People of Michigan v. Kevin Deandre Ware, 333988

In Aug. 2015 two men robbed TJ’s Party Store. About 1.5 hours later police stopped a vehicle driven by Kevin Ware; passenger Kristopher Jackson matched one robber and later admitted to the robbery.
After Jackson was removed, Ware fled; vehicle crashed and Ware was severely injured and airlifted to hospital. Property from the store and clothing matching the second robber were found in the vehicle; Ware initially denied involvement.
Ware made incriminating statements to officers at the hospital while handcuffed to the bed and heavily medicated; he was not given Miranda warnings. At the preliminary exam the district court suppressed those statements.
Defense counsel did not timely file a pretrial suppression motion in circuit court; on the first day of trial an oral motion was denied as untimely and no Walker or Ginther hearings were held. Officers testified to Ware’s hospital statements and the jury convicted him of armed robbery and felony-firearm.
Ware moved for a new trial claiming ineffective assistance of counsel; the trial court denied relief. On appeal the Court of Appeals found counsel was objectively unreasonable for failing to timely file the suppression motion and that prejudice was reasonably probable, reversed the convictions, and remanded for a new trial.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether counsel was ineffective for failing to timely file a pretrial motion to suppress custodial statements	Prosecutor argued motion was untimely and inappropriate on day one of trial	Ware argued counsel should have timely filed because statements were previously suppressed at preliminary exam and custodial	Counsel was ineffective: failing to timely move was objectively unreasonable and prejudiced the defense; convictions reversed
Whether Ware was in custody such that Miranda warnings were required	Prosecution contested that the hospital interaction was custodial	Ware argued he was effectively under arrest, handcuffed to bed, surrounded by officers, and not free to leave	Court held totality of circumstances shows custody; Miranda warnings required and were not given; statements inadmissible
Whether admission of Ware’s hospital statements was prejudicial	Prosecution argued ample circumstantial evidence rendered statements harmless	Ware argued statements were "damning" and the remaining evidence was circumstantial and weak	Court held there was a reasonable probability of a different outcome without the statements; prejudice established

Trakhtenberg v. Michigan, 493 Mich. 38 (Court’s standard for review of ineffective assistance) (discussing mixed questions of fact and law and presumption of effectiveness)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (Ineffective assistance standard: deficient performance and prejudice)
Pickens v. Michigan, 446 Mich. 298 (Prejudice standard and ineffective assistance framework)
Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (Custodial interrogation requires Miranda warnings)
People v. Daoud, 462 Mich. 621 (Miranda and custodial interrogation principles in Michigan)
People v. Elliott, 494 Mich. 292 (Miranda custody analysis and requirement that custody be assessed from totality of circumstances)