State v. Darnell

905 S.W.2d 953, 1995 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 164
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMarch 2, 1995
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 905 S.W.2d 953 (State v. Darnell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Darnell, 905 S.W.2d 953, 1995 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 164 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

WELLES, Judge.

This is a direct appeal as of right from a conviction on a jury verdict of first degree murder. The trial court sentenced the Defendant to life in prison. We affirm in part and reverse in part the judgment of the trial court.

The Defendant argues two issues on appeal: (1) The trial court erred in denying the Defendant’s motion to suppress his statements to the police, and (2) there was not sufficient evidence to find the Defendant guilty of first degree murder.

The victim was found dead in her home in Nashville, Tennessee on the evening of January 20,1992. She was an elderly woman who lived by herself. She had been stabbed twice in the back, once in the neck and once in the abdomen. Her phone had been ripped off the wall. The police conducted an initial investigation during which they dusted the house for fingerprints.

Detective Pridemore, the officer in charge of the murder investigation, asked the family members for names of acquaintances of the family. The Defendant’s name was among the names given. The department determined that the Defendant’s fingerprints matched several prints at the crime scene. Two of Defendant’s prints were found on the dresser next to the victim’s body. Another print was found on the phone which had been pulled from the wall. Three prints were found on the toilet seat in the victim’s bathroom.

Pridemore sought out the Defendant for questioning but had trouble locating him. On the evening of September 3, 1992, an unidentified woman stopped a K-9 officer on patrol, handed him Pridemore’s business card, and told him the Defendant was walking across the Shelby Street bridge. The K-9 officer contacted Pridemore, who came to the scene to question the Defendant. The Defendant agreed to accompany Pridemore to his office for questioning. During questioning, the Defendant stated that he had not been in the victim’s house for ten years. Pridemore told him he had evidence to the contrary. At this point, the Defendant said that he did not want to talk anymore. He demanded that Pridemore either arrest him [956]*956or let him go. Pridemore then arrested the Defendant.

I.

The Defendant’s first issue is whether the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his statements to the police. The Defendant divides this issue into three arguments. The first argument is that the Defendant was illegally seized on the street because there was not probable cause to stop him. The second argument is that the Defendant’s initial statements were made during custodial interrogation before he was given the warnings set forth in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), reh’g denied 385 U.S. 890, 87 S.Ct. 11, 17 L.Ed.2d 121 (1966). The third argument is that his post-Miranda statements should have been suppressed because under the totality of the circumstances his waiver cannot be found to be voluntary.

A.

Officer Edward Ryan of the K-9 division of the Metro Police Department was on patrol the night of September 3, 1992. While on patrol, a woman flagged him down, handed him the business card of Detective Pride-more and said that the detective was looking for the Defendant. She said that Pridemore told her to call him if she saw the Defendant. Ryan had not seen the woman before this encounter and did not have any background information on her. She then gave him a physical description of the Defendant, and said the Defendant and his friends were heading across the Shelby Street Bridge.

Ryan then drove across the bridge, located the Defendant and his friends, stopped them, and said he needed to talk to them a minute. It is unclear from the record whether he used his flashing lights to stop them. He then asked the individuals their names, and the Defendant identified himself. Ryan then contacted the Homicide department. He asked the dispatcher if Pridemore was looking for the Defendant. The dispatcher replied a few minutes later, stating that Pride-more was looking for the Defendant and that he was on his way.

Ryan told the Defendant’s friends that they were free to leave. Ryan then told the Defendant that the detective wanted to speak with him, and that the detective was on his way. He asked if he would mind waiting for the detective to get there, and the defendant said that he did not mind. Ryan patted down the Defendant for his protection, as was usual procedure when detaining someone, even for a brief period of time. The Defendant leaned against the front quarter panel of Ryan’s car while waiting for the detective to get there. Another officer drove by and saw Ryan and stopped to talk to him while Ryan waited for Pridemore. Pride-more arrived about thirty minutes later.

When Pridemore arrived and introduced himself it was 12:30 a.m. He asked the Defendant if he would mind going to the office at the police station or somewhere else to talk about the case. The Defendant said he would not mind going to Pridemore’s office and also agreed to ride in the car with Pridemore. The Defendant rode in the passenger’s side of Pridemore’s car, as opposed to the rear compartment.

The Defendant argues that his stop by Officer Ryan and wait for Detective Pride-more was an illegal seizure under the Fourth Amendment, and his later statements should therefore be suppressed. We must first determine if the detention amounted to a Fourth Amendment seizure. If the detention was a seizure under the Fourth Amendment, we must then determine whether the officer possessed an articulable reasonable suspicion for an investigatory stop under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), and the seizure cases following Terry. If so, the evidence obtained subsequent to the stop would be admissible at trial. If not, then the evidence should have been suppressed at trial. At the conclusion of the suppression hearing, the trial judge stated that she did not believe that the stop was a Terry stop, and therefore, did not reach the level of being a Fourth Amend[957]*957ment seizure. She found “that it was a voluntary stop and a voluntary state-ment_” We agree with the trial judge.

In Terry, the Supreme Court stated that not every encounter between a policeman and a citizen is a seizure. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. at 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. at 1878 n. 16. “Only when the officer, by means of physical force or show of authority, has in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen may we conclude that a ‘seizure’ has occurred.” Id, Subsequent to Terry, the United States Supreme Court has attempted to define what constitutes a seizure under the Fourth Amendment. In United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1979), reh’g denied, 448 U.S. 908, 100 S.Ct. 3051, 65 L.Ed.2d 1138 (1980), Justice Stewart, announcing the decision of the Court, stated, “a person has been ‘seized’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment only if, in view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave.” Id. at 554, 100 S.Ct. at 1877 (footnote omitted). However, due to the three way split among the justices Men-denhall was of limited authority.1

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
905 S.W.2d 953, 1995 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-darnell-tenncrimapp-1995.