State v. Collins

446 P.2d 325, 74 Wash. 2d 729, 1968 Wash. LEXIS 815
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 24, 1968
Docket39980
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 446 P.2d 325 (State v. Collins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Collins, 446 P.2d 325, 74 Wash. 2d 729, 1968 Wash. LEXIS 815 (Wash. 1968).

Opinion

*730 Hunter, J.

The defendant (appellant), Clarence Earl Collins, was jointly charged by information with Alvin Monroe Cain, and Charles LeRoy Jones, with two counts of aiding and abetting the commission of the crime of first degree forgery and one count of aiding and abetting the attempt to commit the crime of first degree forgery. Pursuant to the defendant’s conviction on all three counts in a jury trial, this appeal was taken.

On the morning of June 23, 1967, Collins and Cain met Jones and one Dillard Simpson in a Spokane tavern where they drank wine and beer for several hours. Collins and Cain suggested that they make some money. They left the tavern and returned shortly with a number of check blanks which had been stolen from Spokane Transmissions, a business owned by Robert A. Cobb. Three of the check blanks were made payable to Simpson in the sum of $61.33 each with Mr. Cobb indicated as the purported maker thereof. Two of the checks were cashed: one at Jud’s Market, another at Bill’s Market; however, the third was rejected when attempts were made to cash it at a Safeway Store and at a Low Cost Market. Management of the latter two stores were aware of a check alert on the stolen check blanks and they notified the police who apprehended the four men shortly thereafter.

The primary issue on this appeal concerns the statements made by the defendant Collins to Detective Alex Solinsky, of the Spokane Police Department, out of the presence of Collins’ court appointed attorney. The statements were made in a conversation that took place on July 5, 1967, between Collins and Detective Solinsky. Solinsky testified he received a call from the Spokane County chief jailer, Darrel Holmes, indicating that the defendant wished to speak to him. Collins testified that he never made such a request.

The defendant admitted that he had been advised of his rights prior to the interview. During the interview, the defendant told the detective he could produce the machine used to make the checks, described the machine’s imprint *731 ing operation, the fact that the serial number had been removed from it and that the machine had been obtained from out of town. He also stated that “If you can get me reduced sentence I can get you some type of check protector, . . .”

The defendant contends that during the interview, Detective Solinsky told him the conversation would be strictly “off the record” and merely between the two of them. Were it not for such a statement, the defendant claims he would not have spoken to the detective without the presence of his counsel: “And that was the only reason why I talked to him, and he says he would see the district attorney and try to get a reduced sentence if I could find some check protector or something, . . .”

However, Detective Solinsky testified that the statement “off the record” was made by the defendant who also told the detective, “anything you may say I have said here, it is your word against mine.”

The trial court believed the testimony of Solinsky, holding in a pretrial hearing that Collins had knowingly and intelligently waived his constitutional rights, and that the statements of Collins in the conversation were voluntarily made, to which ruling the defendant has assigned error.

It is first contended by the defendant that the state failed in its burden of proving that the accused effected a valid and voluntary waiver of his constitutional rights and that the statements made to Officer Solinsky were not the product of deception and cajolery. He correctly argues that the prosecution has a heavy burden of proof in demonstrating that the admissions made by the defendant were voluntary and that the defendant intelligently and knowingly waived his rights. State v. Davis, 73 Wn.2d 271, 284-85, 438 P.2d 185, 193 (1968); Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 475, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694, 724, 86 Sup. Ct. 1602, 1628 (1966). Moreover, in sustaining this burden, the state does not have the assistance of any presumptions. State v. Davis, supra, at 285. The real question, therefore, is whether the prosecution has met the “heavy burden” of Miranda and Davis, *732 supra, of providing that the waiver was made knowingly and intelligently, and was not the product of deception and cajolery as the defendant contends.

In State v. Vangen, 72 Wn.2d 548, 554, 433 P.2d 691, 694-95 (1967), this court set forth certain factors which could be considered in determining a voluntary waiver of constitutional rights:

In considering whether appellant knowingly and voluntarily waived his constitutional rights to counsel and to remain silent, we may consider that appellant (then 35 years of age) was not unfamiliar with police interrogation, having theretofore been convicted of forgery, auto theft, and non-support of minor children. He had served four or more years in prison. The following observation from State v. Darst, 65 Wn.2d 808, 816, 399 P.2d 618 (1965), is applicable here:
“Appellant was no inexperienced youth, unknowing in the ways of the world, nor a stranger to the technique of a police interrogation. His numerous arrests and convictions establish this beyond a doubt. He could not help knowing that he could not be compelled to talk to the officers or that whatever he said or wrote might be used against him at his trial. State v. Self, 59 Wn. (2d) 62, 366 P. (2d) 193.”

A similarly appropriate comment is contained in State v. Huston, 71 Wn.2d 226, 229, 428 P.2d 547, 549 (1967):

The present case is not one of a man who, at the time of the inquiry in question, was unaware of his absolute constitutional right to remain silent. It is undisputed that he had been so advised and he proceeded to demonstrate his understanding of that advice by speaking only to those things which he chose to speak to and by refusing to talk about other aspects of the charge.

In the instant case, the defendant admitted that he was advised prior to the interview of his right to remain silent. The record shows he was anything but an inexperienced youth. He had a criminal history which included six felony convictions and he had been released from his last penal institution on April 13, 1967, approximately 2 months prior to the commission of the crimes herein charged. His *733 experience was also borne out by the fact that during the first interview, conducted on June 26, 1967, he declined to give the officers a handwriting exemplar or to discuss the facts of the case. He further demonstrated his knowledge of present-day legal problems by indicating to the detective the difficulty the latter would encounter should the statement be used in court and it became one’s word against the other.

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576 P.2d 1311 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1978)
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State v. Haverty
475 P.2d 887 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1970)
State v. Jones
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447 P.2d 606 (Washington Supreme Court, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
446 P.2d 325, 74 Wash. 2d 729, 1968 Wash. LEXIS 815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-collins-wash-1968.