State v. Person

104 P.3d 976, 140 Idaho 934, 2004 Ida. App. LEXIS 76
CourtIdaho Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 16, 2004
Docket29517
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 104 P.3d 976 (State v. Person) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Person, 104 P.3d 976, 140 Idaho 934, 2004 Ida. App. LEXIS 76 (Idaho Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

GUTIERREZ, Judge.

Mark Allen Person appeals from the judgment entered upon his conditional plea of guilty to second degree murder. For the reasons stated below, we reverse and remand.

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL SUMMARY

Mark Allen Person moved in a circle of acquaintances heavily involved in the drug culture. A focal point of activity for this group was a drug house run by a woman named Carla, also known as “Mom.” Person and Eric Christensen, another member of this group, formed a temporary partnership at Mom’s direction to “cook up” a batch of methamphetamine. This endeavor was unsuccessful, leading to an altercation between the men.

Subsequently, Person, Christensen, and a female acquaintance named Joi drove to Christensen’s house to retrieve the paraphernalia needed by the group to again try to manufacture the drug. On the way to Christensen’s house, the three decided to stop at a pullout on Bogus Basin Road in order to use methamphetamine. After injecting the drug, Person began to fight with Christensen over remarks Christensen had made during their previous altercation.

Christensen’s body, his throat slit twice, was later found by police in a wooded area near Bogus Basin Road. Person was arrested three days later and taken to the Ada County Sheriffs Office for questioning. The district court made the following factual findings with regard to the videotaped interrogation:

The Court has viewed all of the videotapes made in the interrogation room at the request of both parties. The first tape shows Person alone in the room for about an hour and twenty minutes. He looks clean and shaven, and is wearing clean clothes but no shoes. He is drinking a soft drink. On many occasions, he appears to be dozing off. His head drops forward and then comes back up again. However, he never appears to sleep for any length of time, and most of the time, even when he appears to be nodding off, his feet are moving.
At the beginning of the second tape Detective Pat Schneider of the Ada County Sheriffs Office and Detective Kevin Hudgens of the Idaho State Police enter the interrogation room. Schneider asks Person if he is waking up yet, and he responds that he is. Person then gives clear responses to questions concerning his age, birth date, social security number and other identifying information. Detective Schneider asks Person to read aloud the *936 Miranda [ 1 ] warnings, which he does fluently and then signs a written waiver of those rights. It is apparent from his comments that he knows and understands these rights and the effect of a waiver, and that he already has a lawyer. The interrogation then begins concerning the events in question, and Person immediately and unambiguously invokes his right to have counsel present. Both of the officers cease questioning and leave the room.
Approximately six minutes later, Detective Hudgens re-enters the interrogation room and reads the arrest warrant to Person. At that point, the following [ex]change takes place:
Person: Right, well, I was correct in ... correct in my thinking, um, as far as four days.
Hudgens: Pardon?
Person: As far as uh, when you asked me about uh, four days ago and you know, Friday, so ... and I knew ... and that’s why I’m talking to everybody today so ... and no, I didn’t murder ... no, I didn’t murder anybody____
Hudgens: If you want to tell us something ... now is the time to do it.
Person: I know some s — , okay? Do I need a lawyer, I mean, tell me the truth though please, cause I’m f — ing scared as hell.
Hudgens: I can’t answer that for you.
Person: I know you can’t, but do I need my lawyer? Or I mean ... cause to me it doesn’t really matter because I’m going to repeat it the same way, I mean, unless I tell you now or I’m going to say it the same way it happened when she’s here too. I can tell you ... I can tell you____
Hudgens: I can’t ... I can’t answer that question for you. I can’t say (inaudible).
Person: I mean ... uh, yeah I mean, that’s fíne. Yeah I will talk to you guys now, okay? Um, I mean, I know what we’re talking about alright? Schneider re-enters the room and Person begins to relate the events leading up to Christensen’s death.
At one point, Hudgens indicates he thinks Person is “tweaking,” a drug term, and Person seems to concur. Later, however, he states that he is not “tweaking.” At a later point Hudgens breaks into Person’s narrative of events with a question, at which time Person indicates that he is feeling pressure and has a personality conflict with Hudgens. It appears that the “pressure” is not pressure to talk, since Person then resumes the narrative addressing Detective Schneider. Throughout the tapes, Person is articulate and coherent, although vague as to dates and time. He does mention being tired, and occasionally takes breaks from the narrative to discuss innocuous topics, but returns to the narrative each time. He does not nod off during this time.
Finally, late in Tape 3, after describing a version of the death of Eric Christensen, Person again unequivocally invokes his right to counsel, but continues to make statements concerning a different version of the crime even though the officers ask no questions. The officers leave the room again. A few minutes later, an officer, apparently Schneider, re-enters the room and asks Person if he has any questions he wants to ask the officer, indicating that he doesn’t mind talking to Person, but wants to make sure, before he does so, that Person is again waiving his right to have counsel present. They then discuss the Miranda rights in the context of the right to counsel and, when asked if he understands these rights, Person says “yes, I’ll talk to you.” Person then makes further incriminating statements.

After being charged with first degree murder, Person filed a motion to suppress his incriminating statements, which the district court denied. Person entered a Rule 11 conditional guilty plea to the amended charge of second degree murder. The district court entered judgment and imposed a unified sentence of life imprisonment with twenty years determinate. Person appeals.

*937 ii.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The standard of review of a suppression motion is bifurcated. When a decision on a motion to suppress is challenged, we accept the trial court’s findings of fact which are supported by substantial evidence, but we freely review the application of constitutional principles to the facts as found. State v. Atkinson, 128 Idaho 559, 561, 916 P.2d 1284, 1286 (Ct.App.1996). At a suppression hearing, the power to assess the credibility of witnesses, resolve factual conflicts, weigh evidence, and draw factual inferences is vested in the trial court. State v. Valdez-Molina,

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Bluebook (online)
104 P.3d 976, 140 Idaho 934, 2004 Ida. App. LEXIS 76, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-person-idahoctapp-2004.