State v. Jarnagin

277 P.3d 535, 351 Or. 703, 2012 WL 1437302, 2012 Ore. LEXIS 271
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 26, 2012
DocketCC CR100378; SC S059521
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 277 P.3d 535 (State v. Jarnagin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon 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. Jarnagin, 277 P.3d 535, 351 Or. 703, 2012 WL 1437302, 2012 Ore. LEXIS 271 (Or. 2012).

Opinions

[705]*705KISTLER, J.

The state appeals and defendant cross-appeals from a pretrial order in a murder case suppressing evidence. See ORS 138.060(2) (authorizing an appeal directly to this court from certain pretrial orders in murder cases); ORS 138.040 (authorizing cross-appeals). On appeal, neither party challenges the trial court’s ruling that the officers violated defendant’s rights under the state constitution when they questioned him at the police station and later at a hospital without advising him of his Miranda rights. The parties focus instead on whether statements that defendant made the next day at his home and before and after a polygraph examination should be suppressed on the ground that those statements were a product of the Miranda violations the day before. For the reasons explained below, we hold that the statements defendant made at his home were a product of the Miranda violations the day before but that the statements he made before and after the polygraph examination were not. We accordingly affirm the the trial court’s order in part and reverse it in part.

Defendant shared a home in Newberg with his girlfriend Kari and her two children, an eight-year-old son and an eight-month-old daughter Aleeha. On July 7, 2009, defendant was watching both children while Kari was at work. Around 9:30 in the morning, Aleeha appeared to be having a seizure. Defendant called Kari and then 9-1-1. A city police officer responded to defendant’s call and arrived shortly after Kari had returned home. When the officer entered defendant’s home, she noticed that Aleeha “was blue, her lips [were] gray, and her feet were light blue. And she also had a foam in her mouth and nose area.” She did not appear to be breathing, and the officer performed CPR to revive her. Emergency medical personnel and other law enforcement officers soon arrived.

An ambulance took Aleeha to a local hospital, and Kari rode with her. Defendant and the son went to the hospital but came back home around 11:00 a.m. When defendant returned home, some of the officers were still there. One of them, Detective Ronning, spoke to defendant in the driveway [706]*706of his home. Ronning told defendant that they were investigating what had happened and asked if he would sign a consent form to permit them to look through the house. Defendant agreed. The detective also asked if defendant would be willing to talk to them. Defendant explained that he was on his way to Doernbecher Hospital in Portland, where Aleeha had been transferred. He said, “That’s where I would like to go, but I would like to get this done so I don’t get called away later.” The detective explained that he would like to talk to defendant at the Newberg Police Station so that they could record their conversation.

At the station, the detective took defendant to an interview room in a secure part of the station. Ronning explained to defendant that he wanted to identify the sequence of events that had led up to Aleeha’s seizure. Ronning then added, “One thing I want to make very clear, okay * * * you’re absolutely * * * you’re not under arrest.” Defendant, for his part, confirmed twice that he was there voluntarily. When asked whether “you know [that] you can leave at any time,” defendant answered, “Yes.”

Ronning spoke with defendant at the police station for approximately two hours and 15 minutes. In the trial court’s view, their conversation divided into two parts. During the first part, Ronning asked and defendant explained what he had done the night before Aleeha suffered any injuries and what had happened that morning. Defendant told Ronning that he woke up, changed Aleeha’s diaper, gave her a bath, and then put her on the bed while he went to get another diaper, which was a few feet away. Defendant said that, when he turned back to Aleeha, her arms were “spread out,” her eyes were halfway open, and it “looked like her eyes were rolling into the back of her head.” Defendant did not identify any event that would have caused the baby to experience those symptoms but said that, as soon as he saw the symptoms, he called Kari and then 9-1-1. During the first part of their conversation, the officer asked defendant, sometimes more than once, to go over everything that had happened, how long he spoke to Kari, what he did with the baby while he was calling Kari and 9-1-1, and what Kari had done once she arrived.

[707]*707The second part of their conversation, according to the trial court, began when the detective said, “there’s some things that aren’t making sense to me, and we need — need to go over this.” The detective reminded defendant that “you’re not under arrest,” and he added, “I’m not looking to make a bad guy out of anybody here.” He assured defendant that “what happened to this baby wasn’t something that anybody intended to happen,” but he explained that “what happened to this baby couldn’t have happened if everything is exactly like you told me.” The detective added that defendant may not know what had happened to Aleeha, but he was concerned that defendant was “leaving something out because you weren’t in the room, or you were in the room, or — .”

At that point, defendant said that he had failed to mention that Aleeha had fallen over in the bathtub. Defendant then told the detective additional details regarding Aleeha’s injuries. Initially, he said that Aleeha accidentally fell over in the bathtub with her mouth under the spigot. When the detective asked whether a baby could have gotten water in her lungs that way, defendant added that Aleeha had hit her head on the side of the tub, had tipped over, and gone under the water. During their discussion, the detective repeatedly held out the possibility that Aleeha’s injuries could have occurred accidentally; he did not accuse defendant of intentionally harming her.

Detective Ronning left the room to make a telephone call and his supervisor, Lieutenant Kosmicki, came into the room. After asking defendant a few questions, the lieutenant told defendant, “I can tell there’s something you want to get off your chest.” When defendant said, “I just want to get to Portland,” the lieutenant replied, “I understand that, but — I can tell there’s also something that you want to get off your chest. There’s no doubt in my mind.” After explaining that he had listened to Detective Ronning’s interview with defendant and spoken to Aleeha’s doctors, the lieutenant said, “Now, I don’t think you’re a bad guy, but something else happened.”

When defendant essentially repeated what he had told Detective Ronning, the lieutenant asked whether defendant might have left Aleeha alone in the bath. Then he added:

[708]*708“You’re not under arrest now. You’re not going to be under arrest now if you’re telling the truth. Okay? And I’m not keeping you here until you tell me something so you can be under arrest, that’s not the deal. I’m trying to give you every opportunity to tell me if you were out of the room for longer than you’re telling me. ’Cause the evidence is going to show it sooner or later. And maybe you can roll the dice and say, ‘Gee, maybe the baby will be okay.’
“That baby is a really sick baby now. Had no brain activity for a long time. There’s a lot of other issues wrong with [her].

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
277 P.3d 535, 351 Or. 703, 2012 WL 1437302, 2012 Ore. LEXIS 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jarnagin-or-2012.