McCulley v. State

352 S.W.3d 107, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 6673, 2011 WL 3672062
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 18, 2011
Docket02-09-00222-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 352 S.W.3d 107 (McCulley v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCulley v. State, 352 S.W.3d 107, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 6673, 2011 WL 3672062 (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

BILL MEIER, Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

Appellant Mark Alan McCulley appeals his conviction for murder. In two points, *112 McCulley contends that the trial court erred by determining that he was not in custody at the time he made incriminating statements to the police and by determining that he did not invoke his right to terminate the interview. Because we hold that the police cured their failure to timely advise McCulley of his rights, and because we hold that McCulley never unambiguously invoked his right to terminate the interview, we will affirm.

II. BACKGROUND

McCulley called the police on the night of May 20, 2007. When police arrived at his house, McCulley was covered in blood and his wife had been stabbed. The police took McCulley to the hospital, where an ambulance transported his wife, who later died. The police extensively photographed McCulley. From there, McCulley accompanied the police to the police station, where the police questioned him for almost four and one-half hours. McCulley eventually implicated himself in his wife’s death. Before trial, McCulley filed a motion to suppress the statement he made to police. The trial court held a suppression hearing.

At the suppression hearing, the State called Detective Kelly Brunson of the City of Wichita Falls Police Department to testify. Brunson testified that he was trained in conducting interviews for the police department. He averred that he also had been trained regarding Miranda warnings and the warnings contained in Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 38.22. According to Brunson, his sergeant called him on the night of May 20, 2007. The sergeant sent Brunson to the hospital to “view the body and to speak to [ ] McCul-ley.” After McCulley consented to the search of his house, Brunson said that he asked McCulley to go to the police station so that he could interview him. Brunson testified that McCulley obliged and that another officer brought McCulley to the police station. He also said that McCulley was not a suspect at this time and that the interview was intended to “gather leads and any intelligence he might have to try to find out what happened.” Brunson said that the videotaped interview began shortly before 1:00 a.m. on May 21.

Brunson said that as he interviewed McCulley, he had McCulley verify to him that he was there of his own free will, and Brunson said that McCulley freely answered his questions. Brunson testified, as the video of the interview played for the trial court, that after asking McCulley, “is there anything that you haven’t talked about that might help me out on this case, anything at all that might help me,” McCulley responded, “I just want to see her,” and “I just want to go to the hospital.” After telling McCulley that his wife “was still at the hospital,” Brunson told McCulley that he could see her “as soon as we finish here.”

Brunson said that during the interview, he reminded McCulley that he was still free to leave: “I was just making sure that he understood that he was there on his own free will, that he wasn’t under arrest and he wasn’t charged with any offense.” Brunson testified that his specific statement was ‘You’re here under your own free will, you still understand that, right?” McCulley responded, “I would like to go to the hospital.” Brunson responded, “Even if we let you go to the hospital, ... I don’t know if we would let you see your wife right away,” and “Now’s probably not a good time to see her.” When asked what would have happened if McCulley had gone to the hospital, Brunson said, “I wouldn’t have let him see her [body].”

Brunson testified that after asking to go to the hospital, McCulley asked, “Can I go home?” Brunson responded that the po *113 lice were still at his house and that he could take him there as soon as they were finished. As the interview continued, Brunson said that another detective stepped into the interview room. Brunson explained to the other detective that McCulley wanted to see his wife and that Brunson had told McCulley it probably wasn’t a “good idea at this time.” The detective responded that she did not think it was a good idea for McCulley to see his wife and also that the police would be at his home for some time. McCulley asked again, “Can I go home?” He was told again that it was not a good idea. Brun-son said that what the detective meant when she said that the police would be at McCulley’s home for a while was that the police would be processing crime-scene evidence and no one would be allowed in the home. Brunson said that even after these requests, McCulley was not a suspect at this time and that he was still free to leave the interview.

By Brunson’s account, if McCulley were to leave the police station, an officer “would have transported him.” Brunson acknowledged that McCulley was not wearing shoes. Brunson said that McCul-ley’s transportation “would have been up to me.” An hour into the interview, Brunson asked McCulley whether he had committed the murder. Later, Brunson explained to McCulley that the person closest to the victim is often the suspect in a murder. Brunson maintained that for the majority of the nearly four and one-half hour interview, McCulley was free to leave at any time but that to leave would have required Brunson’s assistance because “it’s ... kind of a sneaky way out.” When asked directly how McCulley would have left the police station, Brunson said, “I would have to had shown him the way out.”

Brunson said that just before 5:00 a.m., he and McCulley read McCulley’s Miranda rights and his article 38.22 rights together. Brunson averred that McCulley acknowledged that he understood his rights. When asked whether he was still willing to talk to Brunson, McCulley responded, “Can I just go to sleep?” Brun-son responded, “We need to talk. We need to get things worked out.” He told McCulley, “You can go to sleep when we’re done.” But Brunson also said, “If you want to invoke your rights, that’s your right also.” McCulley said, “I’ll talk to you,” and signed a waiver that he understood his rights and that he was talking to the police voluntarily. According to Brun-son, he did not have probable cause to arrest McCulley even at this juncture, but McCulley “was becoming a focus of the investigation.” At that time, another detective entered the room, and McCulley said, in response to the detective’s question about how he was doing, that he was not doing well because he was being charged with murder. The detective responded that McCulley was not actually being charged at this time. But Brunson did testify that at this time, McCulley was no longer free to leave. The trial court denied McCulley’s motion to suppress.

The video of the interview reflects many of the statements Brunson testified to. In the video, as the interview begins, Brunson tells McCulley that he is not under arrest and is not being charged with anything. Brunson also has McCulley verify that he knows he is there of his own free will. It is clear that McCulley is not wearing shoes. Less than thirty minutes into the interview, the questions by the detectives primarily concern McCulley’s timeline of events. McCulley’s initial story is that his wife had left earlier that day, that he was watching a movie, and that his stomach got upset during the movie, so he went for a walk.

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Bluebook (online)
352 S.W.3d 107, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 6673, 2011 WL 3672062, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcculley-v-state-texapp-2011.