State v. Thompson

CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedFebruary 18, 2025
Docket1 CA-CR 24-0157
StatusUnpublished

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

Bluebook
State v. Thompson, (Ark. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

NOTICE: NOT FOR OFFICIAL PUBLICATION. UNDER ARIZONA RULE OF THE SUPREME COURT 111(c), THIS DECISION IS NOT PRECEDENTIAL AND MAY BE CITED ONLY AS AUTHORIZED BY RULE.

IN THE ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION ONE

STATE OF ARIZONA, Appellee,

v.

BECKY JEAN THOMPSON, Appellant.

No. 1 CA-CR 24-0157 FILED 02-18-2025

Appeal from the Superior Court in Maricopa County No. CR2021-132942-001 The Honorable Mark H. Brain, Judge

AFFIRMED

COUNSEL

Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Phoenix By Eric Knobloch Counsel for Appellee

Law Office of Randal B. McDonald, Phoenix By Randal Boyd McDonald Counsel for Appellant STATE v. THOMPSON Decision of the Court

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Presiding Judge Michael S. Catlett delivered the decision of the Court, in which Judge Daniel J. Kiley and Judge David D. Weinzweig joined.

C A T L E T T, Judge:

¶1 Becky Thompson (“Thompson”) appeals her convictions for burglary, aggravated assault, and assault. She argues primarily that the superior court should have suppressed statements she made to an officer shortly after she committed her crimes, and that the court should not have permitted a witness and the prosecutor to comment at trial on her silence after police arrived. She also raises several trial and evidentiary issues. Finding no reversible error, and in most instances no error at all, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶2 After dropping his child off at school, Scott (we use a pseudonym to protect victim confidentiality) returned to his apartment in Phoenix to attend an online family-court hearing. As he approached his apartment, he saw an individual down the hall dressed in all black and wearing a facemask. As he entered his apartment, the individual attacked him with pepper spray and a cattle prod that made electric “cracking” sounds. Scott fought back. He grabbed the attacker’s hand holding the cattle prod, spun and drove the attacker into the door, and began punching. After a few punches, the attacker’s mask fell, and Scott heard the attacker repeatedly say, “I’m sorry.” Scott recognized the individual as Thompson, who is the maternal grandmother of Scott’s child and who lived in California.

¶3 Scott wrestled Thompson to the ground and moved the cattle prod out of her reach. He eased his grasp to give Thompson “enough room” because she asked him to let go and “she was kind of conceding.” But Thompson’s attack was not done. She reached into her bag, pulled out a machete, and “swung it at” him. After Scott managed to take the machete away from Thompson, she started to reach into her bag yet again, so he put her in a choke hold and screamed for help. Scott then “sat on [Thompson]” until police arrived.

2 STATE v. THOMPSON Decision of the Court

¶4 Two police officers responded and entered the hallway to Scott’s apartment. Scott was sitting on Thompson in the middle of a doorway. Thompson’s head was bleeding, and there was blood on the ground.

¶5 One officer asked what happened and Scott gave his version of events. During that exchange, Thompson said she “couldn’t breathe,” but the officer told her she could not get up “until the fire department got [there and] said it was okay to get up.” After Scott finished explaining, the officer separated Scott and Thompson. The officer waited with Thompson for the fire department while she remained on the ground. While waiting, the officer asked Thompson if she could breathe but she did not respond.

¶6 When fire personnel arrived, they helped Thompson stand up and walk outside to a stairway where they began treating her head wound. Fire personnel bandaged Thompson’s head and began testing her blood pressure. An officer asked her questions about what happened, and Thompson tried to explain why she was at the apartment. About five minutes later, the fire department transported Thompson to the hospital. While there, Thompson received treatment to “superglue[] her head shut.”

¶7 The State charged Thompson with first degree burglary, aggravated assault (with the machete), and assault (with the pepper spray).

¶8 Before trial, Thompson moved to suppress statements she made at the apartment complex and the hospital. She argued those statements were involuntary because she suffered a head wound and was visibly disoriented during questioning. She also argued that statements she made at the hospital were inadmissible because they occurred during custodial interrogation without a Miranda warning. The superior court found Thompson’s statements were voluntary, but it suppressed the statements she made at the hospital for failure give a Miranda warning.

¶9 The jury found Thompson guilty on all three counts. It also found aggravating circumstances for the burglary and aggravated assault convictions. The court sentenced Thompson to five years for burglary, ten years for aggravated assault, and thirty days for assault, all to run concurrently.

¶10 Thompson timely appealed. We have jurisdiction. See A.R.S. § 13-4033(A).

3 STATE v. THOMPSON Decision of the Court

DISCUSSION

I. Miranda

¶11 Thompson argues the State improperly commented at trial on her silence after police arrived on scene. She also argues the superior court erroneously admitted later statements because she was in Miranda custody and police had not yet advised her of her rights.

¶12 The Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, applicable here through the Fourteenth Amendment, “is available outside of criminal court proceedings and serves to protect persons in all settings in which their freedom of action is curtailed in any significant way from being compelled to incriminate themselves.” Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 467 (1966). “To safeguard this privilege, law enforcement officers must provide the well-known Miranda warnings before interrogating a person in custody.” State v. Maciel, 240 Ariz. 46, 49 ¶ 10 (2016). Similarly, “the admission of post-custody, pre-Miranda silence and prosecutorial comment on such silence violate a defendant’s constitutional right to remain silent.” State v. VanWinkle, 229 Ariz. 233, 238 ¶ 20 (2012).

¶13 Miranda custody occurs when there is a “’formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement’ of the degree associated with a formal arrest.” State v. Cruz-Mata, 138 Ariz. 370, 373–74 (1983) (citation omitted). But “restraint on freedom of movement alone does not establish Miranda custody.” Maciel, 240 Ariz. at 49 ¶ 12. Miranda custody occurs when (1) there is a significant “curtailment of an individual’s freedom of action” in (2) “an environment that ‘presents the same inherently coercive pressures as the type of station house questioning at issue in Miranda.’” Id. (citation omitted).

¶14 A significant curtailment on the freedom of action occurs “if ‘a reasonable person would have felt he or she was not at liberty to terminate the interrogation and leave.’” Id. at 50 ¶ 14 (citation omitted). “To determine how a suspect would have gauged his or her freedom of movement, we must evaluate ‘all of the circumstances surrounding the interrogation[.]’” Id. (citation omitted).

¶15 “Miranda custody also requires an environment presenting ‘inherently coercive pressures’ that threaten to subjugate the individual to the examiner’s will.” Id. at ¶ 16. “Various objective factors can create an inherently coercive environment, and the [United States] Supreme Court has noted that no one factor controls.” Id.

4 STATE v. THOMPSON Decision of the Court

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Thompson, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-thompson-arizctapp-2025.