James Ernest Butterwood v. United States

365 F.2d 380, 1966 U.S. App. LEXIS 5101
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedAugust 26, 1966
Docket8757_1
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 365 F.2d 380 (James Ernest Butterwood v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
James Ernest Butterwood v. United States, 365 F.2d 380, 1966 U.S. App. LEXIS 5101 (10th Cir. 1966).

Opinion

HILL, Circuit Judge.

In a jury trial in Federal District Court, the appellant was convicted of violating Title 18 § 2312 (Interstate Transportation of a Motor Vehicle) commonly known as the Dyer Act. This is a direct appeal from that conviction.

*382 Appellant contends that the trial court erred by admitting into evidence over his objections statements signed by him. These statements were taken from appellant by an agent of the F.B.I. and one of them was in the nature of a confession. Appellant’s contentions may be summarized as involving: (1) Failure of the trial court to determine the voluntariness of appellant’s confession in a fair, separate hearing, violative of Amendment V to the United States Constitution; (2) failure to provide counsel, violative of Amendment VI to the United States Constitution; and (3) a violation of Rule 5 (a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

On October 24, 1965, around noon, appellant, who was then 18 years old, was driving a 1965 Ford Mustang automobile with Louisiana license plates along a three-lane mountain highway in Colorado. He had a passenger, Brad Bennetto, who was a friend of about the same age. Appellant was observed by a Colorado highway patrolman in the middle-passing-lane. He was then stopped by the patrolman, who advised him that he should keep to the right except when passing. The state patrolman asked to see appellant’s driver’s license and the ownership registration receipt for the car. Appellant could produce neither and told the officer that he and Bennetto had purchased the automobile in Louisiana for $700.00 and that he had lost his wallet, containing the requested documents, in Kansas City. The patrolman radioed his headquarters in Golden to see if they had any report of the automobile being stolen. There was no such report. The officer then arrested appellant and his companion and took them to the Jefferson County Jail in Golden, Colorado, where they were booked by the State for suspicion of auto theft.

Sometime between three and four o’clock p. m. on October 25, the F.B.I. was notified by the state officials that they were holding appellant and Bennetto for investigation of automobile theft. The state requested information from the F.B.I. about the car appellant was driving when arrested. At approximately 8:10 p. m. on the 25th, the Denver F.B.I. office received word that the ear had been stolen in New Orleans. The following morning, October 26, Special Agent Bevans of the F.B.I. visited appellant and Bennetto in the Jefferson County Jail. Mr. Bevans interviewed Bennetto and obtained from him a statement which was reduced to writing and signed by Bennetto. This statement was inculpatory in nature and implicated appellant in the crime of transporting a stolen automobile in interstate commerce.

Agent Bevans, commencing at approximately 10:30 a. m. and ending about an hour later, then interviewed the appellant. He obtained from appellant two signed statements. In the first of these, appellant claimed he had purchased the car in Louisiana and had not yet received the title thereto. After taking this statement, Bevans called in Bennetto and told the two suspects that there was a discrepancy in their statements; that one of them was telling a “non-truth” and that “they must decide which statement is true.” Bevans then left the room. Momentarily, he was called back and appellant admitted that his statement was false and Bennetto’s correct. Bevans then took a second statement from appellant. In the second statement — which was reduced to writing and signed by him —appellant admitted his first statement was false, that he stole the Ford automobile in New Orleans and, knowing it was stolen, transported it in interstate commerce. Both statements made by appellant were received into evidence by the trial court.

We shall first deal with appellant’s contention that the trial judge did not properly determine the voluntariness of appellant’s statements. Appellant cites Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908, to the effect that the trial judge must determine the issue of voluntariness “without regard for the truth or falsity of the confession * Supra, 376, 84 S.Ct. 1780. Appellant contends that the trial court’s findings that appellant’s first statement was “phony”, *383 that he changed his story only after being confronted with Bennetto’s confession, and that appellant first pleaded guilty and waived counsel and later withdrew his guilty plea all indicate that the trial judge was “pre-oecupied” with guilt or innocence and not voluntariness. The findings appellant refers to were all made in a separate hearing on a motion to suppress held before the grand jury had been called to indict appellant. An examination of the record of that hearing and the findings made by the trial judge clearly show that the trial court did, indeed, find that appellant made the two statements voluntarily. The remarks appellant complains of were made by the trial judge to support his finding of voluntariness — to indicate that appellant was acting as his own free agent in changing his story and making the incriminating statement. In fact, the trial court specifically found that appellant was not “so scared and so under the influence of the officer that he made his statement based upon some veiled threat.” The trial court did specifically address itself to the action appellant now alleges coercive and found it had no overbearing effect on him. This is just the sort of procedure which Jackson v. Denno requires: “These procedures must, therefore, be fully adequate to insure a reliable and clear-cut determination of the voluntariness of the confession, including the resolution of disputed facts upon which the voluntariness issue may depend.” Supra, at 391, 84 S.Ct. at 1788.

Secondly, appellant contends that the mandate of Escobedo v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 84 S.Ct. 1758, 12 L.Ed.2d 977, was violated by not providing appellant with counsel at a “critical” stage in the sequence of events leading to his conviction.

There can be no doubt that the point at which appellant gave his confession was a critical stage and the absence of counsel at that time raises a rebuttable presumption of denial of the Sixth Amendment’s right. Haier v. United States, 10 Cir., 357 F.2d 336. However, an accused’s mouth does not become “ * * * legally closed after his right to counsel attaches * * * regardless of all else”, Otney v. United States, 10 Cir., 340 F.2d 696, 702 (concurring opinion). Failure to have counsel at the time it is given does not ipso facto render a confession involuntary and inadmissible under the Escobedo ruling. To determine voluntariness, an examination must be made of all the “ * * * attendant, pertinent facts and circumstances.” Pece v. Cox, 10 Cir., 354 F.2d 913, 916. Such an examination of the record transcribed at the hearing on the motion to suppress appellant’s signed statements reveals he consciously was aware of his right to counsel and intelligently waived it. Stille v.

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Bluebook (online)
365 F.2d 380, 1966 U.S. App. LEXIS 5101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-ernest-butterwood-v-united-states-ca10-1966.