State v. Setser

1997 NMSC 004, 932 P.2d 484, 122 N.M. 794
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 23, 1996
Docket22983
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 1997 NMSC 004 (State v. Setser) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico 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. Setser, 1997 NMSC 004, 932 P.2d 484, 122 N.M. 794 (N.M. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

RANSOM, Justice.

1.Bernadette Setser appeals her conviction on two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated robbery, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, and tampering with evidence. See NMSA 1978, § 30-2-l(A) (Repl.Pamp.1994) (murder in the first degree); NMSA 1978, § 30-28-2 (Repl.Pamp.1994) (conspiracy); NMSA 1978, § 30-16-2 (Repl.Pamp.1994) (robbery); NMSA 1978, § 66-3-504 (Repl.Pamp.1994) (unlawful taking of a motor vehicle); NMSA 1978, § 30-22-5 (Repl.Pamp.1994) (tampering with evidence). Setser asserts that, because she lacked the capacity to waive her Miranda rights, the trial court erred in admitting her confession into evidence. See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). She also asserts that, because the trial court admitted testimony of an accomplice not included on a witness list, the trial court denied her right of confrontation and that the court denied her right to allocution. For the reasons set out below, we affirm the trial court.

2. Facts and proceedings. Ed and Marie Brown were stabbed to death in their Rio Rancho home on February 4, 1994. Ed Brown received fifty-eight stab wounds to his head, upper body, and abdomen while he slept. Marie Brown was stabbed six times, with fatal wounds to her neck and thorax. It is believed that she was fatally stabbed from behind as she attempted to phone for help. The couple’s granddaughter reported finding their bodies. Rio Rancho public safety officers investigating the crime scene discovered that the couple’s automobile was missing, as well as Ed Brown’s wallet. It was later learned that several credit cards also had been taken from Marie Brown’s purse. Two knives were missing from a butcher block in the kitchen. A search of the bedroom of the Brown’s grandson, Michael Brown, turned up a large collection of empty beer cans and an empty bottle of gin.

3. Having noticed gang graffiti inside and outside of the Brown residence, the police called the gang unit to the scene. One of the unit officers, Pete Montoya, went to the home of Kelly Fisk to find a friend of Michael Brown who might know where Brown was located. Officer Montoya arrived at the Fisk home at the same time as Officer Joe Garcia, who was looking for information on a juvenile runaway. Fisk informed the officers that Brown was in her bedroom. The officers walked past Setser in the hallway leading to the bedroom, and there found Brown and Jeremy Rose. Officers Montoya and Garcia began to question the two juveniles about the murders of Ed and Marie Brown.

4. Fisk’s mother approached Officer Montoya and told him that there was a young woman in the kitchen who wished to confess something to him. Officer Montoya discovered Setser in the kitchen and escorted her to the garage. There he advised her of her Miranda rights by reading the rights and asking her if she understood each right as it was read to her. Setser stated that she understood each right. She then waived her right to remain silent and adamantly refused to have either an attorney or her mother present for her statement. Setser confessed that she and Rose stabbed Ed and Marie Brown. She was then arrested. At the station house, Setser again was advised of her Miranda rights, waived them, and confessed to the murders.

5. Setser has a long history of emotional and mental problems. Evidence introduced at trial shows that Setser was diagnosed with hyperactivity and poor behavioral control at age five. Setser’s expert on forensic and clinical psychology, Dr. Susan Cave, testified that Setser’s mother had been an active alcoholic during her pregnancy, and that Setser displayed symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome, including attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, and severe academic problems. In addition, Setser was sexually molested by a family member as a child, and at the age of eleven she began to molest other neighborhood children. At age thirteen Setser was admitted to a psychiatric hospital because of molesting other children. There she was treated for depression and severe behavioral problems. She was then sent to a treatment facility for one year. She was released and began attending regular high school in the fall of 1993. She has admitted to abusing alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and crack cocaine on a fairly regular basis.

6. Extensive testing of Setser before trial revealed other problems. Setser is described by Dr. Cave as being passive and easily dominated. She is filled with self-hatred, and willing to go to great extremes to get approval from others. Setser has difficulty saying “no” to others and suffers from depression and low self-esteem. One expert for the State testified that Setser had an average I.Q., but Dr. Cave suggested that Setser’s I.Q. was probably around 77, a subnormal score that would place her near the borderline of mental retardation.

7. Setser filed a pretrial motion to suppress her two confessions. She argued that, because of her age and mental condition, she could not voluntarily waive her Miranda rights. At a preliminary hearing, Dr. Cave testified to Setser’s various emotional and mental problems. Officers Montoya and Garcia testified about Setser’s confessions and the circumstances surrounding the confessions. The trial court ruled that both statements were given intelligently, knowingly, and voluntarily. The court therefore denied the suppression motion.

8. Admissibility of confession. Setser asserts that the admission of her confessions violated her rights under both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. See U.S. Const, amends. V (self-incrimination), XIV (due process). Pursuant to these rights, it is the burden of the prosecution to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a defendant’s statement was given voluntarily. Aguilar v. State, 106 N.M. 798, 800, 751 P.2d 178, 180 (1988). On appeal, we review the totality of the circumstances to determine independently whether the prosecution has proved that a confession was given voluntarily. Id. at 799-800, 751 P.2d at 179-80; see also Culombe v. Connecticut, 367 U.S. 568, 606, 81 S.Ct. 1860, 1881, 6 L.Ed.2d 1037 (1961).

9. Here, the confessions were properly admitted into evidence, and the jury was properly instructed to find whether the statements were given voluntarily, only if we determine as a threshold matter of law that the prosecution proved voluntariness by a preponderance of the evidence. State v. Fekete, 120 N.M. 290, 299, 901 P.2d 708, 717 (1995). Both the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and the Fourteenth Amendment right to due process negate admissibility of a confession elicited through intimidation, coercion, deception, assurances, or other police misconduct that constitutes overreaching. Id. at 298-302, 901 P.2d at 716-20. Furthermore, any waiver of the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination must be knowing and intelligent regardless of police misconduct. Id. at 301-02, 901 P.2d at 719-20.

10. —No police misconduct. The State asserts that the police officers did not engage in any misconduct in this case. Applying the totality-of-circumstances test, we agree.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1997 NMSC 004, 932 P.2d 484, 122 N.M. 794, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-setser-nm-1996.