State v. Moore

516 P.3d 1054
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 31, 2022
Docket48817
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 516 P.3d 1054 (State v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Moore, 516 P.3d 1054 (Idaho 2022).

Opinion

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF IDAHO

Docket No. 48817

STATE OF IDAHO, ) ) Plaintiff-Appellant, ) Boise, June 2022 Term ) v. ) Opinion filed: August 31, 2022 ) DANIEL LEE MOORE, ) Melanie Gagnepain, Clerk ) Defendant-Respondent. ) )

Appeal from the District Court of the First Judicial District of the State of Idaho, Boundary County. Barbara A. Buchanan, District Judge.

The decisions of the district court are reversed in part and affirmed in part.

Lawrence G. Wasden, Idaho Attorney General, Boise, for Appellant. Kenneth Jorgensen argued. Bolton Law, PLLC, Coeur d’Alene, for Respondent. Katherine Jill Bolton argued. _______________________________________________

MOELLER, Justice. On August 27, 2020, police interviewed Dr. Daniel Lee Moore (“Moore”) concerning the murder of Dr. Brian Drake (“Drake”), who had been shot in his chiropractic office over five months earlier. Although Moore invoked his right to an attorney at least three times, the interrogation continued. Moore eventually confessed to the crime and was charged with second-degree murder. Following a defense motion, the district court suppressed the confession after finding that Moore’s Miranda 1 rights had been violated. The district court later dismissed the case, concluding that because the State had relied on the tainted confession in the preliminary hearing, there was insufficient evidence to support a showing of probable cause. The State appeals from the district court’s decision dismissing its case against Moore. On appeal, the State concedes that there was a Miranda violation but argues that the district court erred in dismissing the case. Although the Miranda violation rendered Moore’s statements

1 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).

1 inadmissible in the State’s case-in-chief, the State maintains that the statements could still be used to impeach a claim of innocence by Moore if he were to testify at trial. Addressing the decisions of the district court, the State also argues that (1) there was no due process violation because “the district court failed to find a constitutionally prohibited coercion” and “the district court erred as a matter of law when it concluded that Moore’s will was overborne;” and (2) “the district court erroneously reviewed the admissibility of the evidence at the preliminary hearing rather than determining if the evidence in fact admitted supported the magistrate’s probable cause findings.” (Emphasis in original). I. FACTS AND BACKGROUND A. Murder and a Gas Leak On March 12, 2020, after finishing up with his last patients of the day, Drake was shot in the back and killed while talking to his wife on his cell phone. The shot came through the window of his chiropractic office in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. The blinds to his office window were closed and the autopsy indicates that he was likely sitting. Drake’s office is on the same street as the office of another chiropractor, Moore. 2 When he was first interviewed, Moore, then 63 years old, told police he was at his friend Mick Mellett’s (“Mellett”) 3 house on the night of the murder. He claimed to have left Mellett’s house, being ill with diarrhea, to go to his office in search of medicine. When he could not find any, he went back to Mellett’s house for Imodium. Moore stated he was with Mellett when the call came in about the shooting. Later, when questioned about his involvement in Drake’s death, officers told Moore that investigators had security footage of his truck in the vicinity of the shooting at the time it occurred. He then explained that he was in the area because he had gone into the alley behind his own office to defecate. Three days after the murder, there was a gas leak in Moore’s office. Mellett had passed by the office on his way to breakfast with a friend and noticed Moore’s truck in the parking lot. When he returned home, he noticed the truck was still at the office, and, since it was unusual for him to be there on a Sunday, he used his key to enter Moore’s office. He found Moore getting up from an exam table, appearing “woozy.” Mellett took Moore outside the building and called to report the

2 The two offices are approximately 500 feet from one another. 3 Mellett is the Boundary County Coroner. He is listed as the responsible party on the autopsy report completed by medical examiner and forensic pathologist Dr. Sally Aiken.

2 gas leak. Moore explained that he had gone to his office to change a furnace filter when he was overcome with the gas leak and became unconscious. Moore claimed he has anosmia (the loss of the sense of smell) and did not notice the scent of gas. Police interviewed Fire Chief David Winey who responded to the gas leak. He stated that he discovered a “gas fitting” was just finger tight, noting that this was odd and that he had never seen that before in his experience. Police also interviewed an experienced local rep for Avista, a regional natural gas company, with 30 years of experience. He opined that the gas fitting was intentionally loosened. B. The Investigation Focuses on Moore. At the time of the shooting, Moore owned a white Toyota Tundra pickup. Law enforcement reviewed security footage from multiple local businesses recorded at the time of Drake’s murder. Although the video recordings displayed inconsistent timestamps (some off by several hours), when properly pieced together, police determined that the footage validates a conclusion that Moore’s truck was near the scene of the murder at the time it occurred. Idaho State Police (“ISP”) Detective Sergeant Michael Van Leuven (“Van Leuven”) summarized the security footage as follows: We later observe [Moore’s] truck leaving Mellett’s house just prior to the shooting. The truck is then seen circling the area where the shooting occurs two times, including driving down the area between the two buildings directly outside the window where the shooting occurs and then stopping for several seconds. Dr. Moore’s truck then drive’s [sic] north on Main Street from Dr. Drake’s office and parks at Dr. Moore’s office. After parking, the taillights flash in a manner consistent with Dr. Moore locking his truck with a keyless remote. A human figure is then seen walking from the direction of Dr. Moore’s office toward Dr. Drake’s office one and half minutes before the shooting occurs. As previously established, the shooting occurs at 7:26 p.m. A human figure is then seen walking and then running back from the area of Dr. Drake’s office toward Dr. Moore’s office one and [a] half minutes after the shooting. The lights on the back of Dr. Moore’s truck, again, flash in a manner consistent with Dr. Moore unlocking his truck using his keyless entry. His truck is then seen driving back toward Mellett’s house (300 feet away). . . . After five minutes Dr. Moore’s truck is then seen leaving Mellett’s house and driving a circuitous route back toward Dr. Moore’s house that conspicuously avoids the crime scene. 4

4 This information comes from the search warrant affidavit. The information in that affidavit was provided by ISP Detective Sergeant Michael Van Leuven.

3 Moore was first contacted by ISP Detectives Richard Alderson (“Alderson”) and Leslie Lehman (“Lehman”) regarding Drake’s murder on March 24, 2020. On May 6, Sergeant Van Leuven and Detective Alderson re-interviewed Moore at his office. No charges resulted from these initial interviews. C. Moore’s Custodial Interrogation After months of investigation, law enforcement sought to interview Moore again without arousing his suspicion that he had become the primary suspect. On August 27, 2020, Lehman asked Moore to bring his wife’s gun to the Boundary County Sheriff’s Office.

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Bluebook (online)
516 P.3d 1054, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-moore-idaho-2022.