State v. Norris

541 S.W.3d 862
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 31, 2017
DocketNO. 14-16-00455-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 541 S.W.3d 862 (State v. Norris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Norris, 541 S.W.3d 862 (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

Martha Hill Jamison, Justice

This is an interlocutory appeal from the grant of a motion to suppress a confession. Appellee Eric Cornelius Norris, Jr. was charged with capital murder in the course of a robbery. The trial court granted appellee's motion to suppress his confession based on a finding that appellee had unequivocally and unambiguously invoked his right to counsel during questioning. Concluding that appellee did not, in fact, unequivocally and unambiguously invoke his right to counsel, we reverse the trial court's order and remand for further proceedings.

The Interrogation

On July 31, 2014, appellee was interrogated by Detective Allen Mutchler and then by Detective Henry Garza, both of the Stafford Police Department, concerning a murder that occurred during the course of a robbery. At the beginning of the recorded interview, appellee answered Mutchler's standard booking questions, and Mutchler read appellee his Miranda rights. See Miranda v. Arizona , 384 U.S. 436, 479, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Appellee stated that he understood his rights and agreed to talk to Mutchler.

For over an hour, Mutchler questioned appellee about his links to other individuals, past criminal history, and ownership or possession of firearms. Mutchler also pressed appellee to tell him about the robbery, whose idea it was, how it transpired. Mutchler told appellee that he was not going to walk out a free man because they knew that appellee was involved but appellee might mitigate his punishment by cooperating. Appellee insisted that he did not know anything, but he also asked Mutchler questions, such as "so, basically, if I can't come up with a story my charges go[ ] to capital?"

About an hour and twenty minutes into the interrogation, appellee mentioned wanting to make a telephone call, and he mentioned obtaining a lawyer. It is this part of the interrogation that formed the basis of appellee's motion to suppress, which the trial court granted.1 At times, the audio quality of the videotape makes it *865difficult to determine the precise words appellant used. The videotape and a transcript of it were admitted into evidence at the hearing on the motion to suppress, but no witness testified. The most relevant portion of the transcript reads as follows:

Appellee: Am I gonna be here all day doin' this?
Mutchler: It looks like. I was hopin' you'd get tired of it and tell me the truth.
Appellee: I'm just ready to make my phone call.
Mutchler: You don't like talking to me?
Appellee: Oh, it's okay talking to you. I'm just sayin' I can talk to you. I just want to make a phone call and call my sister and see if she could-
Mutchler: Well, not 'til we're through here.
Appellee: Well, give me a lawyer or something 'cause I'm not sure I have.

Mutchler then asked appellee whether he would be able to post a bail bond and told appellee that he would be able to make a phone call when he returned to the jail.

In his findings of fact, the trial judge found that the transcript accurately reflected the last line excerpted above: "Well, give me a lawyer or something 'cause I'm not sure I have." And on the basis of that line, the judge concluded that appellee had "unequivocally and unambiguously invoked his right to counsel." However, our review of the videotape reveals that the relevant exchange between appellee and Mutchler ended as follows:

Appellee: Oh, it's okay talking to you. I'm just sayin,' I can talk to you, I just want to make a phone call and call my sister and see if she could-
Mutchler: Well, not 'til we're through here.
Appellee: ... go get me a lawyer or something 'cause that's the only option I have.

As illustrated, Mutchler speaks over and interrupts appellee.2

Sometime after this exchange and further questioning by Mutchler, Mutchler left the interrogation room. Garza entered the room shortly thereafter, and, ultimately, appellee acknowledged that he had caused a person's death during the commission of a robbery. In his motion to suppress, appellee complained of the continued interrogation after he mentioned obtaining a lawyer and that Garza did not again read appellee's Miranda rights when he began questioning appellee. The trial court granted the motion based on the alleged invocation of counsel and therefore suppressed all appellee's statements after he mentioned obtaining counsel. The trial court further found that the break between Mutchler's interrogation and Garza's did not warrant a new reading of appellee's rights. This State's appeal concerns only the alleged invocation of counsel.

Governing Law

We review a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress under a bifurcated standard. Delafuente v. State , 414 S.W.3d 173, 177 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013). We afford almost complete deference to the trial court's determination of historical facts, especially when based on "an assessment *866of credibility and demeanor," but conduct a de novo review of mixed questions of law and fact that do not hinge on credibility or demeanor determinations. Crain v. State , 315 S.W.3d 43, 48 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010). When, as here, a trial judge makes express findings of fact, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the ruling and determine whether the evidence supports these factual findings. Valtierra v. State , 310 S.W.3d 442, 447 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010). We will sustain the trial court's ruling if that ruling is reasonably supported by the record and is correct on any theory of law applicable to the case. Id. at 447-48.

In his motion to suppress, appellee asserted that interrogating officers violated his Fifth Amendment right to counsel. See

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
541 S.W.3d 862, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-norris-texapp-2017.