Lead Opinion
OPINION
delivered the opinion of the Court
The court of appeals upheld the trial judge’s determination that Gerald Herrera was not “in custody” for purposes of Miranda v. Arizona
I. Factual and Procedural Background
In July 2001, Gerald Herrera and some members of his family were involved in an interracial fight with a group of African-Americans outside of the Mia Mar Bar in Lockhart, Texas. During the fight, several of the African-Americans were stabbed or cut.
Sergeant Tedford arrived at the scene shortly after the fight ended. Another officer immediately asked Sergeant Ted-ford to stop a red car that was leaving the scene. Sergeant Tedford stopped the car and identified the three occupants as Gerald Herrera and his parents, Maria and Natividad. Gerald was seated alone in the backseat of the car. While the Herreras were questioned by Tedford and another officer, Officer Garza conducted a search of the car and discovered a lock-blade knife in the backseat on the floorboard. Officer Garza arrested Gerald on an outstanding warrant and transported him to the Caldwell County Jail.
The next morning, Investigator Powell went to the jail to talk to Gerald about the fight. Investigator Powell did not give Gerald Miranda
During the interview, Gerald told Investigator Powell “that he had a knife in his pocket, that, when he was stopped by the officers, that he took the knife out of his pocket and dropped it on the floorboard.” Gerald also told Investigator Powell that he saw his brother fighting with some males and that he witnessed an African-American male hit his father. Explaining his involvement in the fight, Gerald told Investigator Powell that
when he got to the street and somebody knocked his glasses off, that it knocked him down and that somebody, someone was kicking and hitting on him.... [H]e reached in his pocket to get his knife, but that every time he tried to reach in his pocket somebody would hit him or kick him, so he just curled up into a ball trying to protect himself.
Gerald was later charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Gerald elected to have a jury trial and entered pleas of not guilty. Before trial, Gerald had filed a motion to suppress the statements that he made to Investigator Powell. Although Gerald did not request a pretrial suppression hearing, during Investigator Powell’s testimony at trial, Gerald, citing his motion to suppress, objected when Investigator Powell began to testify about his conversation with Gerald in the jail. The judge then excused the jury and allowed the parties to question Investigator Powell about the circumstances surrounding the interview.
When defense counsel asked Investigator Powell if Sergeant Tedford told him that the Herreras were suspects, Investigator Powell stated that Sergeant Tedford only told him that they had been involved in the fight. Defense counsel continued to inquire into Investigator Powell’s conversation with Sergeant Tedford:
Q. [Defense Counsel:] Detective Powell, when you talked to Sergeant Ted-ford, he told you that a bunch of Blacks had been stabbed, didn’t he?
A. [Investigator Powell:] He told me that some people had been stabbed.
Q. He didn’t tell you Blacks were stabbed?
A. No. He gave me some names which I knew to be black persons.
[[Image here]]
Q. And Tedford also told you that they had been stabbed by Hispanics, did he not?
A. Not in those words, no.
Q. Wfliat did he say?
A. He said that the Herreras were involved.
Q. Okay, so you knew Blacks had been stabbed?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And the Herreras were involved?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And basically you suspected the Herreras of stabbing the Blacks, correct?
A. You’re trying to put words in my mouth, sir. That’s not what I expected.
Q. Okay.
A. I did not know that maybe the Blacks had attacked the Herreras and they were acting in self-defense.
Q. Okay. But you knew — fine. But it is fair to say you suspected the Herreras of stabbing the Blacks whether it was*524 self-defense or otherwise? Would that be fair?
A. No, sir, that would not be fair. That would not be fair. I — they—I was told that the Herreras were involved. The extent of their involvement, I have no idea.
Q. But they were suspects by being involved, weren’t they?
A. No, sir. They were involved. They were part of the fight.
Q. They were part of the fight. And that doesn’t make them a suspect?
A. If you want to use that terminology, everybody in Caldwell County that night was a suspect.
In response to additional questioning by defense counsel, Investigator Powell testified that Gerald was in the custody of the county jail when he was interviewed and that he did not warn Gerald of his rights.
When questioned by the prosecutor, Investigator Powell stated that Gerald was not in jail because of the fight and that Gerald did not refuse to talk to him. Investigator Powell also explained why he interviewed Gerald:
At the time I talked to him the next day, I still didn’t have a clear picture of what happened. It could have been that he was acting in self-defense. It could have been that he had been attacked — him and his family had been attacked. I did not have a clear picture of what happened ....
[[Image here]]
I knew there had been a fight. I knew that several people had been cut. I knew that some of the Herrera family had been injured, but that’s all I knew.
Without entering findings, the trial judge overruled Gerald’s objection and allowed Investigator Powell to testify about what Gerald had told him during the interview.
The jury found Gerald guilty of one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and acquitted him of the two remaining counts. Gerald was then sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.
Gerald appealed, contending, among other things, that the trial judge erred in admitting the unrecorded oral statements that he had made to Investigator Powell.
Gerald petitioned for review and we granted his first ground for review, which asks us to decide whether the court of appeals’s decision upholding the trial court’s determination that Gerald was not subject to “custodial interrogation” when interviewed by Investigator Powell in jail conflicts with the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Mathis v. United States
II. Law and Analysis
A.
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution commands that no person “shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself[.]”
When considering “custody” for Miranda purposes, we apply a “reasonable person” standard — “[a] person is in ‘custody1 only if, under the circumstances, a reasonable person would believe that his freedom of movement was restrained to the degree associated with a formal arrest.”
Article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure governs the admissibility of statements made by a defendant during custodial interrogation in a criminal proceeding.
At trial, the defendant bears the initial burden of proving that a statement was the product of “custodial interrogation:”
The mere filing of a motion to suppress does not thrust a burden on the State to show compliance with Miranda ... warnings unless and until the defendant proves that the statements he wishes to exclude were the product of custodial interrogation. Thus, the State has no burden at all unless ‘the record as a whole clearly established]’ that the defendant’s statement was the product of custodial interrogation by an agent for law enforcement. It is the defendant’s initial burden to establish those facts on the record.28
A trial judge’s ultimate “custody” determination “presents a ‘mixed question of law and fact.’ ”
B.
In this case, the pertinent question is whether Gerald was “in custody” within the meaning of Miranda. Gerald argues that he was “in custody” when questioned by Investigator Powell because he was an inmate in the county jail. He maintains that Miranda warnings are required when a person incarcerated on one offense is questioned by law enforcement officials about a separate offense. Because Gerald’s argument is predicated, in part, on the Supreme Court’s decision in Mathis, we consider that case first.
Mathis sought to suppress incriminating statements that he made to an Internal Revenue Service Agent who had interviewed him in prison while he was serving a sentence for another offense.
Although Mathis may appear to be dis-positive of the issue before us, our research reveals that, during the thirty-nine years since Mathis was decided, a majority of federal courts of appeals have concluded that Mathis did not institute a per se rule that an incarcerated individual is automatically entitled to Miranda warnings prior to all interrogations.
At the outset, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals observed that “[t]he question in this case is unique because Cervantes was residing in jail when the questioning occurred.”
Observing that custodial interrogation exists when “a reasonable person would have believed he could not leave freely,”
The concept of ‘restriction’ is significant in the prison setting, for it implies the need for a showing that the officers have*529 in some way acted upon the defendant so as to have ‘deprived (him) of his freedom of action in any significant way,’.... In the prison situation, this necessarily implies a change in the surroundings of the prisoner which results in an added imposition on his freedom of movement. Thus, restriction is a relative concept, one not determined exclusively by lack of freedom to leave. Rather, we look to some act which places further limitations on the prisoner.52
Utilizing a “reasonable person” standard and its four-factor “‘free to leave’” test, the court set out the following circumstances to consider when determining “whether a reasonable person would believe there had been a restriction of his freedom over and above that in his normal prisoner setting”:
• “the language used to summon the individual,”
• “the physical surroundings of the interrogation,”
• “the extent to which he is confronted with evidence of his guilt, and”
• “the additional pressure exerted to detain him[.]”53
The court then applied the foregoing factors to the facts of the case before it and found that: (1) the deputy “sought to ascertain the nature of the substance” following a routine search; (2) “[t]he questioning took place in the prison library and appears to have been a spontaneous reaction to the discovery;” and (3) “neither the prison setting nor the presence of [the deputy] ... exerted a pressure to detain sufficient to have caused a reasonable person to believe his freedom of movement had been further diminished.”
The Seventh Circuit has also refused to hold that Mathis requires Miranda warnings in every instance in which an inmate is questioned by government agents. Building on the Ninth Circuit’s holding in Cervantes and decisions from other circuit courts, in United States v. Menzer, the Seventh Circuit concluded that an inmate is not ipso facto “in custody” for purposes of Miranda when the inmate is questioned by outside law enforcement officials about an offense unrelated to the inmate’s incarceration and to prison administration.
The court rejected Menzer’s argument that he was “in custody” because he was not free to leave the interrogation due to his incarceration, stating “While it is undisputed that the defendant was incarcerated for an unrelated crime, we conclude that Menzer was not ‘in custody1 for the purposes of Miranda because there was no ‘added imposition on his freedom of movement’ nor ‘any measure of compulsion above and beyond [imprisonment]’.”
Next, we consider our decision in Jones, which Gerald also cites as supporting precedent in his ground for review. In Jones, we addressed the State’s argument “that a defendant is not necessarily ‘in custody’ solely because he is questioned while incarcerated.”
While incarcerated in the county jail based on suspicion for the, murder of his great-aunt, Jones was questioned by a Texas Ranger about two extraneous murders.
We are unpersuaded by Gerald’s reliance on Jones. Our resolution of the State’s argument did not require us to decide whether Mathis compels the use of Miranda warnings before all inmate interrogations. Now that we have been presented with the opportunity to finally decide this issue, we decline to read Mathis as instituting a bright-line rule. We agree with the interpretation of Mathis adopted by a majority of the federal appellate courts: Although Mathis holds that Miranda warnings may be required when an inmate is questioned by law enforcement officials, Mathis does not hold that Miranda warnings must precede all inmate interrogations. Indeed, the Supreme Court implicitly acknowledged this fact in dicta in its 1990 opinion in Illinois v. Perkins, stating “The bare fact of custody may not in every instance require a warning even when the suspect is aware that he is speaking to an official, but we do not have occasion to explore that issue here.”
The Miranda decision itself supports our conclusion. In Miranda, the Court was primarily concerned with the fact that custodial interrogation is inherently coercive; it typically involves “incommunicado” questioning “in a police-dominated atmosphere”
Because we refuse to equate incarceration with “custody” for purposes of Miranda when an inmate is questioned by a state agent about an offense unrelated to the inmate’s incarceration, we turn to our traditional “custody” analytical framework. We evaluate “custody” “on an ad hoc basis, after considering all of the (objective) circumstances”
Consistent with the facts that we found determinative in Jones, an evaluation of the circumstances surrounding an interrogation in this context should include an examination of the factors considered significant by the Ninth and Seventh circuit courts. Dispensing with quotations and citations, these factors include, but are not necessarily limited to:
• the language used to summon the inmate;
• the physical surroundings of the interrogation;
• the extent to which the inmate is confronted with evidence of his or her guilt;
• the additional pressure exerted to detain the inmate or the change in the surroundings of the inmate which results in an added imposition on the inmate’s freedom of movement; and
• the inmate’s freedom to leave the scene and the purpose, place, and length of the questioning.
In this case, the record shows that Gerald failed to meet his initial burden of establishing that he was “in custody” for Miranda purposes.
III. Conclusion
We conclude that the court of appeals correctly held that Gerald was not “in custody” within the meaning of Miranda when questioned by Investigator Powell about the fight while in the county jail on an unrelated offense. The judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed.
COCHRAN, J., filed a concurring opinion.
Notes
.
. Herrera v. State, No. 03-04-00766-CR,
.
. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.22 § 2(a) (Vernon 2005) (last amended in 2001 to include Section 8).
. See Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.22 § 3(a)(1).
. Herrera,
. Id.
. Id. at *4, 6, *10-12, 19.
. Id. at *3, *8-9 (citing United States v. Newton,
.Id. at *4, n. 4, *11 n. 4 (stating that this Court has not addressed who bears the burden of proof and adopting the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit's determination that the defendant bears the burden of proving that a statement was the result of "custodial interrogation”) (citing United States v. Davis,
. Id.
. Id. at *4, *12.
.
.
. U.S. Const. amend. V; see also U.S. Const. amend. XIV.
.
. Id. at 444,
. Id. But see Harris v. New York,
. Dowthitt v. State,
. Stansbury,
. Stansbury,
. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.22.
. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.22 § 3(a)(1)-(2).
. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.22 §§ 2(a), 3(a)(2); Wilkerson,
. Perillo v. State,
. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.22 §§ 3(a), 5.
. Wicker v. State,
. Wilkerson,
. Thompson v. Keohane,
. Ripkowski v. State,
. Id. at 381-82 (citing Guzman,
. State v. Ross,
.
. Id. at 3,
. Id. at 4,
. Id. at 4-5,
. Cervantes v. Walker,
.
. Id. 426.
. Id. at 427.
. Id.
. Id. at 425, 427.
. Id.
. Id. at 427.
. Id.
. Id.
. Id.
. Id. at 428.
. Id. (discussing and citing Oregon v. Mathiason,
. Mathiason,
. Id. at 495,
. Cervantes,
. Id.
. Id. at 429.
. Id.
. Menzer,
. Id. at 1225-26.
. Id. at 1230.
.Id. at 1231.
. Id.
. Id. at 1232.
. Id. (quoting Leviston,
. Id. (quoting Conley,
. Id. (quoting Willoughby,
. Id.
. Id.
. Id. (quoting Cervantes,
.
. Id. (citing Cooper,
. Id. at 770-71, 776.
. Id. at 771.
.Id. at 776.
. Id.
. Id.
.
. Menzer,
. Miranda,
. Id. at 467,
. See Magid, Questioning the Question-Proof Inmate: Defining Miranda Custody for Incarcerated Suspects (1997) 58 Ohio St. LJ. 883, 933 (“custody in layperson’s terms is not necessarily custody for Miranda purposes. Miranda’s definition of custody reflects a concern more with the coercive forces that may affect interactions between a suspect and an interrogating official, and less with the fact that a person’s ability to select his activities and routine is greatly limited as an inmate.”).
. See Mathiason,
. Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon,
. Dowthitt,
. Dowthitt,
. Thompson,
. Wilkerson,
Concurrence Opinion
filed a concurring opinion.
I join the majority opinion. I add these remarks only to emphasize what the record does not show. It does not show that appellant established the essential fact of “custodial interrogation.” Like the trial court, the unanimous Third Court of Appeals,
(1) Appellant was arrested on an unrelated outstanding warrant;
(2) He spent the night in jail;
(3) The next morning Investigator Powell “asked [appellant] some questions. At that time, [he], was gathering information and didn’t know Mr. Herrera’s involvement, if any, in the assault.”
What we do not know is where in the jail and under what circumstances this “interview,” “questioning,” or “discussion” took place. Perhaps it was a scenario involving custodial interrogation. Perhaps it was not. The record is simply incomplete. Nobody ever asked the questions to establish whether this was or was not a “custodial interrogation” setting.
As the court of appeals noted, this Court has never directly stated who bears the burden of establishing that a “custodial interrogation” took place.
The right to Miranda warnings applies once the defendant establishes that the setting is one of custodial interrogation.
. Herrera v. State, No. 03-04-00766-CR,
. Herrera,
. See id. Footnote four of the court of appeals’ opinion reads:
Although the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has not addressed who bears the burden of proving that the statement was not the result of custodial interrogation, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has held that a defendant bears the burden of proving that a prosecution-offered statement is one to which Miranda applies. United States v. Davis,792 F.2d 1299 , 1309 (5th Cir.1986); United States v. Charles,738 F.2d 686 , 692 (5th Cir.1984); see also 41 George E. Dix & Robert O. Dawson, Texas Practice: Criminal Practice and Procedure § 13.384 (2d ed.2001).
.See, e.g., Paez v. State,
. Miranda v. Arizona,
Dissenting Opinion
filed a dissenting opinion in which PRICE, J., joined.
I respectfully dissent. The state presented evidence during the guilt phase of trial that, in July 2001, appellant was involved in a fight with a group of African-American males at a local- bar after appellant’s sister got into an argument with one of the males. Several participants were cut or stabbed, and witnesses testified that appellant and his brother may have used knives during the fight. Appellant attempted to leave the scene with his parents after the fight, but police stopped and searched the car in which appellant was riding and found a knife on the back floorboard of the car. They arrested appellant on an outstanding warrant on an unrelated charge.
The following morning at the jail, Lock-hart Police Detective David Powell began a “preliminary investigation” and questioned appellant about the events from the previous night. Powell testified at trial that he asked appellant questions only to determine his level of involvement in the fight, if any. Appellant told Powell that he had participated in the fight and that the knife recovered,from the car belonged to him. However, appellant was not advised of his constitutional rights, nor was his statement recorded.
Approximately eight days after the fight, appellant provided to police a sworn written statement admitting participation in the fight and ownership of the knife. The sworn statement was not offered into evidence at trial, but its contents, as well as that of the unrecorded oral statements, were introduced through Powell’s testimony. Appellant filed a motion to suppress the unrecorded oral statements, but did not seek a hearing on the motion prior to trial. At trial, appellant objected to the introduction of the unrecorded oral statements, but the trial court overruled his objection and admitted Powell’s testimony.
Custodial Interrogation
The United States Supreme Court has held that an individual is “in custody” for Miranda purposes if, under the circumstances, a reasonable person would believe his freedom of movement is curtailed to a “degree associated with formal arrest.” Berkemer v. McCarty,
The term “interrogation” as it relates to the application of Miranda, refers not only to express questioning, but also to any words or actions on the part of the police that the police knew or should have known are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response. Rhode Island v. Innis,
Interrogation
Sergeant Tedford testified that he stopped the Herreras’ car. Maria Herrera was driving, Natividad Herrera, with an obvious recent injury to his eye, sat in the front passenger seat, and appellant sat in the right-rear passenger seat. As Tedford spoke with the Herreras, one of the injured parties, Shaun Russell, approached Tedford, pointed at the Herreras, and said, “They cut me.” Russell did not at that time identify which of the Herreras he meant. Tedford asked for a warrant check on all three Herreras. He arrested appellant on an outstanding warrant on an unrelated charge.
Powell testified that, when he was called to the scene by Tedford, “the first thing I did when I arrived, I talked to the supervisor on the scene, Sergeant Tedford. He gave me a brief rundown of what he knew.” Presumably, the rundown included Russell’s direct accusation against the Herreras. In later testimony, Powell denied that the Herreras were “suspects.”
Q. Detective Powell, when you talked to Sergeant Tedford, he told you that a bunch of Blacks had been stabbed, didn’t he?
A. He told me that some people had been stabbed.
Q. He didn’t tell you Blacks were stabbed?
A. No. He gave me some names which I knew to be Black persons.
⅜ ⅜ ⅜
Q. And Tedford also told you that they had been stabbed by Hispanics, did he not?
A. Not in those words, no.
Q. What did he say?
A. He said the Herreras were involved. Q. Okay. So you knew Blacks had been stabbed?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And the Herreras were involved?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And basically you suspected the Herreras of stabbing the Blacks, correct?
A. You’re trying to put words in my mouth, sir. That’s not what I suspected.
Q. Okay.
*536 A. I did not know that maybe the Blacks had attacked the Herreras and they were acting in self-defense.
Q. Okay. But you knew — fíne, but is it fair to say you suspected the Herreras of stabbing the Blacks whether it was self-defense or otherwise? Would that be fair?
A. No, sir, that would not be fair. That would not be fair. I — they—I was told that the Herreras were involved. The extent of their involvement, I have no idea.
Q. But they were suspects by being involved, weren’t they?
A. No, sir. They were involved. They were part of the fight.
Q. They were part of the fight. And that doesn’t make them a suspect?
A. If you want to use that terminology, everybody in Caldwell County that night was a suspect.
Powell’s testimony indicates that he got a “rundown” from Tedford, who had witnessed Shaun Russell accuse the Herreras of “cutting” him. Speculation by Powell that the Herreras might have acted in self-defense, a claim that requires an admission of the act, led to disingenuous answers to counsel’s questions. Such speculation does not alter the fact that the Herreras were suspected of stabbing one or more of the victims, having been publicly accused by a victim and a knife having been found in their car. I conclude that, when Powell went to the jail to speak to appellant, he knew that appellant was a suspect. Because Powell already knew that appellant was involved in the fight in some capacity, he therefore also knew or should have known that questioning appellant about the fight had the potential to determine the nature and extent of appellant’s culpability in the bar fight and therefore, the potential to elicit incriminating responses. Thus Powell’s questioning constituted “interrogation.”
Custody
In Jones v. State,
Although the record does not reveal the size of the room in which appellant was questioned in the Caldwell County Jail, it does reflect that appellant was interviewed by Powell, who was a law-enforcement officer not employed in the jail. Appellant’s freedom was thus curtailed more severely than was usual in the jail environment. Powell, who had been given a “run-down” by the officers on the scene, engaged in “a one-on-one interview” of appellant as an “involved person” in the investigation of a large bar fight that resulted in severe injuries to several persons. During that interview, appellant conceded his presence at
I am in no way suggesting a broad per se rule that Mathis requires Miranda warnings in every instance in which an inmate is questioned by law enforcement while incarcerated on an unrelated charge or conviction. Whether an incarcerated inmate is in “custody” for Miranda purposes must be determined on an ad hoc basis.
Article 38.22
Even if appellant had been given his Miranda warnings prior to questioning, the oral statements that Officer Powell solicited from appellant while appellant was incarcerated are inadmissible because the oral statements fail to comply with the requirements set out in Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.22.
Generally, courts should interpret a statute in light of its plain language. Boykin v. State,
Here, Powell testified that he neither gave appellant his Miranda warnings nor recorded appellant’s oral statements. On the contrary, Powell testified that he conducted a “one-on-one interview” with appellant and that he took notes on their conversation. These notes, Powell testified, later became part of his police report. According to the plain language of the statute, Powell’s actions are insufficient to
Conclusion
Miranda requires that a defendant who is in custody for Miranda purposes and subjected to police interrogation be given proper warnings about his constitutional rights prior to questioning. Appellant was in such custody and subjected to custodial interrogation, but he did not receive Miranda warnings. Further, appellant’s oral statements were not recorded as is. required by Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.22. It was therefore error to admit his custodial statements into evidence. I would remand the cause to the court of appeals for a harm analysis.
. See also Cooks v. State,
. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.22 When Statements May Be Used
[[Image here]]
Sec. 2 No written statement made by an accused as a result of custodial interrogation is admissible as evidence against him in any criminal proceeding unless it is shown on the face of the statement that:
(a) the accused, prior to making the statement, either received from a magistrate the warning provided in Article 15.17 of this code or received from the person to whom the statement is made a warning that:
(1) he has a right to remain silent and not make any statement at all and that any statement he makes may be used against him at his trial;
(2) any statement he makes may be used as evidence against him in court;
(3) he has the right to have a lawyer present to advise him prior to and during any questioning;
(4) if he is unable to employ a lawyer, he has the right to have a lawyer appointed to advise him prior to and during any questioning; and
(5)he has the right to terminate the interview at any time; ...
Article 15.17 deals with the duties of arresting officers and magistrates.
Sec. 3 (a) No oral or sign language statement of an accused made as a result of custodial interrogation shall be admissible against the accused in a criminal proceeding unless:
(1) an electronic recording, which may include motion picture, video tape, or other visual recording, is made of the statement;
(2) prior to the statement but during the recording the accused is given the warning in Subsection (a) of Section 2 above and the accused knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waives any rights set out in the warning;
(3) the recording device was capable of making an accurate recording, the operator was competent, and the recording is accurate and has not been altered;
(4) all voices on the recording are identified; ....
. The state briefly suggests that "[i]f this Court should find that the statement was improperly admitted, it should hold that [appellant] failed to properly preserve this claim by attempting to offer the same or similar evidence in the form of [his] written statement given to Officer Powell'' a few days after his release from jail. I again note that the written statement was not offered into evidence at trial. The state fails to delineate where in the record appellant attempted to offer his written statement or to explain how an unsuccessful attempt would waive his prior objection to Officer Powell’s testimony regarding the contents of appellant’s unrecorded oral statements.
The state also suggests that, for the sake of judicial economy, this Court should address the harm from such error, if any, and find it to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. After a finding that the court of appeals has erred in its decision on the admissibility of evidence, our practice is to remand to the court of appeals to conduct the harm analysis in the first instance. See, e.g., Owens v. State,
Dissenting Opinion
filed a dissenting opinion, in which PRICE, J., joined.
After reviewing the record, I conclude that: (1) appellant met his burden of establishing that his unwarned oral statements to the Lockhart police were the product of custodial interrogation
Allow me to review the relevant facts: Shortly after he was indicted for aggravated assault, appellant filed a pretrial motion in the trial court to suppress any oral statements that may have been taken from him in violation of the Fifth Amendment as interpreted in Miranda v. Arizona,
Among the State’s witnesses at the guilt stage of appellant’s trial were William Ted-ford, Abel Garza,' and David Powell. All three of these witnesses testified, in relevant part, before the trial court ruled on appellant’s motion to suppress.
Tedford testified that: (1) he was a Lockhart police sergeant; (2) one night in July 2001, while he was patrolling Lock-hart in his police car, he received a radio dispatch advising him of “a large distur
Garza testified that: (1) he was a Lock-hart police officer; (2) during the early morning hours of July 22, 2001, while he was patrolling Lockhart in his police car, he received a radio dispatch concerning “a disturbance in progress involving multiple subjects”; (3) he proceeded to the scene of the disturbance and, upon arrival, found that Sergeant Tedford was already there and situated beside a red vehicle; (4) he identified the occupants of the red vehicle as Maria Herrera, Natividad Herrera, and appellant; (5) he searched the Herreras’ vehicle and found a knife on the back floorboard; and (6) he arrested appellant on an outstanding warrant and took him to the county jail.
Finally, Powell testified that: (1) he was an investigator with the Lockhart Police Department; (2) his duties as an investigator included “takfing] statements, interviews, [and] interrogations”; (3) at approximately 1:00 a.m. on July 22, 2001, he was called to the scene of “a large fight” at the Mira Mar Bar in Lockhart; (4) upon arrival, Sergeant Tedford gave him “a brief rundown of what he knew” and told him “that some people had been stabbed” and “that the Herreras were involved”; (5) he (ie., Powell) determined at that time that some of the people stabbed were African-American;
Before Powell could describe for the jury exactly what appellant had told him, appellant, citing his pretrial motion to suppress, objected that his statements to Powell had been taken without Miranda warnings and thus were inadmissible at trial. The trial court, without explaining its reasoning, overruled appellant’s objection and allowed Powell to proceed with his testimony.
Under Miranda, law enforcement officials, before questioning an individual in custody, must inform him that: (1) he has the right to remain silent; (2) anything he
Miranda warnings must be given only when an individual is both in custody and subjected to interrogation. Illinois v. Perkins,
In determining whether an individual is “in custody” for purposes of receiving Miranda warnings, “the ultimate inquiry is simply whether there is a ‘formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement’ of the degree associated with a formal arrest.” California v. Beheler,
Given the evidence before the trial court at the time it ruled on appellant’s objection to Powell’s testimony, any reasonable trial court would have necessarily concluded that appellant had satisfied his burden of establishing that, at the time Powell questioned him, he was “in custody” for purposes of receiving Miranda warnings. The testimony of both Powell and Garza established that, at the relevant time, appellant was under formal arrest in the Caldwell County Jail on an outstanding warrant. Appellant was, therefore, as a matter of law, “in custody” for purposes of Miranda. California v. Beheler,
The cases cited by the majority today for its novel holding all involve prison administration and prison inmates, not persons who are under arrest awaiting further proceedings. The majority’s new multi-
The cases cited by the majority, when examined closely, either involve general “on the scene questioning,” an exception to the Miranda rule, see Miranda v. Arizona,
It is also certainly true that, given the evidence before the trial court at the time it ruled, any reasonable trial court would have necessarily concluded that appellant had satisfied his burden of establishing that Powell had subjected him to “interrogation” for purposes of receiving Miranda warnings. Even assuming, for the sake of argument, that the Fifth Amendment does not require that we impute what Tedford and Garza knew to Powell, Powell himself testified that Tedford gave him “a brief rundown” of what he knew; that he (i.e., Powell) knew that appellant, a young adult male, was “involved” in the interracial brawl; and that he went to the jail for the purpose of questioning appellant about that brawl. Given what he knew at the time he questioned appellant, Powell should have known that appellant was, at the very least, a potential suspect and that questioning him was reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response.
Appellant argues that the court of appeals’s holding, that his questioning by police while incarcerated in jail was not a custodial interrogation, conflicts with Mathis v. United States,
In Jones, appellant was arrested for outstanding traffic warrants and for possession of a controlled substance on the same day that his great aunt’s body was discovered. The police officer who interrogated him for this murder repeatedly read him his Miranda rights and obtained a valid waiver before obtaining any statements from him. Jones did not object to the
We held in Jones that “[t]he failure to Mirandize [Jones] before interrogating him led to constitutional error in the admission of his written statement at trial.” Jones,
The majority of this Court uses the facts in Jones to show that a similar decision would not be justified in the present case, even though the record in Jones was far more detailed than that available in this case. Moreover, our decision in Jones was not based solely on the facts of that case. We punctuated our conclusion by citing Cooks v. State,
The majority holds that appellant must show added limitations on his freedom, beyond the fact that he is under formal arrest, before he is “in custody.” I find this amazing and in direct conflict with United States Supreme Court case law. See California v. Beheler,
In short, I conclude that the record does not support the trial court’s implicit decision that appellant did not meet his burden of establishing “custodial interrogation” for purposes of receiving the Miranda warnings. I respectfully dissent.
. A defendant has the burden of establishing that his statements were the product of custodial interrogation. Wilkerson v. State,
. A trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress is reviewed on appeal for abuse of discretion. State v. Dixon,
. The record reflects that the Herreras are Hispanic, as their name would suggest.
. In its opinion, the majority states that the trial court “determined” that appellant was not in custody, for the purposes of Miranda, at the time Powell questioned him. That is incorrect. The trial court gave no explanation for its ruling.