State v. Davis

834 P.2d 1008, 313 Or. 246, 1992 Ore. LEXIS 106
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 5, 1992
DocketCC A8801-30035; CA A50571; SC S36889
StatusPublished
Cited by101 cases

This text of 834 P.2d 1008 (State v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon 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. Davis, 834 P.2d 1008, 313 Or. 246, 1992 Ore. LEXIS 106 (Or. 1992).

Opinion

*248 GILLETTE, J.

In this murder prosecution, the trial court granted defendant’s pretrial motion to suppress certain statements, including admissions of the murder, made by defendant to Portland police officers. At the time the statements were made, defendant was in custody out-of-state. On appeal by the state, the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the statements were admissible. State v. Davis, 99 Or App 358, 781 P2d 1264 (1989). We affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals, but for reasons different than those relied on by that court.

Defendant was arrested by Mississippi law enforcement officers at his mother’s home in Mississippi. The officers had no search warrant for defendant’s mother’s home, and there was no initial consent to enter the home and to search for the defendant. The arrest was made under a fugitive warrant, issued in Mississippi, that was based on underlying arrest warrants issued in Oregon for defendant’s failure to appear for trial on robbery charges that are unrelated to the murder.

After he was arrested, defendant was questioned in Mississippi by Portland police officers. The Portland officers had come to Mississippi to return defendant to Portland and to question him as a suspect in the Portland murder. During that questioning, and after Miranda 1 waivers, defendant made statements admitting the murder. Defendant did not ask for counsel, although counsel had been appointed previously for defendant in the pending Oregon criminal prosecution on the robbery charges, and that counsel was not contacted by the officers before the questioning in Mississippi.

After a hearing on defendant’s motion to suppress, the trial court concluded that defendant had abandoned his appointed counsel and that the statements were not obtained in violation of defendant’s state or federal constitutional rights to counsel or to be free from compelled self-incrimination. The trial court nonetheless suppressed defendant’s statements to the Portland officers as the product of an *249 unlawful arrest, concluding that a search warrant was required for the entry by the Mississippi officers into defendant’s mother’s home. Because the officers had only an arrest warrant, the trial court ruled that their arrest of defendant was unlawful and that any statements obtained from him after that arrest were a product of the illegal arrest that must be suppressed.

The state appealed. ORS 138.060(3). The Court of Appeals assumed, without deciding, that the entry into defendant’s mother’s home and defendant’s arrest were unlawful without a search warrant, but concluded that defendant’s subsequent statements were nonetheless admissible because they were voluntary and the taint of the illegal arrest had been purged. State v. Davis, supra, 99 Or App at 360-61. The Court of Appeals further concluded, citing State v. Sparklin, 296 Or 85, 672 P2d 1182 (1983) (discussed infra), that the interrogation on the uncharged murder, which was factually unrelated to the pending robbery charges, did not violate defendant’s rights to counsel under Article I, sections 11 or 12, of the Oregon Constitution, or the Fifth or Sixth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. State v. Davis, supra, 99 Or App at 361-62.

We hold that the Oregon constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution, includes the right in a criminal prosecution in Oregon to be free from the use of evidence that has been obtained in violation of the defendant’s rights prescribed by that provision and that, for these purposes, action by state officers in Mississippi is the same as action by the state officers in Oregon. In this case, however, we further hold that the arrest of defendant in defendant’s mother’s home without a search warrant or consent for the entry did not violate defendant’s state or federal constitutional rights, because the officers were executing a valid arrest warrant.

With respect to the question of interrogation concerning one crime while defendant is represented by counsel with respect to an unrelated crime, we hold that defendant’s Miranda waivers were voluntary'. They were not obtained in violation of defendant’s right to counsel under Article I, section 11, of the Oregon Constitution, or the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, nor were they *250 obtained in violation of his right against compelled self-incrimination under Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution, or the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Accordingly, we conclude that defendant’s statements relating to the murder were admissible.

The following historical facts were expressly found by the trial court, are supported by evidence in the record before the trial court, and are, therefore, binding for purposes of this appeal. See State v. Stevens, 311 Or 119, 126, 806 P2d 92 (1991) (stating principle). In May 1987, defendant was arrested and charged by information with robbery, attempted kidnapping, and assault. On July 2, 1987, defendant was conditionally released. He was required to be in court on July 7 and 13 for pretrial matters, and on July 14 for trial. He failed to appear at any of these required appearances. The release agreement was revoked; bench warrants were issued for defendant’s arrest.

On December 12, 1987, Joseph Holcomb was murdered. By late December, Portland Police detectives had developed information implicating defendant in the homicide and suggesting that he was presently at his mother’s home in Greenwood, Mississippi. Contacts with Mississippi law enforcement officials confirmed that defendant was staying at his mother’s home. The trial court further found:

“Defendant and [his brother] had travelled from Portland, Oregon, to Greenwood, Miss., to visit their family over the Christmas holidays. They arrived in Greenwood on Sunday, Dec. 20, 1987. Their intent was to visit during the holiday season and to return to Portland thereafter. Defendant was not domiciled at his mother’s house at the time of his arrest [on January 5,1988]. He was a guest. He has been a resident of Portland, Oregon, for about two years prior to his arrest.”

Mississippi law enforcement officers who arrested defendant in his mother’s home on January 5, 1988, simply appeared at Mrs. Davis’ home, knocked, and entered to make the arrest when the door was opened. The Mississippi officers assumed that the Mississippi fugitive arrest warrant naming defendant was sufficient to allow them to enter the home and to take defendant into custody. The Oregon police officers, who also were present at defendant’s mother’s home at the time of the arrest by the Mississippi police officers, thought *251 that the Oregon warrant for failure to appear was sufficient to authorize entry into the home. The Oregon police officers did not participate in the actual entry and arrest.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
834 P.2d 1008, 313 Or. 246, 1992 Ore. LEXIS 106, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-davis-or-1992.