State v. Herrera

201 So. 3d 192, 2016 Fla. App. LEXIS 14451
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 28, 2016
Docket2D14-4181
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 201 So. 3d 192 (State v. Herrera) 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. Herrera, 201 So. 3d 192, 2016 Fla. App. LEXIS 14451 (Fla. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

SALARIO, Judge.

The State charged Emerson Herrera with being an accessory after the fact to murder. Mr. Herrera was sixteen years old at the time of the alleged offense. The trial court granted a motion to suppress his confession, holding that the State failed to prove that Mr. Herrera had knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Reviewing de novo the legal question of whether the Miranda waiver was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary, we reverse.

I.

This prosecution arises from the murder of a sixteen-year-old victim named Dakota Smith. After an interrogation by Detectives James Curulla and Jeff Beekley of the Bradenton Police Department, Mr. Herrera confessed that he assisted his cousin in disposing of the murder weapon. At an evidentiary hearing on the motion to suppress, Detectives Curulla and Beekley testified, and audio recordings of the Miranda warnings and a portion of the interrogation, a video recording of most of the interrogation, and a transcript of the entire interrogation were received in evidence. The following facts emerged.

Not long after Smith’s murder, Mr. Herrera was being held in a juvenile detention center on an unrelated offense. While there, he told a sergeant who worked at the center that he was involved in the Smith murder. The sergeant passed that information on to Detective Curulla, who reviewed Mr. Herrera’s juvenile “face sheet” and learned that he had a lengthy history of criminal charges and was serving a term of juvenile probation. Detective Curulla asked Detective Beekley to go to the home of Mr. Herrera—who had by then been released from the detention center—to see whether he was com *194 plying with the curfew term of his probation. Mr. Herrera was not at home when Detective Beckley arrived.

The next day, Detective Curulla arrested Mr. Herrera on the probation violation. He read the Miranda rights from a card issued by the police department:

[Detective Curulla]: Emerson, how old are you?
[Mr. Herrera]: 16 year[s] old.
[Detective Curulla]: 16? Okay. I want to read you your Miranda rights, okay? I need you to say yes or no after, so that if you understand what í’m gonna say to you okay? ... What grade are you in?
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[Mr. Herrera]: Ninth grade.
[Detective Curulla]: Ninth grade. Okay. You have the right to remain silent. Do you understand that right?
[Mr. Herrera]: Yep.
[Detective Curulla]: Okay. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand that right?
[Mr, Herrera]: Yeah.
[Detective Curulla]: You have the right to talk to an attorney and have him or her present with you before and during questioning[.] Do you understand that right?
[Mr. Herrera]: Yeah.
[Detective Curulla]: If you cannot afford to hire an attorney, one will be appointed to represent you at no cost before and dining questioning, if you wish. Do you understand that right?
[Mr. Herrera]: Yeah.
[Detective Curulla]: You can decide at any time, to exercise these rights, and not answer any questions or make any statements. Do you understand ... that right?
[Mr. Herrera]: Yeah.
[Detective Curulla]: Okay. So you understand at any time you don’t want to talk, you don’t have to, right?
[Mr. Herrera]: Yeah..

Mr. Herrera was handcuffed and taken to the police station, where he was put in an interview room with one hand cuffed to a chair. Prior to arresting Mr. Herrera, Detective Curulla tried to call his mother at a number on the face sheet, but no one answered and there was no system to leave a message.

Detective Curulla began an interrogation of Mr. Herrera and was later joined by Detective Beckley. ' He'- advised Mr. Herrera that he wanted to discuss the Smith murder. Throughout the interrogation, the detectives reminded Mr. Herrera how serious a charge of murder was. They told him that they did not believe he murdered Smith and that if the killing was in self-defense or there was some other explanation they needed to know. Mr. Herrera repeatedly denied involvement in the murder, telling the detectives that he was with his girlfriend at the time. After one hour, Detective Curulla asked for and obtained a number to contact Mr. Herrera’s mother, left the room, and later returned. Around that time, the detectives learned that Mr. Herrera was unable to read.

The detectives confronted Mr. Herrera with his statements to the sergeant at the detention center. He told them that he and his cousin claimed responsibility for the murder to bolster their street credibility and named two people—Christian and Emilio—who could verify that. Around then, roughly two hours into the interrogation, Mr. Herrera asked if he could speak to his mother. The detectives said that they had left a message on her voicemail. Mr. Herrera then provided his grandmother’s phone number. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Herrera asked when he could speak to *195 his mother. The detectives again told him that they had left a message for her, and Detective Beckley contacted Mr. Herrera’s grandmother to see if she had his juvenile probation officer’s phone number. Detective Curulla specifically asked Detective Beckley, “Can you let her know that he’s been arrested? We’ve been trying to get a hold of his mother.”

After approximately two hours and five minutes, the detectives left for the stated purpose of visiting Emilio to see if he would corroborate Mr. Herrera’s account. Mr. Herrera was placed in Detective Beck-ley’s office, and the interrogation ceased until the detectives returned. They did so roughly one hour later, advising Mr. Herrera that Emilio did not corroborate his story and resuming the interrogation. At one point, while emphasizing the bad position Mr. Herrera was in because of his statements to the sergeant, Detective Cu-rulla stated that Mr. Herrera had admitted to a murder, that “murderers don’t stay in juvenile detention,” and that Mr. Herrera would go to “real jail” where he would be “some big man’s bitch.” After 2.5 hours of interrogation, Mr. Herrera explained that he was present when his cousin shot Smith after a physical confrontation and that he then helped his cousin dispose of the gun. 1 Approximately twenty minutes after that, he repeated the same' story. When asked why the detectives should believe him after he had previously lied to them, Mr. Herrera stated that he had thought about Detective Curulla’s statements about going to adult jail and being someone élsé’s “bitch.”

Approximately twenty minutes later,- the detectives again got in touch with Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
201 So. 3d 192, 2016 Fla. App. LEXIS 14451, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-herrera-fladistctapp-2016.