State v. Dixon

348 So. 2d 333
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMay 4, 1977
Docket75-1384
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 348 So. 2d 333 (State v. Dixon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Dixon, 348 So. 2d 333 (Fla. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

348 So.2d 333 (1977)

STATE of Florida, Appellant,
v.
Ernest Lee DIXON and Herbert Godbolt, Appellees.

No. 75-1384.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

May 4, 1977.
Rehearing Denied June 10, 1977.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and C. Marie King, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tampa, for appellant.

Jack O. Johnson, Public Defender, and Steven H. Denman, Asst. Public Defender, Bartow, for appellee Dixon.

E. David Tyner, of Sumner, Tyner & McKnight, Dade City, for appellee Godbolt.

PER CURIAM.

The state has appealed two interlocutory orders granting appellees' motions to suppress their confessions and to suppress certain other evidence they contend was seized as a result of the "tainted" confessions.

Appellees, Dixon and Godbolt, along with a codefendant Leroy Williams, were suspects in the murder of Gerald "Pops" Brown, for which they were subsequently indicted. They were being held on charges of possession of marijuana which was discovered in the van (owned by the homicide victim) in which the three suspects were found riding shortly after the alleged murder. The arresting officers had probable cause to believe the suspects were involved in the murder and no issue is made herein regarding the stopping or searching of the van.

The suspects were given their Miranda warnings upon arrest, had their initial judicial hearing on the marijuana charges and were appointed the public defender on those charges. The record is silent as to *334 whether any bail was set on those charges but in any case, if it was, they were unable to post it and were detained in the Pasco County Jail for six days. On each of those days the police sought to interrogate them regarding the homicide. On each such occasion the officers repeated the Miranda warnings and on each occasion, at least as to appellees Dixon and Godbolt, they refused to talk about the homicide without the presence of an attorney. On none of these occasions did the attempted interrogation last more than five to twenty minutes.

On the sixth day deputy sheriff John Willie Stewart, who was not previously officially involved in the homicide investigation but who was aware of it and who was a personal acquaintance of appellee Godbolt (nicknamed "Gator"), sought and received permission from the detective in charge of the investigation to get Gator's brother Warren and, in the latter's presence, see if he could get any information from Gator. Deputy Stewart was Warren's landlord, and he liked and respected Warren and felt that between the two of them they could elicit information from Gator.

The two of them were closeted with Gator in an interrogation room in the jail for approximately three or four hours. Before any interrogation began deputy Stewart read to Gator the Miranda warnings from a card. Deputy Stewart said he did not threaten Gator, did not promise him anything, nor did he hold out any hope of reward. Admittedly, when Gator inquired about possibly getting out on bond, deputy Stewart told him he had nothing to worry about if he wasn't involved in any homicide, and that if he had nothing to do with it he could probably have bond set by a judge.

Gator talked on and on about the activities of all the suspects on the night of the alleged homicide which took them from Gainesville to St. Petersburg to the Zephyrhills-Richland area of Pasco County where the homicide allegedly occurred. Gator refused, however, to acknowledge that he knew anything about a homicide or that any of them had assaulted an alleged victim. Deputy Stewart advised him that other detectives were convinced a homicide had been committed but that he, personally, was only concerned with the location of the body; that he only wanted the victim to have a decent burial. While initially Gator avoided any mention of the homicide or location of the body, although he talked freely of the activities of the three suspects on the day in question — in the words of deputy Stewart, "... he never did stop talking to me ...," — Gator eventually and little by little began giving details of the involvement of all three suspects in the killing of "Pops" Brown, who at least one of them knew and who they picked up in St. Petersburg. Ultimately, he revealed all the details except for the location of the body.

It appears further, that during the course of the conversation with deputy Stewart and his brother Warren, Gator got the impression that his codefendant Leroy Williams, who he later identified as the actual perpetrator of the murder, was trying to pin the homicide on either him or appellee Dixon. Deputy Stewart testified that he made no mention to Gator that Williams was trying to pin it on Gator or Dixon, but that Gator may well have gotten that impression from the fact that all parties to the conversation were well aware that other officers were interrogating Williams separately. Additionally, Gator was aware that friends or relatives of Williams were at the jail that day from which fact, deputy Stewart assumed, Gator concluded that Williams had "copped out", implicating him and Dixon, and was apparently about to be bonded out through the efforts of his friends and relatives.

Concerning appellee Dixon's confession, when, at the conclusion of the conversation with deputy Stewart and Warren Godbolt, Gator refused to give the location of "Pops" Brown's body, deputy Stewart asked Gator if he would reveal the location of the body if Dixon was brought down and if Dixon would agree to it. Gator didn't say whether he would or wouldn't but he did say to deputy Stewart, "Bring Dixon down, go get Dixon." Dixon was brought to the interrogation *335 room where his Miranda rights were read to him. Before the deputy asked Dixon any questions about the crime he related to him all the details of the homicide which Gator had given him, after which Dixon began talking freely. Finally, with Gator and Dixon each suggesting that the other of them tell where the body was (each protesting that he had been confused on the night of the homicide and unfamiliar with the area in Polk County where they had taken and left the body), enough details were revealed that deputy Stewart was able to pinpoint the approximate location of the body.

At that point, both Gator and Dixon agreed to go with the officers to locate the body. Deputy Stewart drove the two suspects and they were accompanied by other officers. The body was in fact located and several items of evidence were found in and about the body and seized. It is these items which are the subject of the second interlocutory order appealed from which suppressed them as having been "tainted" by the confessions, suppressed by the first order.

Following discovery of the body, all parties returned to the Pasco County Jail where, again after having been given their Miranda rights, the suppressed confessions were given separately by each appellee to a court reporter in the presence of three police officers and an assistant state attorney.

The court granted the motions to suppress on the ground that "the state has indeed failed to — to carry its burden to demonstrate that these statements made by Dixon and Godbolt were voluntarily made, and this finding is based on the totality of the testimony... ."

The burden of proving that a confession has been freely and voluntarily given rests upon the state. Reddish v. State, 167 So.2d 858 (Fla. 1964). On the issue of voluntariness, the court must take into consideration the "totality of circumstances" surrounding the confession. Williams v. State, 188 So.2d 320 (Fla.2d DCA 1966).

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