State v. Giovanni

375 So. 2d 1360
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided October 8, 1979·No. 64006·Published·Cited by 27 cases

Opinion

375 So.2d 1360 (1979)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Edward Lee GIOVANNI, Jr.

No. 64006.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

October 8, 1979.

*1361 Carl A. Leckband, Jr., D. Michael Mooney, Lake Charles, for defendant-relator.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Leonard K. Knapp, Jr., Dist. Atty., Adam L. Ortego, Jr., Abbott J. Reeves, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-respondent.

CALOGERO, Justice.

We granted writs upon application of defendant, Edward Lee Giovanni, Jr. to review a pre-trial ruling of the district court denying his motion to suppress. In that motion defendant sought to suppress certain oral inculpatory statements made by him to deputies of the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office and to a Deputy Louisiana Fire Marshall on grounds that the statements were not freely and voluntarily given and were made while defendant was being illegally detained. For reasons we will relate hereinafter, the ruling of the district court is reversed and the oral statements with the exception of defendant's statement on September 2, 1978 to Deputies Ogea and Hoffpauir are suppressed.

The statements defendant sought to suppress were made on September 2, 3, 5 (two statements) and 10, 1978 while defendant was being questioned concerning the murders of Paul Prejean, his wife Margaret and his son Jesse. The three members of the Prejean family were shot during the early morning hours of September 2, 1978 and their house burned in an apparent attempt to conceal the murders.

Defendant's first statement occurred on September 2, 1978 after deputies sought him for questioning when they learned that he was staying at the victims' house on the weekend of the murders. Defendant at that time voluntarily accompanied the deputies to the sheriff's office, was questioned for information concerning the murders for about twenty minutes, and was then returned to his home. Officers Ogea and Hoffpauir, who questioned defendant, testified that at that time defendant was not a suspect.

Defendant was again questioned late on the evening of the following day, September 3rd, after it was determined that the fire at the Prejean home was arson. Fire Marshall Elbert Welborn had requested that defendant be located for renewed questioning. Pursuant to this request, Deputy Chisholm of the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Department stopped defendant as he was returning home at about 11:00 p. m. that evening. After being advised of his rights, he was asked to accompany the officers to the sheriff's office for further questioning. Defendant was informed that if he refused to accompany the officers, he would be arrested as a material witness.

When defendant arrived at the sheriff's office, he was again advised of his rights, *1362 placed under oath by the fire marshall, and questioned. At the end of this session defendant was informed that the officials thought he was lying and that he would as a consequence be charged with giving false information concerning an arson, a violation of R.S. 14:54.1.[1] Defendant was then booked with the charge and held in the Calcasieu Parish jail.

While defendant was held in the parish jail he was questioned on three additional occasions. Allegedly in response to the defendant's request to talk, Deputies Ogea and Hoffpauir on September 5th questioned defendant around 9:00 that morning; he was again questioned that evening around 5:00 p. m. by Deputies Boyd and Thornton. On September 10th Deputies Boyd and Thornton discussed the case with defendant again. As a result of the statement made on September 10th an affidavit in support of a search warrant was executed and a warrant issued on that affidavit for a search of defendant's home. Subsequently defendant was charged with the first degree murder of the three victims and was indicted by the grand jury on October 5, 1978 for the three murders.

After hearing testimony on the motion to suppress, the trial court found that defendant had been arrested at the conclusion of the questioning on the night of September 3, 1978 and that this arrest, as a material witness and for providing false information regarding an arson, was lawful. The trial judge thus concluded that neither the non-custodial statement of September 2, 1978 nor the statements taken on and after September 3rd while defendant was in custody were in any way related to an illegal arrest. He also found that defendant's statements were freely and voluntarily given, following defendant's having been advised of his constitutional rights. The trial court's conclusion about the voluntariness of defendant's statements while questionable,[2] does not seem to be an abuse of discretion. We need not, however, pass on that ruling for it is our conclusion that the trial court's determination that defendant was lawfully arrested can not stand. We find that defendant was illegally arrested on September 3, *1363 1978 and that each of his statements, with the exception of that made on September 2nd before his arrest, was made as a direct consequence of the illegal arrest. Therefore these statements must be suppressed.

It is clear from the facts of this case that defendant was "arrested" on September 3rd, when the deputies of Calcasieu Parish took him into custody for questioning and not as the trial court concluded, after the interrogation that night. Under the settled jurisprudence of this state, an arrest is made when one person is taken into custody by another and there is actual restraint of that person. See La.Code Crim. Pro. art. 201. In State v. Sherer, 354 So.2d 1038, 1042 (La.1978) this Court observed that "it is the circumstances indicating intent to effect an extended restraint on the liberty of an accused, rather than the precise timing of an officer's statements: `You are under arrest,' that are determinative of when an arrest is actually made."

The testimony at the hearing on the motion to suppress indicates that when defendant was stopped for questioning, he was not free to leave, and he was told that he would be arrested as a material witness if he refused to accompany the deputies to the sheriff's office. Although Deputy Chisholm testified that defendant "agreed voluntarily" to go to the sheriff's office for questioning, he also stated that when defendant did so he had a shotgun pointed at him. Even after it was determined at the scene of the detention that defendant was unarmed, defendant was still guarded by a pistol.

The trial court's conclusion that defendant was legally arrested as a material witness was also erroneous. R.S. 15:257 provides that when the testimony of a witness is essential to either the prosecution or the defense and there are good grounds to fear that the witness may depart or be taken from the jurisdiction, a warrant may be issued for his arrest.[3] The provisions of this statute were clearly not followed in arresting defendant in this case. The testimony at the hearing on the motion to suppress indicates that no warrant was issued for defendant's arrest as a witness, nor was there an attempt to procure one. There was no prior judicial determination that defendant's testimony was essential and that there were good grounds to fear his departure from the jurisdiction;[4] defendant's arrest therefore can not be validated on this basis.

The state contends that even if defendant's arrest as a material witness was not valid, defendant's detention after the late night interrogation was supported by defendant's having been booked and arrested for lying under oath to the fire

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State v. Giovanni, 375 So. 2d 1360 (La. 1979).

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