United States v. Burns

33 M.J. 316, 1991 CMA LEXIS 1313, 1991 WL 195059
CourtUnited States Court of Military Appeals
DecidedSeptember 30, 1991
DocketNo. 64,916; ACM 28195
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 33 M.J. 316 (United States v. Burns) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Military Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Burns, 33 M.J. 316, 1991 CMA LEXIS 1313, 1991 WL 195059 (cma 1991).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court

EVERETT, Senior Judge:

On August 22 and 23, 1989, Senior Airman Michael J. Bums was tried at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, by a general court-martial composed of a military judge alone. Contrary to his pleas, he was found guilty of wrongful use of marijuana, conspiracy to distribute it, and two offenses of wrongful distribution of marijuana, in violation of Articles 81 and 112a, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 USC §§ 881 and 912a, respectively. Burns was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement and forfeiture of $466 pay per month for 10 months, and reduction to Airman Basic.

After his conviction had been upheld by all intermediate reviewing authorities, we granted this issue for review:

WHETHER APPELLANT’S REQUEST FOR COUNSEL RENDERS INVOLUNTARY A CONSENT TO SEARCH PRIOR TO APPELLANT BEING GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONSULT COUNSEL.

Having found no reversible error, we now affirm the conviction.

I

Before trial began, appellant’s defense counsel moved to suppress items containing marijuana residue that had been seized from Bums’ residence during a search conducted by military investigators. The defense contended that the evidence was inadmissible because Burns’ unanswered request for a lawyer rendered involuntary his subsequent consent to a search of his residence. Furthermore, the defense claimed that the evidence had been obtained in violation of Bums’ Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

Trial counsel then attempted to establish that the marijuana residue had been seized properly. In response to the motion to suppress, trial counsel first called Staff Sergeant Dewey, a security police investigator assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) Joint Drug Enforcement Team. On Sunday, April 30, 1989, at about 9:00 p.m., Dewey and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Tom Defee were following appellant’s automobile on Highway 90. Airman Ewbanks, their undercover “source” and informant, was riding with Burns; and when he gave a prearranged signal indicating that Burns had sold him marijuana, the agents pulled over Bums’ vehicle. Almost immediately, other law-enforcement agents converged at the scene. Dewey retrieved from Ewbanks “a small bag of marijuana and a pack of rolling papers”; and Bums and Ewbanks were placed under arrest for drug offenses.1

After Burns was handcuffed and read his Article 31, UCMJ, 10 USC § 831, rights by OSI Agent Grunow, who had participated in the arrest, he stated that he wanted a lawyer, and all interrogation ceased. He then was taken to the OSI office at Laughlin Air Force Base and placed in a room used by the OSI “for normal day-today work.” Bums was left there while OSI agents processed the seized evidence and talked to other investigators from the task force. Occasionally, agents came in and out of the room where Bums had been left; but because of his earlier request for counsel, none of them tried to interrogate him.

According to two OSI agents who testified at trial, they never denied a suspect access to counsel if one was demanded. Normally, they would dial the attorney’s number and hand the telephone to a suspect who asked for an attorney. However, this was not done for Bums, because he did not specifically ask the agents to contact a lawyer at that time. However, he was given the telephone number of the area defense counsel on the installation.

[318]*318After Bums had been kept in the room some 42 minutes, SSgt Dewey entered and asked him if he would allow the OSI to search his house and test his urine for drugs. Bums replied, “Okay.” Dewey testified that it was standard OSI procedure to ask a suspect for consent to search even when the individual had previously requested an attorney.

Dewey then presented appellant with two AF Forms 1364, entitled “Consent For Search And Seizure.” After placing them “in front of” Bums, the investigator read them from top to bottom “in a very slow manner so he did understand what I was reading him.” As Dewey read the forms, he also “noticed that” Burns paid attention to him; and he apprised appellant, among other things, “of the nature of the offenses of which” he was “suspected.” The forms recited that a suspect did not have to give consent to a search; and Dewey even told Burns of his right to “refuse” consent to “search his house” and to refuse providing a urine sample. Indeed, Burns was given this advice twice — once as to each form— namely, the consent form to search the residence and the consent form to obtain a sample of Bums’ urine for testing.

While the forms were being read, Bums did not ask to call an attorney and did not say anything or ask any questions. Dewey then asked Bums if he would sign the forms, and he signed them. Before signing the two forms, Bums still had not asked to speak to an attorney and had not asked any questions or made any comments.

Thereafter, appellant was fingerprinted and photographed. At his request, the OSI agents then took him to see his wife, “so she wouldn’t worry about him.” Subsequently, agents accompanied him and his wife to appellant’s residence, which Burns identified for them.

During the search, Dewey found a plastic baggie and a packet of rolling papers containing suspected marijuana residue. However, no questions were directed to Bums concerning the drugs discovered there. The only question Dewey had asked him was: Who owned the automobile parked in his back yard? Bums had replied that it was not his car.

When OSI Agent Priest found in the residence bills for several long distance calls to San Antonio, he asked Mrs. Bums whether they had friends or relatives in San Antonio. He also had asked Mrs. Bums how to open certain containers on the counter, so that he would not break them. Although Airman Burns may have been in the vicinity when those questions were asked by Agent Priest, the agent asserted that his questions and comments had been directed only to Mrs. Burns or to other agents and that none was ever directed to Burns himself. Furthermore, Priest had not heard any other agents question Burns. Indeed, Priest claimed that, when the search began, either he or SSgt Dewey had reminded Airman Burns of his request for counsel and told him not to say anything.

On his motion to suppress, Airman Bums testified that he had asked the agents to call his supervisor, who could get an attorney for him, but one of the agents had told him to sit down and shut up. Moreover, the agent had unplugged the telephone and taken it out of the room.2

Burns then gave these reasons for signing the two consent-search forms:

When he asked me to sign, I was very nervous about the whole situation.
Because I couldn’t talk to an attorney, and I didn’t have no advice on what to do, and I was just scared, and I just figured well, if I signed this here, then it will be over with as soon as possible.

[319]*319He also was scared “[b]ecause they all was [sic] sitting there. They had guns — first they pulled guns on me on the highway, and then they all had guns in there and stuff.”

Bums insisted that Dewey had not read him the entire consent-to-search form and had omitted reading from the form about the right to refuse to consent to any searches.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 M.J. 316, 1991 CMA LEXIS 1313, 1991 WL 195059, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-burns-cma-1991.