State v. Ruiz-Piza

325 P.3d 802, 262 Or. App. 563, 2014 WL 1711179, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 615
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedApril 30, 2014
Docket130130435; A155032
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 325 P.3d 802 (State v. Ruiz-Piza) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Ruiz-Piza, 325 P.3d 802, 262 Or. App. 563, 2014 WL 1711179, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 615 (Or. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

EGAN, J.

Defendant was indicted on five criminal counts for allegedly shaking his infant daughter. In this interlocutory appeal, the state assigns error to the trial court’s pretrial order granting defendant’s motion to suppress statements made during interviews with the police. The issue is whether, under ORS 136.425(1), Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution, or the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, defendant made his statements voluntarily. Under the state statute, we affirm.

In reviewing the trial court’s decision respecting the voluntariness of confessions and admissions, we accept the court’s findings of fact if there is any evidence to support them. State v. Goree, 151 Or App 621, 631, 950 P2d 919 (1997), rev den, 327 Or 123 (1998). “If findings are not made on all such facts, and there is evidence from which such facts could be decided more than one way, we will presume that the facts were decided in a manner consistent with the ultimate conclusion, e.g., voluntariness or lack thereof, made by the trial court * * *.” Ball v. Gladden, 250 Or 485, 487, 443 P2d 621 (1968). Whether the facts found by the trial court are sufficient to sustain the trial court’s ultimate conclusion regarding voluntariness is a question of law that we review for legal error. Goree, 151 Or App at 631.

Defendant and Pelayo, brought their infant daughter, G, to the hospital after she was injured. An attending physician did not believe that the observed injuries could have been caused in the manner that the parents claimed. Detectives Hurley and Manus of the Portland Police Bureau came to the hospital. The detectives were told by medical personnel that the child had sustained bruising, a subdural hematoma on the back of her head, and was displaying elevated liver enzymes, a symptom sometimes associated with trauma. The child was intubated and was not breathing on her own when the detectives arrived. Based on what they had been told, the detectives were concerned that the child had been abused.

The detectives interviewed both parents, beginning with Pelayo. Hurley testified that defendant approached them after that interview and indicated his desire to [565]*565discuss what had happened. That first interview took place in a hospital conference room with “exterior and interior” windows; the detectives were not wearing uniforms, wore badges clipped to their belts, and carried concealed firearms. Hurley testified that they informed defendant that he was not under arrest and told him that the interview was being recorded.1 Defendant stated that he had been caring for G on the day in question and generally recounted what had happened on that day. He denied remembering any event that could account for G’s injuries. At one point, detective Hurley stated:

“I don’t think you went home on Sunday and decided you were going to break your kid. That’s not what I’m here saying. But sometimes something will happen that explains the injury that’s an accident. There’s no crime involved. I get to write my report that says, ‘This was an accident. It wasn’t meant to be but it explains the injury on the child.’”

After defendant replied that he couldn’t remember anything that might have caused the injury, the detective continued:

“[HURLEY]: So let me tell you what type of injury this is. It’s a head injury. It’s a hematoma to the back of her head to her brain. Okay.
“ [DEFENDANT]: Right. That’s what she told me.
“[HURLEY]: Bleeding back there — so the doctor explained?
“ [DEFENDANT]: Yeah. That’s what [Pelayo] told me.
“[HURLEY]: Have you talked to the doctor, to Dr. Lanehart (ph)?
“[DEFENDANT]: No. I haven’t. I got here around— around 2:30.
“[HURLEY]: Okay. So Dr. Lanehart is the doctor that has seen her and he is the one that’s going to diagnose all her tests and do all that stuff. I’ve spoken to Dr. Lanehart. He is a specialist for child abuse. That’s specifically what he’s called in on and that’s what he was called in on this case.
[566]*566“ [DEFENDANT]: Okay.
“[HURLEY]: The type of injury that she has to the back of her head is a shaking injury. So if you pick up a kid and you shake them really bad—
“[DEFENDANT]: Right.
“[HURLEY]: —then they get hematomas on the front and the back. They actually — it’ll—it’ll make them go blind. I mean it’s a huge deal. Okay. If you pick up a baby and you shake them once because maybe they’re crying or something has happened and you just kind of shake them once and their head pops back once, you can end up with a hematoma at the back of the head but it’s not a shaking that causes lots of hematomas and serious brain damage.”

After informing defendant further about the medical condition of G, Hurley told defendant that “[s]omeone shook her. She got shaken.” Hurley continued:

“ [HURLEY]: You shake a baby hard enough and you’re going to damage the front, the back and actually they’ll go blind because you hematoma their eyes. She doesn’t have that, but somebody shook her. Okay? This isn’t a question of telling you that the only way that this happened was that somebody shook her. She didn’t hit her head on something because there would be a bruise on the back of her head — ■
«* * * * =1=
“[HURLEY]: —which there isn’t. It’s only internal damage. We have to figure out what happened as to who shook her. Okay? If you tell me that you shook her on accident when you picked her up because you just picked her up too hard when you were playing with her, that’s fine. Then that — then that’s what happened and there’s my story. But I need to know that because if I can’t figure out what happened to her, then my assumption is going to have to be child abuse. Okay. That’s- — -because that’s how it works. We have to have an explanation. Whether it be an accident explanation or T didn’t like my kid today and I decided to hurt my child today.’”

(Emphasis added.) Defendant then stated that perhaps the injury had occurred when he picked G up too quickly after changing her. That first interview lasted approximately 45 minutes.

[567]*567At the suppression hearing, Hurley testified that defendant reapproached the detectives and stated that he now remembered tossing G up in the air and suggested that perhaps this had caused the injury. The detectives commenced a second recorded interview, which began approximately one hour after the conclusion of the first and took place in the same hospital conference room. Defendant described playfully tossing his daughter up in the air and catching her; the recorded portion of that second interview lasted approximately 17 minutes.

On the next day, the detectives approached defendant at the hospital and asked him to come to another interview in a different hospital conference room. By that point, the detectives believed that defendant had caused the injuries to G.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
325 P.3d 802, 262 Or. App. 563, 2014 WL 1711179, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ruiz-piza-orctapp-2014.