A jury convicted Gregory Day (Defendant) of multiple counts of murder, assault, robbery and armed criminal action. Defendant appealed his conviction. This Court heard the matter and remanded the cause for an evidentiary hearing to determine the volun-tariness of specific statements made by Defendant. See State v. Day,
The facts of this case are set forth in detail in State v. Day,
When deciding whether to allow the introduction of a defendant’s incriminating statements in the face of Miranda objections, a trial court may base its decision on evidence heard at the suppression hearing, evidence received at trial, or both. See State v. Blackman,
At the evidentiary hearing, the State presented the testimony of the arresting officer and the defense presented the testimony of Defendant. The arresting officer testified that Defendant was given the Miranda warnings twice, once at his home and once at the police station, but refused to sign the written Miranda waiver form. Defendant testified that he was not given Miranda warnings nor was he shown a written waiver form with the Miranda warnings. However, Defendant admitted several times that he was aware of his rights and had asserted those rights in three prior and unrelated criminal charges. Defendant acknowledged that at the time he made the statement to the police, he knew that he had no obligation to say anything. Further, Defendant admitted that he was never questioned by more than one officer at a time. Following all of the evidence, the trial court judge found that Defendant’s statement was freely and voluntarily made.
A defendant may waive the Miranda rights by orally indicating a willingness to cooperate in police questioning without signing a written waiver. State v. Phillips,
There was no evidence that Defendant did not understand his Miranda rights, his faculties were impaired or he was coerced into answering police questions. Given the totality of the circumstances, the trial court judge was not clearly erroneous in finding Defendant’s statement to be voluntarily made.
We, therefore, affirm the judgment on all counts.
