Keys v. State

606 So. 2d 669, 1992 WL 230422
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 21, 1992
Docket91-481
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 606 So. 2d 669 (Keys 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
Keys v. State, 606 So. 2d 669, 1992 WL 230422 (Fla. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

606 So.2d 669 (1992)

Norman Donnell KEYS, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 91-481.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

September 21, 1992.
Rehearing Denied October 14, 1992.

*670 Roberto A. Arias, Jacksonville, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Charlie McCoy, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, for appellee.

ZEHMER, Judge.

Norman Donnell Keys appeals his conviction after a jury trial on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated assault. Of the five points Keys has raised on appeal, only three warrant discussion. We reverse for error in giving an instruction on flight and remand for a new trial.

Prior to the commission of the criminal offenses charged in this case, Keys was under a charge for possession of cocaine pending in the Duval County juvenile court. On May 22, 1990, while under restraint in the juvenile case, Keys signed a notice of intent to exercise his constitutional right to remain silent and right to counsel. The court appointed an attorney to represent him and released him. On July 15, 1990, the victim in the instant case was shot while standing at a telephone booth in Duval County. On August 2, 1990, while Keys was at large on the juvenile charge, Detective Ronald Smith questioned him about this shooting incident. Upon ending the interview, Detective Smith told Keys that he "would probably be back in touch with him." Thereafter, Detective Smith made several unsuccessful attempts to locate Keys. On August 20, 1990, Keys failed to appear in juvenile court for a pretrial conference on the possession of cocaine charge, and that court issued a custody warrant. The following day, Keys was arrested in Leon County on this warrant. Detective Smith was notified of the arrest, and he met with Keys on August 22 while Keys was being held by the Leon County authorities. At that time, Keys voluntarily signed a form waiving his rights and confessed to shooting the victim.

*671 Prior to trial, Keys filed a motion to suppress the confession on the ground that the notice of intent to exercise his right to remain silent and right to counsel that he had signed in connection with the juvenile charge also applied to the unrelated shooting incident. The trial court denied the motion, ruling that the break in custody by reason of his release by the juvenile court dissolved Keys' assertion of these rights.

Keys' first point on appeal argues that the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress his confession was reversible error because the notice filed in the juvenile court case was a clear expression of his desire to deal with police only through counsel under all circumstances, even on charges not related to the juvenile case. According to Keys, Detective Smith's interrogation regarding the shooting incident violated the rule set forth in Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378, rehearing denied, 452 U.S. 973, 101 S.Ct. 3128, 69 L.Ed.2d 984 (1981). The state, in reply, asserts that the trial court correctly relied on Dunkins v. Thigpen, 854 F.2d 394 (11th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1059, 109 S.Ct. 1329, 103 L.Ed.2d 597 (1989), in ruling that Keys's assertion of his right to counsel in the juvenile case was dissolved when there was a break in custody. Keys counters this argument with the contention that the Supreme Court's decision in Minnick v. Mississippi, 498 U.S. 146, 111 S.Ct. 486, 112 L.Ed.2d 489 (1990), "rendered the Dunkins holding void and without precedential value." We reject Keys' argument on this point.

In Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, the Supreme Court held that an accused in custody who expresses a desire to deal with police only through counsel cannot be further interrogated by authorities until counsel has been made available to him, unless the accused himself initiates further communication. In Dunkins v. Thigpen, 854 F.2d 394, the Eleventh Circuit held that a break in custody after invocation of Fifth Amendment rights ends the need for the Edwards rule. Under the holding in Dunkins, a suspect may validly waive his Miranda rights after a break in custody even though he invoked such rights before a break in custody. 854 F.2d at 396-398. In Minnick v. Mississippi, 498 U.S. 146, 111 S.Ct. 486, 112 L.Ed.2d 489, the Supreme Court held that the protection afforded by the rule in Edwards does not terminate once the suspect has consulted with counsel. According to Minnick, once counsel has been requested, interrogation must cease, and officials may not reinitiate interrogation without counsel present, whether or not the accused has consulted with his attorney. 498 U.S. at ___, 111 S.Ct. at 491, 112 L.Ed.2d at 498.

We do not accept appellant's overlybroad interpretation of Minnick. The suspect in Minnick was continuously in custody during all pertinent interrogations, and the Supreme Court did not address whether a break in custody dissolves a suspect's Edwards rights. Thus, on its face Minnick does not directly overrule the Dunkins holding. Furthermore, Dunkins is consistent with the Supreme Court's rulings in Arizona v. Roberson, 486 U.S. 675, 108 S.Ct. 2093, 100 L.Ed.2d 704 (1988), and McNeil v. Wisconsin, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 2204, 115 L.Ed.2d 158 (1991). In Roberson, the Supreme Court held that the Edwards rule applies even where the suspect is interrogated about an offense that is unrelated to the subject of the initial interrogation. Throughout the Roberson opinion, the Court emphasized that the accused was still in custody for the initial offense at the time he was questioned for the unrelated offense; thus, "the mere repetition of the Miranda warnings would not overcome the presumption of coercion that [was] created by the prolonged police custody." 486 U.S. at 686, 108 S.Ct. at 2100 (emphasis added). In McNeil, the Court was asked to decide whether an accused's invocation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel during a judicial proceeding constitutes an invocation of his Fifth Amendment (Miranda) right to counsel. The Court stated that a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel does not attach until a prosecution has commenced and it cannot be invoked for future prosecutions on unrelated charges; thus, it is "offense-specific." *672 Since Fifth Amendment rights are not offense-specific, once a suspect has invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during a custodial interrogation,

[i]f the police do subsequently initiate an encounter in the absence of counsel (assuming there has been no break in custody), the suspect's statements are presumed involuntary and therefore inadmissible as substantive evidence at trial, even where the suspect executes a waiver and his statements would be considered voluntary under traditional standards.

___ U.S. at ___-___, 111 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
606 So. 2d 669, 1992 WL 230422, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keys-v-state-fladistctapp-1992.