People v. Jaquez

2018 COA 76, 446 P.3d 865
Colorado Court of Appeals·Decided May 31, 2018·No. 15CA1081·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

The summaries of the Colorado Court of Appeals published opinions constitute no part of the opinion of the division but have been prepared by the division for the convenience of the reader. The summaries may not be cited or relied upon as they are not the official language of the division. Any discrepancy between the language in the summary and in the opinion should be resolved in favor of the language in the opinion.

SUMMARY

May 31, 2018

2018COA76

No. 15CA1081, People v. Jaquez — Constitutional Law — Fifth Amendment — Right Against Self-Incrimination; Criminal Law — Pre-Trial Identification

As a matter of first impression, a division of the court of appeals holds that the admission of statements made during a one-on-one voice identification procedure not preceded by Miranda warnings, that the division concludes was a custodial interrogation, violated the defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

During the custodial interrogation a police agent, without asking the defendant to repeat the words used by the robber, induced the defendant to speak the same words as those used by a robber during a nearby armed robbery. This is in contrast to a voice exemplar typically used in a voice identification procedure where the defendant is asked to speak the same words spoken by the robber. In that case, no Fifth Amendment violation occurs because the characteristics of a person’s voice are not protected by the Fifth Amendment.

Here, the words the defendant chose to utter were admitted and argued by the prosecution as substantive evidence of his guilt. The division concludes that the admission of this evidence inculpated the defendant and violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. This error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, requiring reversal of defendant’s armed robbery conviction.

The division also concludes that the one-on-one voice identification procedure was impermissibly suggestive and remands to the trial court to make further findings on reliability under Bernal v. People, 44 P.3d 184, 190 (Colo. 2002).

COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS 2018COA76

Court of Appeals No. 15CA1081 Adams County District Court No. 14CR2305 Honorable John E. Popovich, Judge

The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Anthony Roger Jaquez, Defendant-Appellant.

JUDGMENT REVERSED AND CASE REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS

Division IV

Opinion by JUDGE BERGER

Hawthorne and Miller*, JJ., concur

Announced May 31, 2018

Cynthia H. Coffman, Attorney General, John T. Lee, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee

Douglas K. Wilson, Colorado State Public Defender, Kamela Maktabi, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant

*Sitting by assignment of the Chief Justice under provisions of Colo. Const. art. VI, § 5(3), and § 24-51-1105, C.R.S. 2017.

¶1 During a one-on-one voice identification procedure, the victim of an armed robbery was directed by the police to speak with the defendant, Anthony Roger Jaquez, while Jaquez was in custody, to “see if [Jaquez] would say anything to [the victim].” Jaquez was not warned of his Fifth Amendment rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), before this encounter.

¶2 Unlike a typical voice identification procedure, Jaquez was not merely asked to repeat the words heard by the victim during the robbery. Instead, Jaquez and the victim had a brief conversation during which Jaquez made statements that were nearly identical to the statements made by the robber. These statements were admitted at his criminal trial as substantive evidence of his guilt.

¶3 We must decide whether the admission of those statements violated Jaquez’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. We conclude that the statements should not have been admitted and further conclude that the error was not constitutionally harmless. Accordingly, we reverse Jaquez’s conviction and remand for a new trial.

I. Relevant Facts And Procedural History

¶4 The prosecution’s evidence permitted the jury to find the following facts. At approximately 4:50 a.m., a masked man robbed an Adams County 7-Eleven and its store clerk at gunpoint. The robber directed the clerk to give him the money in the cash register, and told the clerk that as long as he cooperated, “he wouldn’t be harmed.”

¶5 The clerk gave the robber the money in the cash register — approximately $107, comprised of ten, five, and one dollar bills. The robber then left the store. The clerk immediately triggered the store’s silent alarm and called 911.

¶6 The clerk described the robber as male, wearing a blue bandana over his face, a white hat, black coat, blue jeans, white shoes, and white contact lenses.1 When officers arrived on scene, the clerk also told them that he recognized the voice of the robber as the voice of a prior customer. He said that when the robber told him that he would not harm him, the robber drew out, in an unusual manner, the “h” in the word harm.

1 White contact lenses cover the iris of a person’s eye, thus making it difficult (if not impossible) to discern the person’s natural eye color.

¶7 Roughly ten minutes after the robber left the 7-Eleven, Jaquez was walking north up a hill in the Lamplighter Mobile Home Trailer Park — about six blocks from the 7-Eleven — and came across Paul Harris sitting on his porch. Harris noticed that Jaquez “seemed a bit out of breath, a little sweaty, [and] kind of look[ed] a little tired.” The two started a conversation. Jaquez told Harris that he had been in an argument with his cousin, and that his cousin had driven off in their car. Jaquez explained that he lived in Pueblo, and asked Harris if he knew how to get to the nearest Greyhound bus station. Harris did not know where the Greyhound station was, so instead tried to explain how to get to the local bus. However, it became clear to him that Jaquez did not know the area well enough to understand the directions Harris was giving.

¶8 Jaquez then asked Harris to give him a ride to the bus stop. Harris initially refused. Jaquez asked again and told Harris that he was willing to pay him. Jaquez pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket, which, according to Harris, contained some ten, five, and one dollar bills. Harris then reluctantly agreed to give Jaquez a ride to the bus stop, but permitted Jaquez to first use his cell phone, his bathroom, and have a drink of water.

¶9 The two started walking towards Harris’s car, but they saw a police car parked on the nearby corner. For reasons not explained by the record, Harris suggested that they go back to his house and wait until the police left the area. Jaquez instead suggested that Harris go pick up his car, and then meet him back at Harris’s house. Harris agreed. As he walked to his car, he was stopped by the police officer. After some questioning, Harris told the officer about his interactions with Jaquez.

¶ 10 Harris then took officers back to his house where Jaquez was supposed to be waiting. The officers searched Harris’s house and surrounding yard but did not find Jaquez. While the officers were speaking with Harris outside his house, Harris noticed Jaquez crouched between two cars, and pointed him out to officers.

¶ 11 An officer approached Jaquez, but Jaquez walked away. The officer told Jaquez to stop, but Jaquez started jogging. The officer ran after Jaquez and, a short distance away, the officer stopped Jaquez, handcuffed him, and placed him in the backseat of a police vehicle. At the time, Jaquez was wearing jeans, a black t-shirt, and white shoes; he had $28.58 in his possession. He did not have a

white hat, blue bandana, white contact lenses, black jacket, or a gun.

¶ 12 Shortly after Jaquez was apprehended, the 7-Eleven clerk was brought to the mobile home park for a show-up identification. The clerk was unable to make a visual identification because the robber had covered his face and disguised the color of his eyes with white contact lenses.

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People v. Jaquez, 2018 COA 76, 446 P.3d 865 (Colo. Ct. App. 2018).

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