State v. Edwards

30 P.3d 238, 96 Haw. 224
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 22, 2001
Docket22781
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 30 P.3d 238 (State v. Edwards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii 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. Edwards, 30 P.3d 238, 96 Haw. 224 (haw 2001).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by

ACOBA, J.

We hold that the police failed to make a reasonable effort to contact an attorney pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 803-9(2) (1993), as requested by Defendant-Appellant Jennifer Edwards (Defendant), when they did nothing more than call the attorney’s listed telephone number twice on two different occasions, although informed that the number was not in service. However, we hold that the violation of HRS § 803-9(2) under the circumstances of this case did not warrant suppression of Defendant’s subsequent statements. We hold, further, that Defendant voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waived her rights in giving the statements, see Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and that her statements were voluntarily made. See State v. Kelekolio, 74 Haw. 479, 511, 849 P.2d 58, 73 (1993).

Accordingly, we affirm Defendant’s August 10, 1999 judgment of conviction for manslaughter and the sentence imposed thereunder by the first circuit court (the court). 1

I.

At 6:30 .a.m. on December 17, 1997, Defendant was arrested by Honolulu Police Department (HPD) Detective Anderson Hee at the emergency room of Kaiser Moanalua Hospital for the murder of her twenty-month-old daughter, Cedra Edwards. HPD Detective Mark Wiese was also present at the scene.

At the time of the arrest, Defendant was eighteen years old. Defendant was not married. Mika Mika, Jr., Defendant’s boyfriend who lived with Defendant and Cedra, was also arrested for Cedra’s murder.

Hee and Wiese took Defendant from the hospital to the Kalihi Police Station for booking and then to the main police station. Hee ordered that Defendant be placed on suicide watch because Defendant was crying and visibly upset and because her daughter had died.

*227 HPD Officer Gary Magislat testified that, at detectives’ request, prisoners are sometimes restricted from using a telephone. When asked if, “[t]o [his] knowledge, [Defendant] was ... free to use the telephone if she so desired,” Hee testified that “[s]he was free to.” It is not evident from the record whether Defendant was ever informed of this.

At approximately 2:40 p.m. on December 17, 1997, some eight hours after Defendant was arrested, Hee and Wiese took Defendant from her cellblock for interrogation. They advised Defendant of her constitutional rights, using a standard “HPD Form 81,” which advises an interviewee of his or her “Miranda rights.” Of the following three questions, Defendant answered and initialed only the first question on the form as follows:

Do you want an attorney now? JE Yes — No

Do you understand what I told you? Yes No

Would you like to tell me what happened? Yes No

Hee asked Defendant if she wanted him to call a private attorney or a public defender. Defendant stated that Dawn Slaten had represented her in a matter concerning her children and she wanted to talk to Slaten. At that point, Hee and Wiese stopped the interrogation. When they asked Defendant if she knew Slaten’s telephone number, she said, “No.” Wiese told Defendant, “[W]ell, that’s okay, I’ll find it.” Wiese testified that “[he] had seen [HRS § 803-9 2 ]” in the course of doing his job. When asked whether he was “familiar with [the] statute as having some bearing on ... the amount of effort[ ] and [the] requirements imposed on police in advising people of their rights and so forth[,]” Wiese said, “[Y]es.” Hee instructed Wiese to notify Slaten that Defendant had requested counsel.

Wiese escorted Defendant down to the cellblock where they met with an evidence specialist to have Defendant photographed. At that point, around 4:00 p.m., Wiese went back to his office and located Slaten’s telephone number in the 1997 GTE Hawaiian Telephone Book, which was the most current at the time. Wiese found two addresses, both with the same telephone number.

Wiese reported that when he dialed the number, he learned that “the number was not in service.” 3 Wiese dialed the same number again to make sure that he had not misdialed and received the same message. Wiese did not advise Defendant that Slaten’s phone number was not in service. The parties stipulated that the number listed in the telephone book for Slaten “was disconnected on July 1, 1997 by 10:00 a.m.” and that “the new telephone number ... was connected that same day” and “[was] included in the 411 database [on] 7/3/97.” Wiese did not call 411 or make any further effort at that time to locate Slaten’s number. Hee told Wiese to keep trying, when Wiese informed him that he had not been able to reach Slaten.

Wiese admitted that he was familiar with the 411 directory assistance number and had used it to locate a telephone number. He explained that he did not call directory assistance after hearing the recorded message because “it’s been my experience that when people change numbers ... they’ll tell you' it’s been changed to another number.” Wiese also related that if a suspect requested a public defender, he would go down a list of public defenders and keep calling until he found one and that there were a “couple” of times he had to make at least three or four telephone calls before he found an attorney.

After Wiese’s first failed attempt to contact Slaten, Mika, the second suspect in the case, was retrieved from the cellblock by Hee and Wiese and was interviewed. After interrogating Mika and returning him to his cell, Wiese called the same number listed in the telephone book for Slaten at around 5:20 p.m. *228 Hé got the same recorded message and dialed the same number one more time to confirm that he was not misdialing. Again, Wiese did not call the operator or directory assistance or make any other efforts to contact Slaten.

Wiese testified that, in his mind, he planned to go to the “Kamehameha Highway address” listed in the telephone book for Slaten on the morning of December 18 if Slaten’s telephone number was still not working. Wiese again did not inform Defendant that he had received a recorded message. Wiese thought that Slaten would not be available until the next day because the normal workday had ended. Wiese denied that he deliberately failed to contact Slaten. When Wiese informed Hee that he could not contact Slaten, Hee again told Wiese to keep trying.

Wiese did not leave the office until 3:00 a.m. the next day because of his work on the case. Similarly, Hee did not finish work until 2:30 a.m. Before they left, neither Wiese nor Hee informed Defendant that Wiese had tried calling Slaten but could not reach her.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 P.3d 238, 96 Haw. 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-edwards-haw-2001.