Phillips v. State

40 A.3d 25, 425 Md. 210, 2012 WL 879250, 2012 Md. LEXIS 143
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedMarch 16, 2012
DocketNo. 58
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 40 A.3d 25 (Phillips v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Phillips v. State, 40 A.3d 25, 425 Md. 210, 2012 WL 879250, 2012 Md. LEXIS 143 (Md. 2012).

Opinion

WILNER, J.

Regrettably, most people in this country, we suspect, have, at best, little more than a vague familiarity with even the more important pronouncements of the United States Supreme Court. Nearly every competent person over the age of a toddler who has ever watched television knows the name Miranda, however.

They not only know the name, but, from watching a “gazillion” crime shows, they correctly associate it with the requirement that, when the police detain a person for questioning in a custodial setting, they must inform the person of the right to remain silent, that anything the person says may be used in evidence, that the person has a right to consult with an attorney before responding to questioning, and that an attorney will be appointed if the person is indigent.1 Although the precise basis for that bedrock requirement was once somewhat uncertain, it is now clear that the requirement is Constitutionally mandated and that an inculpatory statement elicited in violation of that requirement is inadmissible in the State’s case-in-chief. See Dickerson v. U.S., 530 U.S. 428, 120 S.Ct. 2326, 147 L.Ed.2d 405 (2000).

Our precise concern in this case, though rooted in Miranda, is more with what must occur when a suspect invokes his/her right to counsel, and, for that, our patriarch is one of Miranda’s many children, Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981). The core holdings in Edwards were that:

(1) an accused “having expressed his desire to deal with the police only through counsel, is not subject to further [213]*213interrogation by the authorities until counsel has been made available to him, unless the accused himself initiates further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police” and
(2) “when an accused has invoked his right to have counsel present during custodial interrogation, a valid waiver of that right cannot be established by showing only that he responded to further police-initiated custodial interrogation even if he has been advised of his rights.”

Edwards, 451 U.S. at 484-85, 101 S.Ct. at 1884-85, 68 L.Ed.2d at 386.

It is undisputed here that petitioner Phillips was arrested, taken to a State Police barrack, and subjected to a custodial interrogation, and that, after about 45 minutes of conversation, he expressed a desire to consult with an attorney. It also is undisputed that, following that expression, a police detective continued to engage petitioner in conversation, during which petitioner indicated a desire to continue talking to the detective and ultimately made a number of incriminating statements. The principal question is whether the continuing conversation that led to those statements, for purposes of Edwards and its progeny, constituted an impermissible custodial interrogation.

BACKGROUND

Petitioner was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Worcester County of the first degree murder and armed robbery of William Nibblett.2 He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and a consecutive twenty years for the armed robbery. The Court of Special Appeals, in an unreported opinion, purported to affirm the judgments but remanded the case to the Circuit Court for a determination of whether petitioner was entitled to credit against his sentence for time spent in jail pending trial and sentencing.

[214]*214We granted Phillips’s petition for certiorari to determine whether his inculpatory statements were elicited in violation of the ruling in Edwards. We also granted the State’s cross-petition to determine whether Phillips failed to preserve that issue for appellate review. As both of those issues arise from the Circuit Court’s denial of petitioner’s motion to suppress the statements, we examine that ruling based on what was alleged in the motion to suppress and the evidence admitted at the suppression hearing. We view that evidence in a light most favorable to the State, which prevailed on the motion. That said, we must, in the end, make our own independent Constitutional appraisal of whether the statements were obtained in violation of law. Cox v. State, 421 Md. 630, 642, 28 A.3d 687, 694 (2011); Longshore v. State, 399 Md. 486, 498-99, 924 A.2d 1129, 1135 (2007).

The only witness to testify at the suppression hearing was Lieutenant Michael McDermott, of the Worcester County Shériffs Office. Mr. Nibblett was stabbed to death in his home in Pokomoke City on March 6, 2008. Petitioner was arrested six days later, on March 12, and was transported to the State Police barrack in Salisbury and placed in a conference room with Lt. McDermott. At about 4:15 p.m., Detective Scott Mitchell, of the Pokomoke City Police Department, gave petitioner the Miranda advice of rights, and, although the record indicates otherwise, counsel for petitioner concedes that “Phillips signed a written Miranda waiver.”3

[215]*215Following the giving of the Miranda advice, Detective Mitchell left the room, and Detective McDermott began to engage petitioner in some general conversation. McDermott said that petitioner did not want to talk about “any involvement in the case” so, in an effort to establish a rapport, the conversation dealt with petitioner’s personal life — his family, his tattoos, what he had been doing. After about 45 minutes, Detective Mitchell, whom McDermott described as one of his “zealous” detectives, “barged into the interview process and interrupted it.” Mitchell, he said, “became confrontational” with and “somewhat accusatory” of petitioner, indicating that he thought petitioner may have been involved in the homicide, at which point petitioner said that he wanted an attorney. At McDermott’s request, Mitchell then left the room.

McDermott stayed with petitioner in the interview room, except when he left briefly to get petitioner a soda. On direct examination, McDermott said that he advised petitioner that his invocation of the right to counsel “meant I couldn’t speak to him regarding this case” and that “if he decided he wanted to talk and he wanted to tell the story to me that he could do that. Alls [sic] he had to do was say that he wanted to, that he wanted to reaffirm that he didn’t want counsel, and that I could talk to him.” Petitioner “sat there and thought about it” and decided that he did want to continue talking.

[216]*216At that point, Detective Mitchell was called back into the room and watched petitioner while Detective McDermott got a tape recorder. On cross-examination, McDermott added that, prior to petitioner changing his mind, “I told him he could talk to me anytime he wanted to, but he would have to waive his right to counsel” and that “I wanted to get his side of the story, but that was entirely up to him.” Only five to ten minutes elapsed between the time petitioner asked for an attorney and the time he agreed to continue an interrogation. During that time, they continued to engage in some general conversation. The Miranda

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
40 A.3d 25, 425 Md. 210, 2012 WL 879250, 2012 Md. LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phillips-v-state-md-2012.