State v. Donnell

849 S.W.2d 733, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 436, 1993 WL 81808
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 25, 1993
DocketNo. 17850
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 849 S.W.2d 733 (State v. Donnell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri 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. Donnell, 849 S.W.2d 733, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 436, 1993 WL 81808 (Mo. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

FLANIGAN, Judge.

A jury found defendant Mikael Donnell guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a Class C felony, and he was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. Defendant appeals.

In addition to its formal portions, the information charged that on or about April 4, 1991, in Jasper County, Missouri, the defendant “recklessly caused the death of Timothy A. Fry by driving at an excessive rate of speed while trying to evade the Missouri State Highway Patrol.”

Defendant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict. Defendant’s first point is that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress certain statements made by him on April 4, 1991, to Trooper Michael Bryan of the Missouri Highway Patrol because the statements were obtained in violation of defendant’s constitutional rights “in that the statements were obtained by custodial interrogation and Trooper Bryan did not advise defendant of his Miranda rights pri- or to obtaining the statements.”

The correctness of the trial court’s decision is measured by whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain the findings. State v. Lanear, 805 S.W.2d 713, 715 (Mo.App.1991). This court must determine if the [734]*734evidence supports the trial court’s ruling on the motion to suppress. The weight of the evidence and the credibility of witnesses are questions for the trial court’s resolution. Id.

The testimony of state’s witness, Trooper Bryan, at the motion to suppress hearing, was essentially the same as he gave at the jury trial. Bryan testified that at 9 p.m. on April 4,1991, he was on duty, heading west on Route HH in Jasper County. An eastbound vehicle passed him at a rate of speed which he determined by radar to be 80 miles per hour. Bryan activated his red lights and attempted to stop the vehicle. The vehicle accelerated. Bryan made a U-turn and started in pursuit. Bryan reached a speed of 105 miles per hour, but the pursued vehicle was going even faster.

During the three-mile pursuit, the pursued vehicle violated two stop signs located at intersections. Bryan testified: “I did not see the accident occur initially. The accident occurred at County Road 12 and Fir Road, which is a paved road. As we went off the paved portion, it turned into a gravel road. The vehicle I was pursuing hit the gravel portion of the road, which caused a large amount of dust. As I drove into the dust, I slowed down. I never did see the accident because it was so dusty. Once the dust cleared, I observed the vehicle overturned in the field. The two occupants of the vehicle had been thrown out. Defendant was one of those occupants. I ran over to where the two men were lying on the ground. I found Mr. Fry, who appeared to be unconscious and in a very serious condition. Defendant was lying beside him.

Bryan gave the following testimony:

Q. Did you ask Mr. Donnell anything when you approached him?
A. Yes, I asked him who was the driver, and at that time he stated, “I was driving.”
Q. Did you Mirandize him prior to asking him that?
A. No, I did not.
Q. Did Mr. Donnell say anything else to you at that point in time?
A. No, he was just concerned about his friend at that time.
Q. And just to make the record clear here, Mr. Donnell was conscious; is that correct?
A. That’s correct.
Q. Was Mr. Fry, the passenger of the vehicle, was he conscious at this time?
A. No, he was not.1
Q. Now, did Mr. Donnell say anything else to you at that point in time?
A. No, he didn’t.
Q. Now, you had occasion to talk to Mr. Donnell, I believe the next day; is that correct?
A. That’s correct, at the hospital.

Bryan also testified that prior to interviewing defendant at the hospital on April 5, he gave defendant the Miranda warnings. Defendant’s point focuses upon the statement elicited from him at the scene of the accident to the effect that he was driving.

In Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 433, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 3147[3], 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984), the court held that a person subjected to custodial interrogation is entitled to the benefit of the procedural safeguards enunciated in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), “regardless of the nature or severity of the offense of which he is suspected or for which he was arrested.” The court held that Miranda governs the admissibility of statements made during a custodial interrogation by a suspect accused of a misdemeanor traffic offense, as well as a suspect accused of a felony traffic offense. The court also held, however, that the roadside questioning of a motorist detained pursuant to a traffic stop does not constitute custodial interrogation for the purpose of the doctrine enunciated in Miranda.

In Pennsylvania v. Bruder, 488 U.S. 9, 10-12, 109 S.Ct. 205, 206-207, 102 L.Ed.2d 172 (1988), the court gave this summary of its holding in Berkemer:

[T]he Court concluded that the “non-coercive aspect of ordinary traffic stops prompts us to hold that persons tempo[735]*735rarily detained pursuant to such stops are not ‘in custody’ for the purposes of Miranda.” The Court reasoned that although the stop was unquestionably a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, such traffic stops typically are brief, unlike a prolonged station house interrogation. Second, the Court emphasized that traffic stops commonly occur in the “public view,” in an atmosphere far “less ‘police dominated’ than that surrounding the kinds of interrogation at issue in Miranda itself.” The detained motorist’s “freedom of action [was not] curtailed to ‘a degree associated with formal arrest.’ ” Accordingly, he was not entitled to a recitation of his constitutional rights prior to arrest, and his roadside responses to questioning were admissible.

The Court said, 488 U.S. at 10, n. 1, 109 S.Ct. at 207, n. 1:

We did not announce an absolute rule for all motorist detentions, observing that lower courts must be vigilant that police do not “delay formally arresting detained motorists, and ... subject them to sustained and intimidating interrogation at the scene of their initial detention.”

Also the Court said, 488 U.S. at 11, n. 2, 109 S.Ct. at 207, n. 2:

Reliance on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision Commonwealth v. Meyer, 488 Pa. 297, 412 A.2d 517 (1980), to which we referred in Berkemer, see 468 U.S., at 441, and n. 34, 104 S.Ct., at 3151, and n. 34, is inapposite. Meyer involved facts which we implied might properly remove its result from Berkemer

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Related

State v. Tally
153 S.W.3d 888 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2005)
State v. Shaw
14 S.W.3d 77 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1999)

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Bluebook (online)
849 S.W.2d 733, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 436, 1993 WL 81808, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-donnell-moctapp-1993.