State v. Adame

2006 NMCA 100, 142 P.3d 26, 140 N.M. 258
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 14, 2006
DocketNo. 25,238
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2006 NMCA 100 (State v. Adame) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Adame, 2006 NMCA 100, 142 P.3d 26, 140 N.M. 258 (N.M. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

PICKARD, Judge.

{1} The main legal issue raised by this case is whether a defendant’s statements to the police, given voluntarily but without benefit of warnings pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), may be used as the grounds for a search warrant pursuant to which physical evidence that forms the basis of a conviction is seized. We hold that under federal law, they may be so used. In addition, Defendant raises two other issues that we rule are mostly inapplicable to the facts or were not raised below.

FACTS

{2} Defendant was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon based on his plea of no contest. The plea agreement reserved the right to appeal the issues raised in Defendant’s motion to suppress. The motion to suppress, in turn, challenged a warrantless, non-consensual search of Defendant’s home and a custodial interrogation without benefit of Miranda warnings. During the warrant-less, non-consensual search, the officers found a gun that was not the gun involved in the felon-in-possession charge and some marijuana, and during the custodial interrogation without benefit of Miranda warnings, Defendant revealed that there was another gun in the residence, upon which the charge to which Defendant entered his plea was based. Using the information they received when searching the residence and interrogating Defendant, the officers prepared a warrant for firearms and narcotics among other things.

{3} Defendant’s motion to suppress did not seek suppression of any particular thing, but instead just asked the trial court to declare the search without a warrant and without consent unconstitutional and asked the court to declare the questioning unconstitutional. At the motion to suppress hearing, Defendant mentioned fruit of the poisonous tree, but it appeared that he was arguing that the physical evidence from the first search of his home be suppressed, that the oral statement be suppressed, and that any testimony related to those things be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree. Similarly, Defendant’s requested conclusions of law were focused on the original warrantless, non-eonsensual search of the house and the custodial interrogation without Miranda warnings. They specifically requested only that the evidence found in that search be suppressed and that Defendant’s statements be deemed inadmissible as evidence.

{4} The trial court did exactly as Defendant requested and suppressed the first gun found during the warrantless, non-consensual search. The trial court also ruled that Defendant’s unwarned, oral statements could not be used against him at trial except for impeachment. However, the trial court went further and indicated that Defendant had not preserved any argument concerning greater protections under the New Mexico Constitution and then ruled that the police could use Defendant’s unwarned but voluntary oral statement about the second gun to seize that gun under the authority of United States v. Patane, 542 U.S. 630, 124 S.Ct. 2620, 159 L.Ed.2d 667 (2004). The trial court also ruled that a later, warned statement would be admissible.

DISCUSSION

{5} Defendant raises three issues on appeal. He first contends that (a) the trial court was correct in ruling that the original warrantless, non-eonsensual search was unconstitutional and (b) the affidavit for search warrant, which used both the information about the gun and marijuana found during this search and Defendant’s statement about the second gun, gave rise to an invalid search warrant under the doctrine set forth in State v. Wagoner, 2001-NMCA-014, ¶ 40, 130 N.M. 274, 24 P.3d 306 (holding that the fruits of a search based partially on tainted information that was not from any independent source must be suppressed). He next argues that his custodial, oral statements made prior to Miranda warnings were involuntary and inadmissible, and in his reply brief he clarifies that he is arguing that Patane does not apply to this case because his statements were involuntary, thereby essentially arguing that the second gun should also have been suppressed. He finally argues that the statement, taken after Miranda warnings were finally given, violated the rule set forth in Missouri v. Seibert and should have been ruled inadmissible. See 542 U.S. 600, 609, 617, 124 S.Ct. 2601, 159 L.Ed.2d 643 (2004) (holding that the interrogation technique of question first, then give Miranda warnings, and then question again was a circumvention of Miranda and resulted in inadmissible statements); id. at 618, 124 S.Ct. 2601 (Kennedy, J., concurring in the judgment) (same).

{6} We do not consider Defendant’s first argument because it was not raised in the trial court. See State v. Steven B., 2004-NMCA-086, ¶ 26, 136 N.M. 111, 94 P.3d 854 (stating the general proposition that matters not raised in the trial court may not be raised for the first time on appeal). This proposition is even more important in the area of state constitutional rights in which our cases are very specific about how such issues must be preserved. See State v. Gomez, 1997-NMSC-006, ¶¶ 22-23, 122 N.M. 777, 932 P.2d 1 (indicating that where established New Mexico precedent construes our constitution as providing greater protection, the appellant need only assert the constitutional principle and show the factual basis needed for the trial court to rule on the issue). In this case, as the trial court expressly ruled, Defendant made no mention of New Mexico cases and did not even call the trial court’s attention to the need to rule on the suppression of the gun at issue, much less explain that he was challenging the warrant and challenging it on the basis that it was based on partially invalid information. In Wagoner, on which Defendant relies on appeal, we expressly ruled on the basis of the New Mexico Constitution, and thus Defendant’s preservation of this issue was insufficient. See Wagoner, 2001-NMCA-014, ¶ 28, 130 N.M. 274, 24 P.3d 306.

{7} We also do not consider Defendant’s issue concerning his written statement because even if there was error in relation to it, which there was not, correction of it would not affect the result in this case. See Gracia v. Bittner, 120 N.M. 191, 197, 900 P.2d 351, 357 (Ct.App.1995) (holding that an appellate court will not reverse a trial court’s decision when doing so would not affect the result in the case). Here, Defendant pleaded no contest on the basis of a gun that was found in his house after the trial court ruled that neither the other things found in his house nor his unwarned, oral statements admitting to possessing the gun would be admitted into evidence. Defendant’s brief twice informs us that the post-Miranda “written statement does not contain anything about the guns[.]” Thus, any ruling about this written statement is entirely harmless.

{8} Defendant’s brief does suggest that there were additional oral statements made after Defendant received Miranda warnings. In these statements, Defendant again admitted to possessing the gun for which he was convicted.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2006 NMCA 100, 142 P.3d 26, 140 N.M. 258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-adame-nmctapp-2006.