was critically impaired” Goodwin v. Commonwealth, 3 Va. App. 249, 253 (1986). In my opinion, the Commonwealth met its burden of establishing the defendant's confession was voluntary.

It is undisputed McCord was under emotional stress and that his emotional turmoil was evident during the interview. McCord "assumed” he "would be arrested” and "knew” he was in trouble almost from the outset. The evidence is uncontroverted that McCord freely and voluntarily disclosed, early in the interview and without being asked the question, that he was involved in similar incidents in Falls Church and that he was a pedophile. He readily conceded he knew the child in question.

Defendant testified he then requested that the investigators defer his arrest until after the National Guard Training weekend.

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Related

Miranda v. Arizona
384 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1966)
Orozco v. Texas
394 U.S. 324 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Oregon v. Mathiason
429 U.S. 492 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Berkemer v. McCarty
468 U.S. 420 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Oregon v. Elstad
470 U.S. 298 (Supreme Court, 1985)
Miller v. Fenton
474 U.S. 104 (Supreme Court, 1985)
Colorado v. Connelly
479 U.S. 157 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Kauffmann v. Commonwealth
382 S.E.2d 279 (Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1989)
Smith v. Commonwealth
248 S.E.2d 135 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1978)
Wass v. Commonwealth
359 S.E.2d 836 (Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1987)
Goodwin v. Commonwealth
349 S.E.2d 161 (Court of Appeals of Virginia, 1986)
Belcher v. Commonwealth
168 S.E. 468 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1933)
Owens v. Commonwealth
235 S.E.2d 331 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
21 Va. Cir. 334, 1990 Va. Cir. LEXIS 288, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-mccord-vaccfairfax-1990.