State v. Alger

764 P.2d 119, 115 Idaho 42, 1988 Ida. App. LEXIS 138
CourtIdaho Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 2, 1988
Docket16653
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 764 P.2d 119 (State v. Alger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Alger, 764 P.2d 119, 115 Idaho 42, 1988 Ida. App. LEXIS 138 (Idaho Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

BURNETT, Judge.

On a wintry evening in 1984, an Albert-son’s supermarket in Boise was robbed at gunpoint. Law enforcement officers throughout Idaho began searching for two suspects, Timothy Alger and an alleged accomplice. Several days later, Alger and his partner were spotted in Twin Falls. After a lengthy pursuit and intense manhunt, both individuals were apprehended. A jury eventually found Alger guilty of armed robbery. The judge imposed a ten-year indeterminate sentence for the robbery and a fifteen-year indeterminate enhancement for use of a firearm during commission of the crime. On appeal, Alger has presented a potpourri of issues falling into three general categories: (1) pretrial suppression of evidence, (2) admission and sufficiency of evidence at trial, and (3) propriety of the sentence imposed. For reasons explained below, we affirm the district court’s judgment.

I

Before trial, Alger moved to suppress evidence obtained by police investigators from several different sources: eyewitness identifications, statements made by Alger to the police following his arrest, and items seized during the search of a motor home rented by Alger. The motion was denied. We will discuss each point in turn.

A

Alger first contends that the trial court should have suppressed a “tainted eyewitness identification.” This contention appears to be directed primarily at the alleged unreliability of an identification made by one of the eyewitnesses. The issue is loosely styled as a due process claim because Alger argues that the eyewitness’s subsequent in-court identification of him was corrupted by unduly suggestive pretrial identification procedures. Where, as here, the issue is whether a constitutional violation appears from a set of facts, we exercise free review. Standards of Appellate Review in State and Federal Courts, IDAHO APPELLATE HANDBOOK § 3-3 (Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. 1985).

Generally speaking, due process requires the suppression of an eyewitness identification obtained as a result of confrontations “so unnecessarily suggestive” that they are “conducive to irreparable mistaken identification.” Neil v. Biggers, 409 U.S. 188, 196, 93 S.Ct. 375, 380, 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972) (quoting Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 301-02, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 1972, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967)). Suggestiveness, in turn, is determined according to the totality of the circumstances. Id. See also State v. Hoisington, 104 Idaho 153, 657 P.2d 17 (1983). Although this test has been employed in determining whether an in-court identification has been unduly tainted by a suggestive out-of-court identification, it also may be used — with deletion of the word “irreparable” — as a standard for the admissibility of testimony concerning the out-of-court identification itself. Neil v. Biggers, supra.

In this case, four Albertson’s employees were present at the time of the robbery. Alger’s primary challenge concerns the identification by one of these four. Of the other three, one testified that he could not identify Alger because he was not close enough to the front of the store *45 to get a proper view. The other two employees positively identified-Alger in pretrial physical lineups and photo lineups. They reiterated the identifications at trial. Alger makes no claim that these identifications were constitutionally infirm. Instead, he focuses his attack upon an identification by the fourth employee, a night manager, who had the longest opportunity to study the robber. He was the person who handed over money from a cash register and from the store safe.

Before the preliminary hearing, but some twenty-one months after the robbery, the night manager was shown an eight-person photo lineup. He positively identified Alger as the man who had pointed a revolver at him and demanded money. The same employee then was subpoenaed to testify at the preliminary hearing. When he arrived in court, he noticed the back of the head of the accused, who was seated in the front of the courtroom. For reasons not germane to our discussion, the hearing was continued before the employee could testify. In the interim, the employee was taken to a live lineup where he was unable to identify anyone positively. However, at the resumed preliminary hearing and at the trial, he positively re-identified Alger as the man who had robbed the store. Defense counsel was allowed to challenge this identification by eliciting on cross-examination all the circumstances surrounding the pretrial identification proceedings.

We fail to see how the pretrial confrontations in this case were unduly suggestive. Although a significant period of time elapsed between the robbery and the first photo lineup, the identification — selected from an eight-picture lineup — was unequivocal. Other than the lapse of time, no claim is made that this confrontation somehow was improper. Furthermore, prior to this lineup the witness had made no contrary identifications tending to undercut his reliability. Neither was he subjected to any inherently suspect confrontations that might have impaired his ability to identify Alger based upon his memory of the robbery itself. 1 Finally, the unexpected courtroom “confrontation” at the original preliminary hearing was not face-to-face, and it does not appear to have focused the witness’s attention upon Alger. Indeed, at the physical lineup held after the preliminary hearing was continued, the witness was unable to make a positive identifica: tion.

In sum, although this particular eyewitness’s identification of Alger at trial may have harbored some uncertainty, it was not contaminated by any unduly suggestive confrontation. 2 The identification was properly presented to the jury along with the background facts. The jurors were entitled to accord the evidence whatever weight they deemed appropriate.

B

Alger next asserts that statements made by him to a police officer while he was hospitalized were involuntary and, therefore, were admitted at trial in violation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Alger received Miranda warnings and agreed to speak with the police at the beginning of the interrogation. However, he contends that the waiver of his Fifth Amendment right was tainted by the influence of pain medication. With this contention the district court did not agree.

Any waiver of Miranda rights or of the underlying constitutional privilege against self-incrimination must be made voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently. State v. Hall, 111 Idaho 827, 727 P.2d 1255 (Ct.App.1986). The issue in this case is *46 whether Alger possessed the capacity to make voluntary, knowing and intelligent decisions despite the influence of medication. On appeal, we conduct an independent examination of the record to determine whether, under the totality of the circumstances, the waiver was valid. E.g., Beckwith v. United States,

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Bluebook (online)
764 P.2d 119, 115 Idaho 42, 1988 Ida. App. LEXIS 138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alger-idahoctapp-1988.