Kochutin v. State

813 P.2d 298, 1991 Alas. App. LEXIS 41, 1991 WL 101807
CourtCourt of Appeals of Alaska
DecidedJune 14, 1991
DocketA-2714
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 813 P.2d 298 (Kochutin v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kochutin v. State, 813 P.2d 298, 1991 Alas. App. LEXIS 41, 1991 WL 101807 (Ala. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

OPINION

Before BRYNER, C.J., COATS, J., and ANDREWS, Superior Court Judge.*

PER CURIAM.

Jacob B. Kochutin, Jr., was convicted by a jury of one count of murder in the first degree and one count of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree. Kochutin appeals, contending that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress statements that the police obtained from him as a result of custodial interrogation occurring in the absence of his counsel. Kochutin also pled no contest to a separate charge of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, reserving his right to appeal the trial court’s refusal to suppress the testimony of the alleged victim. On appeal, Kochutin claims that testimony, which was obtained as the result of improper custodial interrogation, should have been suppressed. We reverse Kochutin’s convictions for murder and the related charge of sexual abuse; we remand for further proceedings on the charge of sexual abuse to which Kochutin pled no contest.

[300]*300FACTS

The parties have stipulated to the relevant facts. Seven-year-old T.T. disappeared from his home on St. Paul Island sometime between June 24 and June 26, 1984. An extensive search produced no trace of T.T. Approximately thirteen months later, on July 25, 1985, T.T.’s body was discovered in a trunk in the St. Paul home of Kochutin’s uncle. An autopsy revealed that T.T. had been dead for approximately a year and that he apparently died from repeated stabbings. The condition of T.T.’s clothing indicated that he had been sexually abused.

Kochutin, who resided on St. Paul Island when T.T. disappeared, was a suspect in the child’s death. When T.T.’s body was found, Kochutin was imprisoned at the Palmer Correctional Center, serving a sentence for unrelated offenses. The day after T.T.’s body was discovered, prison officials noticed that Kochutin missed two meals, appeared to be agitated, and began using the inmates’ pay phone more than usual. Suspecting that news of T.T.’s discovery may have triggered Kochutin’s behavior and fearing a possible escape attempt, officials moved Kochutin from the minimum custody portion of the institution into a more secure administrative segregation unit. Prison officials also contacted the Alaska State Troopers in Palmer and advised them of Kochutin’s behavior and his transfer to administrative segregation. Eleven days later, on August 6, 1985, Ko-chutin was transferred from the Palmer Correctional Center to the even more secure administrative segregation unit at the Cook Inlet Pretrial Facility in Anchorage. The transfer was again based on the fear that, as a murder suspect, Kochutin might attempt to escape.

In the meantime, Alaska State Trooper Rollie Port, who was working on T.T.’s murder investigation, became interested in interviewing Kochutin. Kochutin was one of several people whom Port regarded as a suspect. Port consulted with the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office about the possibility of interrogating Kochutin, but was instructed on August 9, 1985, to refrain from any contact with Kochutin until the state had researched the legality of a jailhouse interview. Port was told that he would hear back from the district attorney’s office within about two weeks.

On August 12 or 13, 1985, however, while Port awaited word from the district attorney’s office, Kochutin telephoned Assistant Public Defender William F. Morse, who had been representing him on several cases since May 1, 1984, including the charges for which he was imprisoned. Ko-chutin asked Morse why he was transferred to the Cook Inlet Pretrial Facility.

Morse made several inquiries in response to Kochutin’s request and learned that Ko-chutin had been transferred because he was a suspect in the recently discovered St. Paul homicide. On August 13, 1985, Morse called Port and asked him to refrain from speaking with Kochutin unless Morse was present. Port told Morse that he planned to be in Anchorage the following day and wanted to arrange an interview with Ko-chutin then. Morse said that he would visit Kochutin in jail and call Port back.

The next day, August 14, 1985, Morse visited Kochutin and spoke with him about Port’s request for an interview. After the visit, Morse notified Port and the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office by telephone that Kochutin was not interested in speaking with the authorities about the homicide investigation. On August 15, 1985, Morse wrote a letter to Port and the district attorney’s office, confirming that Kochutin did not want to speak with the authorities. In the letter, Morse indicated that he would let investigators know if Kochutin changed his mind.

Approximately a week later, the state arrested another St. Paul resident, Xeno-font Emanoff, on charges of sexually abusing T.T. shortly before the child’s disappearance in June of 1984. The police had focused on Emanoff as another possible suspect in T.T.’s homicide. When Emanoff was arraigned in St. Paul after being arrested on Augu'st 23, the St. Paul magistrate appointed Morse to represent Ema-noff, since Morse had been handling the St. [301]*301Paul calendar for the public defender agency-

When Emanoff was indicted in Anchorage several days later for the sexual abuse of T.T., the district attorney’s office objected to Emanoff s representation by the public defender agency noting that Morse’s representation of Kochutin in connection with the pending homicide investigation posed a potential conflict. On September 5, 1985, the superior court, after holding a hearing, granted the state’s motion to disqualify the public defender agency and ordered the appointment of conflict counsel for Emanoff.

For the balance of 1985, the state made no further effort to contact Kochutin. At some point that fall, Kochutin was transferred from his placement in administrative segregation at the Cook Inlet Pretrial Facility, and by December of 1985 he was back in normal institutional placement as a sentenced prisoner at the Hiland Mountain Correctional Facility.

The investigation of T.T.’s homicide remained unresolved. By the summer of 1986, the Alaska State Troopers were anxious to wrap the case up. The list of suspects had narrowed to Kochutin, Ema-noff, and two other men; all four were incarcerated in the Anchorage area. Ema-noff’s trial for sexually abusing T.T. was scheduled for September of 1986. The troopers and the district attorney’s office both thought it desirable to charge Ema-noff or eliminate him as a homicide suspect before his sexual abuse trial.

On August 13, 1986, exactly a year after first being told that Morse represented Ko-chutin in connection with T.T.’s homicide, Trooper Robert Stevenson and Port met with the district attorney and discussed the status of the investigation. By that time, Kochutin was incarcerated at the Sixth Avenue jail in Anchorage, still serving a sentence for unrelated offenses. The district attorney and Port both believed that Ko-chutin might be willing to speak with them without Morse present, but both felt that no interview would be possible if they notified Morse first. After checking Kochu-tin’s status and learning that he had no pending or unresolved criminal charges against him, the district attorney advised the troopers to contact Kochutin in jail and attempt to interview him without first notifying Morse.

Stevenson visited Kochutin at the Sixth Avenue jail later that same day. As planned, Morse was given no notice of the interview. Stevenson advised Kochutin of his Miranda1

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Bluebook (online)
813 P.2d 298, 1991 Alas. App. LEXIS 41, 1991 WL 101807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kochutin-v-state-alaskactapp-1991.