People v. Pascual

111 P.3d 471, 2005 Colo. LEXIS 487, 2005 WL 1138536
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedMay 16, 2005
Docket04SA400
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 111 P.3d 471 (People v. Pascual) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Pascual, 111 P.3d 471, 2005 Colo. LEXIS 487, 2005 WL 1138536 (Colo. 2005).

Opinions

BENDER, Justice.

The People bring this interlocutory appeal pursuant to section 16-12-102, C.R.S. (2004), and C.A.R. 4.1., and challenge the trial court’s suppression of incriminating statements made by the defendant, Juan Pascual. The People concede that Pascual was interrogated by the police when he made incriminating statements. However, the People argue that he was not in custody, as we have defined the term, and therefore these statements were not obtained in violation of his rights as set forth in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966).

[473]*473The trial court found that Pascual was in custody based upon the totality of the circumstances including the length of detention, the number of officers and patrol cars at the scene, Pascual not being free to leave, and the nature and tenor of the interrogation. The uncontested evidence presented at the suppression hearing established that two police officers driving separate vehicles stopped Pascual and three other men in their van at approximately 10:45 p.m. The officers had difficulty communicating with the men, all of whom are Guatemalan and speak limited Spanish and virtually no English. After roughly thirty minutes, the officers called for additional assistance. At least four more officers arrived at the location of the stop, each driving a separate patrol car. The four persons were interviewed separately, outside, in thirty-degree temperature. At some point during this period from 10:45 p.m. to approximately 1:00 a.m., the police took the keys to the van and the four men’s identification documents. The officers also maintained a constant surveillance on Pascual and the other men including while two used the restroom. Then, at approximately 1:00 a.m., the police transported Pascual to the police station in the back of a patrol car. At the station the police gave Pascual three admittedly defective Miranda advisements before conducting three separate interrogations which lasted until 8:30 a.m. After the third interrogation period was finished, Pascual was formally arrested.

The trial court based its legal conclusion that Pascual was in custody on a number of factors. These objective factors are supported by the uncontested evidence contained in the record and the trial court’s findings of historical facts. Thus, on de novo review, we hold that based on these objective factors, a reasonable person in Pascual’s situation would consider himself to be deprived of his freedom to the degree associated with a formal arrest when he made incriminating statements during a police interrogation. Hence, we affirm the trial court’s suppression order and remand this ease to that court for further proceedings.

Facts and Proceedings Below

The trial court heard testimony from six witnesses who were present during the stop of Pascual outside the bar. Five of whom were police officers called by the prosecution and one defense witness who was also in the van at the time of the stop but was not charged with a crime. There are a number of minor inconsistencies as to the details of what occurred, who was present, and the timing of events. Most, but not all, of these inconsistencies were not resolved by the trial court in its written order which concluded that Pascual was in custody once the two officers who made the initial stop determined that they had two “good suspects”, and called a third officer who spoke Spanish to further question the suspects.

To guide the reader, we first present an overview of what happened before discussing in greater detail the uncontested facts testified to by the six persons present at the scene. Pascual and three companions were stopped by two police officers after they exited a bar at around 10:45 p.m. Neither Pascual nor his companions speak English and the trial court found that Pascual speaks Spanish below the sixth grade level. Pascual is Guatemalan and speaks a Mayan dialect, Kanjo-bal, as his first language. The two officers were armed, in uniform, and had arrived in separate patrol cars. These two officers questioned Pascual and the others for roughly thirty minutes. They then called for officer assistance once they determined that Pascual and another man were “good suspects” in a rape and kidnap crime that occurred the night before. Then, over the next one and one-half hours after this call was made, four more officers, at least three of whom were armed and in uniform, arrived on the scene in separate vehicles. The six officers kept the suspects separated, outside their van, in thirty-degree weather, while Pascual and the others were interviewed. Then at approximately 1:00 a.m., the police took Pascual to the police station where, over the next seven and one-half hours he was interrogated three times. During these interrogations, Pascual made incriminating statements.

[474]*474On October 12, 2002, Officer Michael Pfeiler was on patrol when he saw what appeared to be a blue van which had been used by three Hispanic men in an alleged rape and kidnap committed the night before. Pfeiler followed the van into the parking lot of the same bar where the crime occurred the previous night. According to Pfeiler, three Hispanic looking men exited the van and went into the bar. A fourth man stayed in the vehicle. Pfeiler parked his patrol ear so that he could maintain visual contact with the vehicle and radioed for officer assistance.

Sergeant Keith Olson appeared on the scene soon after Pfeiler called for assistance and parked his patrol car near the van shortly after 10:45 p.m. Pfeiler and Olson, who were both armed and in uniform approached the van.1 Pfeiler obtained all four of the passengers’ identification cards, including Pascual’s, and checked for warrants.2 Pfeiler did not remember when he obtained the keys to the van; however, he stated that he most likely had the keys when the van was towed to the police impound lot in the early morning, after the two suspects were brought to the police station for questioning.

Olson then spoke with one of the four men, Mario Velasquez-Marcos3, away from the other three passengers who waited outside the van. Olson stated that because it was cold outside, roughly thirty degrees, he tried to find an area away from the wind to question the suspects. Olson and Velasquez-Marcos spoke outside the van, separated from the other three men, approximately twenty to twenty-five feet away from the van. The interview lasted roughly fifteen minutes. Then, while Pfeiler watched the van, Olson asked Pascual to come away from the van where the two of them spoke separately in Spanish for about five minutes.

Olson said that he interviewed all four men using the same location twenty to twenty-five feet away from the van. Although Olson stated that his Spanish language proficiency is limited, he also stated that during these interviews he learned each man’s identifying information, including name and age, and that Velasquez-Marcos and Pascual had been at the bar the night before.

Once Olson determined that Pascual and Velasquez Marcos were “good suspects,” either he or Pfeiler radioed for Officer Douglas Medhurst to come to the parking lot to conduct additional questioning. Both Olson and Pfeiler believed Medhurst to be more proficient in Spanish than they were and that his Spanish speaking abilities would help them to communicate with the suspects.

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People v. Pascual
111 P.3d 471 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2005)

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Bluebook (online)
111 P.3d 471, 2005 Colo. LEXIS 487, 2005 WL 1138536, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-pascual-colo-2005.