Jose Vasquez v. State

397 S.W.3d 850, 2013 WL 1248304, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 4039
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided March 28, 2013·No. 14-12-00096-CR·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

OPINION

MARTHA HILL JAMISON, Justice.

Appellant Jose Vasquez appeals his conviction for capital murder. After the jury found him guilty, the trial court assessed punishment at life in prison. In his sole issue, appellant complains that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the videotaped confession he made to an investigating officer during custodial interrogation. Appellant argues that his statement was obtained by an impermissible two-step interrogation technique. We reverse and remand for a new trial.

Background

On April 16, 2010, appellant was arrested pursuant to a warrant and charged with two counts of capital murder. Officers chased, apprehended, and handcuffed appellant at a gas station, placed him in a squad car, and transported him to the police station for questioning. Officers placed appellant in an interview room, where he remained for nearly eight hours while being interrogated by three or four investigating officers. The officer who last questioned appellant ultimately obtained a confession that was not captured on videotape. Soon thereafter, the officer asked permission to videotape appellant’s confession. Appellant complied with the request and repeated his confession. 1

Appellant filed a written pretrial motion to suppress his confession on grounds that he was not given Miranda 2 warnings and he did not validly waive his rights before he confessed. Appellant subsequently filed another pretrial motion to suppress his oral statements on the sole ground that using the oral statements at trial would be prohibited by Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 38.22, section 3. 3 The trial *853 court carried the motions with trial and held a hearing outside the presence of the jury to determine the admissibility of the statements.

At the hearing, only the officer who obtained appellant’s recorded statement testified. He did not know whether the other officers had given appellant Miranda warnings before initiating the interrogation. 4 The officer testified that he gave appellant Miranda warnings, as reflected on the videotape, but the officer did not testify that he also did so before appellant confessed off-camera. 5 At the beginning of the videotape recording, the officer states, “I’m going to read your rights to you like I did a little earlier,” but he did not indicate on the videotape or in his testimony whether the “earlier” reading of his rights occurred before' or after the previous confession was made. The officer further testified that appellant never invoked his rights to remain silent or have counsel present. Appellant, however, testified he invoked his right to remain silent before custodial interrogation began and no officer gave him Miranda warnings until after he confessed off-camera. The trial court suppressed the statements that were not captured on videotape but admitted the videotaped confession.

Discussion

In his sole issue, appellant argues the trial court erroneously admitted the videotaped confession because it .was obtained by an improper two-step “question first, warn later” interrogation technique. See Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U.S. 600, 622, 124 S.Ct. 2601, 159 L.Ed.2d 643 (2003) (Kennedy, J., concurring); Carter v. State, 309 S.W.3d 31, 35-36 (Tex.Crim.App.2010). A “question first, warn later” interrogation technique consists of officers interrogating á suspect without providing Miranda warnings and obtaining a confession; then, after the inculpatory statements are made, officers provide Miranda warnings and obtain a waiver of the warnings. See Seibert, 542 U.S. at 604-05, 124 S.Ct. 2601. Officers then have the suspect repeat the in-culpatory statements in an attempt to cure the lack of Miranda warnings. 6 See id. at 605.

*854 In reviewing a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress, appellate courts must view all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the ruling. State v. Garcia-Cantu, 253 S.W.3d 236, 241 (Tex.Crim.App.2008). At a suppression hearing, the trial judge is the sole factfinder. St. George v. State, 237 S.W.3d 720, 725 (Tex.Crim.App.2007). We give almost total deference to the trial court’s determination of historical facts when supported by the record, particularly if the findings turn on witness credibility and demeanor. See State v. Ross, 32 S.W.3d 853, 855-56 (Tex.Crim.App.2000). The same deference is accorded to determinations of mixed questions of law and fact if their resolution depends upon witness credibility and demeanor. Id. at 856. Issues that present purely legal questions are considered under a de novo standard. Id. We will sustain the trial court’s ruling if it is reasonably supported by the record and is correct on any theory of law applicable to the case. Villarreal v. State, 935 S.W.2d 134, 138 (Tex.Crim.App.1996).

In the plurality opinion Missouri v. Sei-bert, four justices of the Supreme Court concluded that a “question first, warn later” interrogation technique circumvented the objective of Miranda by rendering any warnings given ineffective. Seibert, 542 U.S. at 611-13, 124 S.Ct. 2601; see also Martinez v. State, 272 S.W.3d 615, 619-20 (Tex.Crim.App.2008). The Seibert plurality found that the purpose of this interrogation technique was to obtain a confession the suspect may not have made if he had understood his rights at the outset. Seibert, 542 U.S. at 611, 124 S.Ct. 2601. In his concurring opinion in Seibert, Justice Kennedy determined that when a two-step interrogation technique is used in a deliberate, calculated way to undermine Miranda warnings, absent “curative measures,” the post-warning statements must be excluded. Seibert, 542 U.S. at 622, 124 S.Ct. 2601 (Kennedy, J., concurring). In Carter, the Court of Criminal Appeals expressly adopted Justice Kennedy’s concurrence in Seibert. Carter, 309 S.W.3d at 38.

No evidence that officers read appellant his Miranda warnings before appellant made off-camera incriminating statements. The State, as the proponent of the evidence of appellant’s confession, bears the burden of establishing its admissibility. See Martinez, 272 S.W.3d at 623 (citing Tex.R. Evid. 104(a), De La Paz v. State,

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Jose Vasquez v. State, 397 S.W.3d 850, 2013 WL 1248304, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 4039 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

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