THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
HENRY B. ROSS et al., Defendants and Appellants.
California Court of Appeals. Second Dist., Div. One.
Erling J. Hovden, Public Defender, under appointment by the District Court of Appeal, Paul G. Breckenridge, Jr., and James L. McCormick, Deputy Public Defenders, for Defendants and Appellants.
Thomas C. Lynch, Attorney General, William E. James, Assistant Attorney General, and Bradley A. Stoutt, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
LILLIE, J.
A jury found defendants Ross and Madrid guilty of first degree robbery (Pen. Code, 211) and that they were armed at the time they committed the offense. They appeal from the judgment.
Around 5:30 a.m. on May 7, 1964, Madrid walked into a Chevron service station where Thomas Daulton was working, followed by Ross who pointed a rifle (Exh. 1) at Daulton declaring, "It's a holdup; give me the key to the box" [outside by the pumps]. Daulton handed the keys to Madrid and, pursuant to Ross's command, lay face down on the floor; Madrid returned and told Ross that he had gotten all of the money out of the cash box in front (approximately $60). Defendants worked on the lower half of the safe, but were unable to open it. Ross then took Daulton's wallet out of his back pocket and removed two $2.00 bills which he had for "quite a while" and which were folded in small squares; the first letter of the serial number of one (Exh. 2) was "A" (the corner of the bill was torn off). Later, upon arrival of police Daulton gave a detailed description of defendants, what they did and how long they were there. (Daulton twice identified defendants at the police station and positively identified them at the preliminary hearing and at the trial.)
Before noon on May 7, 1964, Ross, Madrid and one Deborah Ferguson bought a 1954 Ford from W. C. West for $80; Exhibit 2 with the corner torn off comprised a part of the *367 $80. On Friday, May 8, 1964, around 3:30 a.m., Ross and Madrid were stopped by Officer Ide because the rear license plate of the Ford was not illuminated. The officer noticed the butt of a rifle (Exh. 1) under a blanket in the rear seat and arrested them. At the Hollywood police station Officer Turner talked to each defendant about five minutes. On Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday before arraignment, the police continued to investigate the Chevron station robbery. Twice Daulton was brought to the station to identify defendants. On Monday, May 11, 1964, Officer Turner talked with them "a couple of minutes each" at the Los Angeles Police Building. They were then placed in adjoining cells where, without their knowledge a microphone was hidden to pick up whatever conversations they might have between themselves in their cells. The conversations were monitored to another room where they were recorded and Officer Turner listened. Defendants were not advised of their right to counsel, nor were they told that their conversation would be monitored and recorded. Thus, a tape recording was made of their conversations commencing at 10:25 a.m. The recording consisted of about two hours of general conversation between the defendants. However, because it was lengthy and contained much extraneous material, it was not played to the jury; instead Officer Turner, who listened to the entire conversation monitored to him in another room, testified to what he heard relative to the Chevron holdup. He also explained that this was done prior to arraignment for the purpose of obtaining additional evidence against defendants. He testified that defendant Madrid referred to the victim as "the fat boy," "the little fat boy"; Ross remarked, "We should have blew a hole in him"; Madrid answered, "That's what I wanted to do because I was afraid somebody would get mad at me. We should have blinded him." Around 11:30 a.m., Officer Turner had Madrid brought from his cell; the officer told him that they would soon be arraigned. He asked Madrid if they had anything to say about the robbery of the Chevron station; receiving a negative reply, Officer Turner, picking the figure $240 out of the air, said, "It is my understanding you got two hundred forty dollars." Madrid replied, "I didn't rob anybody." Upon Madrid's return to the cell Officer Turner heard Madrid tell Ross, "They say we got two hundred forty dollars." Ross replied, "No, we only got around one hundred dollars." Madrid corrected Ross: "No, it was ninety or eighty or something like that." At one *368 time Madrid said to Ross, "I am probably more guilty than you because I held the rifle." "Well," answered Ross, "we switched it back and forth." Ross also said, "We stayed in town too long, and we should have got rid of the rifle." On the afternoon of Monday, May 11, 1964, a complaint was filed and defendants were arraigned.
Neither defendant took the stand. Their defense consisted of the testimony of Deborah Ferguson that she and defendants jointly owned a car which had to be pushed so they pooled their money and paid $90 for another car; she knew the rifle was in the back seat, and it had been purchased for hunting purposes but they neither went hunting nor looked for jobs.
[1] Appellants contend first that they were illegally detained in that they were not taken before a magistrate within the time provided by law. Under section 825, Penal Code, "The defendant must in all cases be taken before the magistrate without unnecessary delay, and, in any event, within two days after his arrest, excluding Sunday and holidays; provided, however, that when the two days prescribed herein expire at a time when the court in which the magistrate is sitting is not in session, such time shall be extended to include the duration of the next regular court session on the judicial day immediately following."
The section excludes legal holidays in the calculation of the period of time within which a defendant must be taken before a magistrate (People v. Hightower,
While the evidence shows that from May 8 through May 11 the officers were actively engaged in an investigation of the robbery, the victim was twice brought to the station to identify defendants, and, for the purpose of obtaining further evidence, the officers placed defendants in cells where their conversations could be recorded and monitored without their knowledge, the fact that the officers in the conscientious performance of their duties diligently pursued their investigation of the crime makes neither the delay in taking defendants before a magistrate unreasonable nor their lawful detention invalid.
[2] In any event, the fact of incarceration at the time of the several admissions, or undue delay in taking a prisoner before a magistrate, does not in itself render the same inadmissible (People v. Bodkin,
[4] Appellants' main contention is that the conduct of the police in failing to advise them of their constitutional rights to counsel and to remain silent and monitoring their conversations with each other in their cells so that they could be heard by the officers in another room and recorded, constituted an unreasonable search and seizure.
Concerning the applicability of the exclusionary rules set up in Massiah v. United States,
The Supreme Court in People v. Dorado (1965)
"Only when the investigatory stage has become an accusatory one, that is, when it has begun to focus on a particular suspect, the suspect has been taken into police custody, and the police have carried out a process of interrogations that lends itself to eliciting incriminating statements, does the doctrine of Escobedo apply and the confession given without the required warning or other clear evidence of waiver become inadmissible evidence. Moreover, an important consideration in determining whether the accusatory stage had thus been reached must be a careful concern that there be no interference with the legitimate police investigation of an unsolved crime." (Italics added; pp. 353-354.)
Further distinction between the investigatory stage and the accusatory stage has been made in the recent case of People v. Stewart,
[6] While the record reveals that defendants were in custody and the official investigation had begun to focus on them, there is a complete absence of any showing that "the authorities had carried out a process of interrogations that *372 lent itself to eliciting incriminating statements." (People v. Dorado, supra, pp. 338, 353.) The police were in no way involved in the conversations between the two defendants; no officer was present at the time and there was no police questioning of any kind in the cells; the damaging statements were made pursuant to no inquiry by the officers or anyone on their behalf; whatever was said by either defendant was entirely unsolicited; and no incriminating statement was made by either defendant when confronted by the officers. While it is true that Officer Turner talked to defendants "five minutes each" while at the Hollywood station and "a couple of minutes each" at the Los Angeles Police Building several days later just before they were transferred to their cells, this does not support a finding that the police carried out a "process of interrogations that lent itself to eliciting incriminating statements." The record does not show what the police officer said to defendants or what they said to him. The conversations may or may not have concerned their participation in the holdup; they may have constituted general questioning only; they could well have been such as to aid defendants in establishing their innocence. [7] But there is no showing here that the police in any manner subjected defendants to any kind of inquiry or interrogation. It was while they were alone in their cells voluntarily conversing with each other that defendants freely and voluntarily made the several admissions. Moreover, during the two hour conversation, which was general in nature, defendants referred to the Chevron holdup on only several occasions and then in what appears to be only a casual manner. We cannot hold, as urged by appellants, that under these conditions the placing of defendants in adjoining cells in which a microphone was hidden to record and monitor their conversations constitutes the "process of interrogations" discussed in Escobedo v. Illinois,
[9] During the latter part of defendants' conversation, around 11:30 a.m., Officer Turner had Madrid brought from his cell; he told him that they would soon be arraigned and asked him if they had anything to say about the Chevron Station robbery. Madrid said, "No." Then picking the figure $240 "out of the air," Officer Turner remarked, "It is our understanding you got two hundred forty dollars"; Madrid said, "I didn't rob anybody." Madrid was returned to his cell where he said to Ross, "They say we got two hundred forty dollars"; Ross replied, "No, we only got around one hundred dollars"; Madrid corrected him, "No, it was ninety or eighty or something like that." The officer's statement concerning the $240 was not a question directed to Madrid but at most, a remark or comment relating to his "understanding" --even though not based on fact. While it called for no response Madrid voluntarily denied that he robbed anyone. It was certainly not an interrogation; it did not pertain to the asking of questions, nor did it connote inquiry of any kind. While the remark may have given defendants something to discuss between themselves, it did not constitute the kind of "process of interrogations" contemplated in the above cited cases.
In view of our holding we see no necessity for determining whether the admission in evidence of the foregoing statements might have been prejudicial and produced a miscarriage of justice which would make a different result probable on retrial. (People v. Watson,
Having found defendants' detention to be lawful and this *374 not to be a situation in which their statements were inadmissible, did the officer's conduct in placing defendants in cells in which a hidden microphone had been installed by which their conversations were monitored to another room where Officer Turner listened and the same were recorded, constitute an unlawful search and seizure? Appellants' argument that it did, relies on Massiah v. United States,
[11] So far, the federal rule has been and is that the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, by its language, is not applicable to a case of this kind because it relates to the search of material things--"persons, houses, papers and effects only." (Olmstead v. United States (1928)
While it may have been contended that the use of a radio transmitter constituted a violation of the Fourth Amendment *375 in Massiah v. United States,
Today the federal rule in Olmstead v. United States,
In People v. Bodkin,
[10b, 12] A microphone was hidden in the cells in which defendants were confined and their conversations were monitored to a listening post in another room. Certainly Officer Turner's access to this listening post in the jail was neither a trespass nor unlawful (People v. Avas,
[13] The failure of the police to advise defendants that their conversation would be recorded and Officer Turner's comment to Madrid regarding the $240, do not constitute conduct amounting to deception reasonably likely to procure an untrue statement. In People v. Hughes,
[14] Finally, appellants' reliance on Malloy v. Hogan (1965)
For the foregoing reasons the judgments are affirmed.
Wood, P. J., and Fourt, J., concurred.
