Thе state appeals an order suppressing evidence and dismissing an armed robbery complaint against Michael J. Guzy. The trial court found unconstitutional an investigatory stop of the truck in which Guzy was a passenger. In addition, the trial court suppressed evidence it found tainted by the illegal stop, including a revolver and a $100 bill found during a consent search of the truck; an incriminatory statement Guzy made to a cellmate; statements by Kenneth Hunt, an accomplice and the truck’s driver, that implicated Guzy; and an in-court identification of Guzy by a robbery victim. 1 We agree that the stop was illegal and that its illegality tainted Hunt’s statements to *403 police. However, we determine that Guzy’s statements to his cellmate and the in-court identification need not be suppressed. We further conclude that the admissibility of Hunt’s later statements to police and the items found in the consent search of the truck depends on factual findings not made by the circuit court. Therefore, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for determination of the voluntariness of Hunt’s permission to search his truck and his later statements to police implicating Guzy.
A man armed with a revolver robbed a New Richmond grocery store at about two o’clock on the morning of April 13, 1985. The employees promptly called the police and described the robber as a slim man, five feet six inches tall, with long dark hair, a light beard, and wearing a blue vest with red stripes. No one saw the robber leave the store.
About twenty minutes after the robbery, Deputy Sheriff Robert Volkert heard the employeеs’ description of the robber while routinely transporting a prisoner. Several minutes later, he drove onto interstate highway 94-West, a few miles from the Minnesota border, merging in behind a pickup truck. He noticed that the two occupants of the truck wore shoulder-length hair and that the passenger’s hair was darker. Volkert concurred with his partner that a vehicle fleeing the robbery site could be in the same area as the truck they were trailing. After following the truck for thirty to forty seconds, Volkert decided to stop it to “investigate the situation further.” The stop occurred at about 2:40 a.m.
The officers approached the truck and requested Hunt’s identification. During a consent search of the *404 truck’s interior for weapons, they found a paper bag containing clothing and another containing what was later determined to be the robbery money. Volkert then arrested Guzy and Hunt, and transported them to the St. Croix County Jail in Hudson.
At about 4:30 that morning, two members of the New Richmond Police Department interviewed Hunt. After receiving a Miranda wаrning, Hunt made a statement implicating Guzy in the robbery.
Two days later, Hunt gave the police permission to search his truck. Inside the truck, police found a .32 caliber revolver and a $100 bill. The same afternoon, Guzy’s cellmate gave a statement detailing how Guzy, several hours after being jailed, had admitted and described the robbery to him.
More than two weeks after the robbery, Hunt gave an additional statement to the police that fiirther implicated Guzy in the robbery. Hunt then explained that he had earlier given permission fоr the police to search his truck because he had been worried that children might find the revolver under the dashboard and injure themselves.
At the April 24 preliminary examination, a store employee identified Guzy as the robber from a four-person lineup.
GUZY’S STANDING TO CHALLENGE THE STOP
The state raises for the first time on appeal the issue of Guzy’s standing as a passenger to challenge an investigatory stop of the truck Hunt was driving. Though Guzy argues that the state waived its right to contest his standing, we will consider the issue. A
*405
reviewing court may decide a constitutiоnal question not raised at trial if justice compels a decision and the facts are uncontested.
State v. Copening,
The state bases its challenge to Guzy’s standing on
Rakas v. Illinois,
The Rakas Court reasoned that because fourth amendment rights could not be asserted vicariously, a passenger must be able to demonstrate that he or she had a legally recognizable interest in the areas searched. Id. at 133, 148. This interest, according to the Rakas Court, “depends not upon a property right in the invaded place but upon whether the person who claims the protection of the [Fourth] Amendment has a legiti *406 mate expectation of privacy in the invaded place.” Id. at 143.
The Rakas Court explained that whether an expectation of privacy is legitimate depends not on the defendant’s subjective beliefs, but on what “society is prepared tо recognize as ‘reasonable.’ ” Id. at 143 n.12. The Court concluded that the trunk, glove box and back seat of a car are generally areas that a passenger may not reasonably expect society to recognize as protected by the fourth amendment. Id. at 148-49. Because the defendants in Rakas asserted no possessory interest in the places within the automobile yielding the challenged evidence, the Court concluded that their fourth amendment rights had not been infringed.
Here, the question is not whether Guzy has standing to challenge the subsequent search of another’s truck, but whether, as a passenger, ail illegal stop infringed his fourth amendment rights. Under the Rakas framework, we must exclude evidence obtained in violation of fourth amendment rights. Id. at 134.
A passenger may challenge the legality of a vehicle stop. Wisconsin recognizes that an investigatory stop triggers fourth amendment protections.
State v. Goebel,
THE LEGALITY OF THE STOP
The state contends that Volkert had a reasonable basis to stop the truck. We conclude, however, that the facts available to Volkert at the time of the stop were not sufficient to justify an investigatory stop.
An officer may stop a person for a reasonable length of time when the officer “reasonably suspects that such person is committing, is about to commit or has committed a crime_” Sеction 968.24, Stats. To justify the reasonableness of such a stop, an officer must prove “specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion.”
Wendricks v.
State,
Here, because the essential facts are undisputed, we independently review whether a stop meets the fourth amendment standard of reasonableness.
Washington,
Here, the facts known to Deputy Volkert as he followed Hunt’s truck were inadequate to support a reasonable suspicion that the occupants of that truck were subject to seizure for a violation of the law. Although hindsight supports Deputy Volkert’s hunch, the protection of constitutional rights requires us to rely on foresight. To condone this stop would expose future victims of unreasonable hunches to violations of their fourth amendment rights. The record lends support to this observation. From a transcript of communications of the St. Croix County Emergency Communications Center on the morning of the robbery, it can be seen that in the moments following the robbery report a flurry of stops were made. The transcript hints at several stops but sheds no light on whether they were reasonable:
Officer: I think you might as well stay up there until we get a little more information. Mick is stopping a *409 car out at the golf course, Hill has another one of our cars out there, and Gary’s still at the store.
Officer: Ten-four. I stopped two up on the north еnd, and they were okay.
Initially we note that Volkert and his partner observed no driving or equipment violations that would have justified even a routine traffic stop. In addition, Volkert’s hypothesis as to the location of a vehicle fleeing the robbery was speculation, not fact. No one saw how the robber left the scene of the crime. The robber could have been anywhere in an immense area centered at the New Richmond grocery store and radiating outward half an hour’s travel time in all directions. Because authorities knew nothing of the robber’s direction or mode of travel, the probability that he would be at any one point within this area was no greater than the probability of any other long-haired person being at that point.
Moreover, Volkert and his partner could see nothing of the truck’s occupants but the backs of their heads. Thus, Guzy’s long hair, visible only through the pickup truck’s back window, was the only feature Volkert could match to the broadcast description of the robber. The state has not shown that the length or style of Guzy’s hair was so unusual as to be identifiable in itself. Moreover, the mere fact that an officer observes that a truck’s passenger has hair of similar length and color to that of a robbery suspect’s is an insufficient basis for seizing that person. Multiplying this single similarity by the probability that the robber would be at that particular point does nothing to bolster the reasonableness of Volkert’s suspicion.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has recognized that under certain circumstances, a suspect’s presence in an
*410
automobile can add to the reasonableness of a stop even though only further observation would be justified if the suspects were pedestrians.
Wendricks,
Here, Guzy and Hunt engaged in no suspicious behavior while being followed. Nor did officials know anything of an accomplice. Thus, the facts were insufficient to render reasonable Volkert’s suspicions. By Terry’s objective standard, Volkert’s stop of Guzy was merely the result of a hunch.
We conclude there were not enough facts available to Volkert when he made the stop to support a reasonable suspicion that Guzy hаd violated the law. Consequently, the stop and subsequent arrest were illegal. 4
SUPPRESSION OF EVIDENCE
The suppression of evidence is not a constitutional right, but rather a judge-made device to deter unreasonable police conduct.
State v. Verkuylen,
Generally, evidence obtained through an unconstitutional seizure must be suppressed.
State v. Griffin,
Whether a violation of fourth amendment rights warrants evidentiary suppression presents a question of “constitutional fact.”
State v. Woods,
A. GUZY'S STATEMENTS TO HIS CELLMATE
The state argues that Guzy’s statements to his cellmate were sufficiently an act of free will to purge any taint from the illegal stop. We agree.
*412
If there is a close causal connection between a defendant’s in-custody statements and illegal police conduct, the statements are inadmissible.
Dunaway v. New York,
We cannot conclude under the
Brown v. Illinois
analysis that police obtained Guzy’s statements to his cellmate through exploitation of the illegal arrest. Although Guzy’s admissions closely followed his arrest, we find it significant that he spoke to a cellmate, not to police. There is no evidence that any police action prompted the statements. Because Guzy made his statements to a cellmate free from police influence, we conclude that it was “sufficiently an act of free will to purge the primary taint of the unlawful invasion.”
Wong Sun,
*413
An analysis based on the exclusionary rule’s deterrent policy yields the same result. The exclusionary rule hampers the search for truth while it guards the sanctity of our society’s constitutional rights. However, because society also values public safety, the goals of deterring police misconduct and convicting criminals must be weighed against each other.
State v. Noll,
Here, Guzy inexplicably and voluntarily told a cellmate about his involvement in an armed robbery. Police did absolutely nothing, other than рlacing Guzy in the cell, to encourage this behavior. It is doubtful that by recreating these circumstances, officials could rely on future prisoners to similarly implicate themselves. A police officer, aware that he is about to make an illegal stop, will not be deterred by our suppressing evidence “that he could not have anticipated obtaining when he indulged in the prohibited practice.”
People v. Walker,
Because Guzy’s statements to his cellmate represented an act of free will purged of taint from the originаl police misconduct, and because suppressing the statements would have no deterrent effect on future police misconduct, we conclude that the evidence is admissible.
B. ITEMS FOUND IN TRUCK SEARCH
The state argues that Hunt’s consent to the truck search represented an act of free will sufficiently purged of any taint from the illegal stop. We conclude that the *414 trial court’s findings are inadequate to support such an argument.
Guzy’s challenge to the admissibility of the revolver and the $100 bill flows from his objection to these items аs fruits of the illegal stop. Had the stop been proper, the state may have been able to challenge Guzy’s standing under Rakas. Nonetheless, we must determine whether the original unlawful stop tainted the evidence obtained through the consent search of Hunt’s truck, not whether Guzy has standing, as a mere passenger, to challenge the search of another’s vehicle.
Because we focus on the connection between the unlawful stop and the items discovered in the search of Hunt’s truck, we must determine whether Hunt’s сonsent came about through official exploitation of the illegal stop. Thus, we must determine whether Hunt’s consent was “sufficiently an act of free will to purge the primary taint.”
Brown v. Illinois,
In
Ribera,
the Montana Supreme Court rejected an illegally arrested defendant’s challenge to inculpatory evidence obtained through a car search performed with the owner’s consent. The
Ribera
court applied
Brown v. Illinois
and concluded that despite the illegality of the defendant’s arrest, the owner’s consent to the later car search had beеn a sufficient intervening act of free will to purge the taint of the illegal arrest.
Ribera,
Here, the state argues that Hunt’s expressed fear of children finding the gun and injuring themselves operated as an intervening event that removed the taint of *415 the illegal stop. We note, however, that a locked and police-impounded vehicle is unlikely to present a danger to curious children. Without more detailed trial court findings, we are unable to determine, as a matter of constitutional fact, whether Hunt’s consent arose as an act of free will or whether it represented a convenient rationalization arising under police coercion.
Thus, we cannot determine the presence or absence of intervening circumstances or the existence of official exploitation of the illegal stop without further factual development of the circumstances leading to Hunt’s consent. We remand this issue for a finding on the vol-untariness of Hunt’s consent.
C. HUNT'S INITIAL STATEMENT TO POLICE
Whether a witness’ statements must be excluded as the result of a fourth amendment violation depends on whether his or her identity became known to police directly through the violation.
Muetze v. State,
In
Muetze,
the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the admissibility of an accomplice’s testimony against the defendant.
Id.
at 130-31,
Hеre, Hunt’s first statement implicating Guzy occurred within hours of their illegal arrest. The state has failed to show that any source independent from the illegal stop would have led police to discover Hunt’s identity. 6 Moreover, the state has failed to show any circumstances intervening in the chain of events between the illegal stop and Hunt’s questioning. Therefore, we uphold the suppression of Hunt’s in-custody statement made shortly after his arrest.
D. HUNT'S LATER STATEMENTS TO POLICE
Two weeks after the robbery, Hunt made additional statements implicating Guzy in the robbery. Frоm the record, we cannot determine whether these statements represented an act of free will that sufficiently attenuated the link between the statements and the illegal stop, or whether they arose from official exploitation of the illegal stop. Because this question was not answered at the suppression hearing, we remand the issue to the trial court for a determination of whether the statements were an act of free will that sufficiently attenuated the link between those statements and the illegal stop.
See Brown v. Illinois,
*417 E. THE IN-COURT IDENTIFICATION OF GUZY
The state argues that intervening events sufficiently attenuated the link between a victim’s in-court identification of Guzy and any taint of the illegal stop. We agree. At Guzy’s pretrial hearing about two weeks after the robbery, his attorney staged a four-person lineup. There, a store clerk identified Guzy as the man who had robbed her. Wisconsin recognizes that an in-court identification must not result from exploitation of an illegality.
State v. Brown,
In
State v. Brown,
police arrested the defendant on an armed robbery charge and brought him to the police station for questioning. Soon after the arrest, police requested two robbery eyewitnesses to appear at the police station in order to identify the defendant. One witness saw and identified the defendant as police took him off an elevator in the police building. The other witness identified the defendant while he sat in the district attorney’s office. At a preliminary hearing, the original trial judge found the defendant’s arrest illegal and consequently suppressed all evidence stemming frоm it, including personal observations, statements to police, and physical evidence.
Id.
at 568,
At trial before another judge, however, the state introduced the same two eyewitnesses who then identified the defendant in court. The trial court admitted the testimony over the defendant’s objections and later ruled that the in-court identifications were not tainted by the illegal arrest. The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed, holding under the
Wong Sun
test, that the in-
*418
court identifications had been obtained through means sufficiently distinguishable from the illegal arrest.
State v. Brown,
The United States Supreme Court analyzed the admissibility of an in-court identification in
United States v. Crews,
The Crews Court held that although the out-of-court photographic identification was inadmissible, the victim’s in-court identification of the defendant was not tainted. The Crews Court reasoned that the other witness provided police with “reasonable independent grounds” for suspecting the defendant. Furthermore, the Court held that the victim’s recollection had not been influenced by the improper photographic identification.
*419 Here, we conclude that under State v. Brown and Crews, the store clerk’s in-court identification of Guzy is admissible. Although the state has failed to satisfy the “independent source” and “inevitable discovery” exceptions, 7 Guzy’s statements to his cellmate served to remove the taint of the illegal stop from the in-court identification. Because Guzy, free from police influence, admitted his involvement in the robbery to his cellmate, we cannot conclude that the in-court identification stemmed directly from the illegal stop. Guzy’s voluntary act sufficiently attenuated the causal chain between the illegal stop and thе in-court identification. Therefore, we follow State v. Brown’s holding that an in-court identification may stand independent of an earlier constitutional violation.
By the Court. — Order affirmed in part, reversed in part, and cause remanded with directions.
Notes
After an initial dismissal based on a finding that the stop was illegal, the state reissued an armed robbery charge against Guzy based on evidence other than that seized from Hunt’s truck immedi *403 ately after it was stopped. Thus, the admissibility of the bags containing clothes and currency is not at issue.
See also State v. Beja,
United States v. Cardona,
We note that an illеgal arrest no longer deprives the trial court of personal jurisdiction over a defendant.
State v. Smith,
This test, as enunciated in Brown v. Illinois, underlies many opinions dealing with the suppression of evidence tainted by an illegal seizure. Rather than continually citing to Brown v. Illinois, however, we rely on related Wisconsin cases with factual situations more appropriate to the facts before us.
We also note that Hunt offered his statement to police while faced with overwhelming evidence linking him to the grocery store robbery.
See State v. Verhagen,
See Nix v. Williams,
— U.S. —,
