In Re ALM

631 A.2d 894, 1993 D.C. App. LEXIS 234, 1993 WL 375340
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 23, 1993
Docket90-FS-912
StatusPublished

This text of 631 A.2d 894 (In Re ALM) 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
In Re ALM, 631 A.2d 894, 1993 D.C. App. LEXIS 234, 1993 WL 375340 (D.C. 1993).

Opinion

631 A.2d 894 (1993)

In re A.L.M., Appellant.

No. 90-FS-912.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued May 7, 1991.
Decided September 23, 1993.

*895 Anthony S. Haughton, Public Defender Service, with whom James Klein, and Page Kennedy, Public Defender Service, were on the brief, for appellant.

Edward E. Schwab, Asst. Corp. Counsel, with whom John Payton, Acting Corp. Counsel at the time the brief was filed, and Charles L. Reischel, Deputy Corp. Counsel, were on the brief, for appellee.

Roy W. McLeese, III, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Jay B. Stephens, U.S. Atty. at the time the brief was filed, and John R. Fisher, Asst. U.S. Atty., were on the brief for the U.S. as amicus curiae.

Before SCHWELB and WAGNER, Associate Judges, and PRYOR, Senior Judge.

WAGNER, Associate Judge:

Following a trial by the court, appellant, A.L.M., was adjudicated a delinquent after a finding that he was guilty of felony murder, armed robbery, carrying a pistol without a license, and possession of an unregistered gun and ammunition. He argues for reversal on the grounds that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress statements related to these offenses which he made during custodial interrogation three weeks after he was appointed counsel in a prior proceeding for an unrelated traffic offense. Appellant also contends that the affidavit supporting the custody order for his arrest included false information and material omissions, thereby requiring suppression of his statements as the fruit of his illegal arrest. We conclude that appellant's representation by counsel at the prior judicial proceeding on one charge did not invalidate his subsequent waiver of Miranda[1] rights made during police-initiated interviews concerning the charges in this case. We further conclude that the challenged affidavit was sufficient to support probable cause even when supplemented by the asserted omissions. Therefore, we affirm.

I.

A.L.M., who was then fourteen years old, was arrested on November 12, 1989 for driving without a permit. Three other young men were in the car at the time, none of whom had a license to drive. Therefore, the police decided to impound the car and requested all of the occupants to get out of the vehicle. As they got out of the car, the police observed and recovered a pistol from the floor of the vehicle, directly in front of where one passenger had been seated in the right rear seat. The next day, the government filed a petition formally charging A.L.M. with the no-permit offense, and the court appointed counsel to represent him. Although appellant and the others in the vehicle had also been charged with carrying a pistol without a license at the time of the arrest, the government did not charge appellant with any weapons offense when the case was petitioned.[2]

Several days earlier, on November 5, 1989, Harrison Thompson was the victim of a robbery and a shooting which caused his death a few days later. The police ascertained from ballistic tests that the pistol recovered from the vehicle appellant was driving on November 12th was the murder weapon. Another juvenile, C.E.J., gave a statement to the police indicating that he knew A.L.M. from the neighborhood, that he had heard A.L.M. and another individual discussing a plan to rob the victim, and *896 that thereafter he saw appellant shoot the victim during the ensuing robbery. C.E.J. also informed the police of the street location where A.L.M.'s mother lived and the general area where A.L.M. lived with his grandmother. A detective from the homicide branch of the Metropolitan Police Department included all of this information in an affidavit in support of a custody order for appellant's arrest, which the court issued on November 28, 1989.[3] The detective did not include in the affidavit that C.E.J. had been a suspect in the case also. After the police informed appellant's mother of the outstanding custody order, she took him to a police station where he was arrested. While in custody appellant waived his Miranda rights and gave incriminating statements about the murder and robbery, including a videotaped statement.

A.L.M. filed a motion to suppress tangible evidence and statements.[4] Following an evidentiary hearing on the motion, during which the trial court viewed appellant's videotaped statement, the trial court denied the motion. The court concluded that the omission of C.E.J.'s suspect status from the affidavit was insufficient to undermine the grounds for probable cause and that probable cause would have been established even if the information had been included.[5] The trial court also found that respondent had been fully advised of his Miranda rights, understood them, and waived those rights voluntarily and in writing. The court rejected appellant's claim that his Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated by the police-initiated interrogation of him after he had been appointed counsel in the earlier petitioned no-permit case.

II.

Appellant argues that the trial court erred in denying the motion to suppress the statements he made during police-initiated custodial interrogation because it occurred after he had accepted counsel in the no-permit case. He contends that the appointment of counsel in the no-permit case amounted to an invocation of his Fifth and Sixth Amendment right to counsel for any subsequent prosecutions, whether related or unrelated to the no-permit charge. Therefore, appellant argues, there could be no valid waiver for any police questioning subsequently initiated.[6] The District of Columbia contends that the decisions upon which appellant relies do not support his position under the circumstances of this case. Specifically, the District and the United States of America[7] contend that the appointment of counsel in the first proceeding does not constitute an affirmative invocation of the right to counsel for unrelated offenses in the second proceeding. Even assuming that it did, they argue, the invocation would no longer be effective since appellant was not held in police custody continuously after presentment on the initial no-permit charge. Appellant counters that the two cases were inextricably intertwined, and therefore, assertion of the *897 right in the first case extends automatically to cover the second.

The Supreme Court's decision in McNeil v. Wisconsin, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 2204, 115 L.Ed.2d 158 (1991) resolves a number of these issues.[8] Therefore, we recount in some detail the facts and the holding of the case. After McNeil's arrest for an armed robbery in West Allis, Wisconsin, he was advised of his Miranda rights, and he declined to answer questions about the case. However, McNeil did not request counsel. Subsequently McNeil was represented by counsel at the initial bail hearing in the West Allis case. While still in jail, the police questioned him several times about an unrelated murder, attempted murder, and burglary which occurred in Caledonia, Wisconsin. Before each interview, the police advised McNeil of his Miranda rights, including the right to counsel, and he waived them. Thereafter, he made inculpatory statements about the crimes in Caledonia. The trial court denied McNeil's motion to suppress the statements, and he was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder and armed robbery. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals certified a question raised by appellant's appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which had not previously addressed the issue.

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Bluebook (online)
631 A.2d 894, 1993 D.C. App. LEXIS 234, 1993 WL 375340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-alm-dc-1993.