THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
JUAN GUTIERREZ, APPELLEE
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Florida's appeal is partially successful: the trial court's suppression of Miranda-violating statements is affirmed, but its dismissal of drug charges is reversed because the defendant's pre-arrest admission of ownership provided sufficient evidence independent of the suppressed statements.
A trial court's suppression of statements obtained in violation of Miranda rights is affirmed, but dismissal of drug charges is reversed where the defendant made a pre-arrest admission of ownership that independently supports the charges.
[1] A pre-arrest voluntary admission of ownership of contraband provides independent evidence sufficient to deny a motion to dismiss drug charges, even when statements obtain…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligencePolice arrested Gutierrez and obtained statements from him during transport to the station. The arresting officer's testimony was internally inconsist…
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PER CURIAM.
The state appeals from orders which respectively suppressed, on Miranda grounds, statements made by the defendant when he was being transported to the police station from the place of arrest and granted the defendant’s Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.190(c)(4) motion to dismiss charges of possession and trafficking in methaqualone.
Although the arresting officer was the only witness at the hearing, his testimony was in internal self-conflict both as to whether Gutierrez had waived his Miranda rights and whether the admissions now in question were volunteered by the defendant or were the product of subsequent interrogation by the police. Since we cannot interfere with the trial court’s resolution of these conflicts and its implied factual finding that the statements were unauthorizedly secured, e.g., McNamara v. State, 357 So. 2d 410 (Fla.1978), the order of suppression is affirmed.
The “(c)(4)” dismissal, however, cannot stand. Even without the suppressed admissions, the defendant’s unsuppressed pre-arrest statement that he was the owner of the tote bag in which the quaaludes were found1 was alone sufficient to require denial of the sworn motion to dismiss. E.g., State v. Holder, 400 So. 2d 162 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981), and cases cited.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part.
. The trial court’s denial of a motion to suppress the contraband itself is not before us for review. See State v. Roberts, 415 So. 2d 796 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982).
HUBBART, Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the judgment and opinion of the court. I would add, however, with respect to our reversal of the order granting the motion to dismiss that the trial judge plainly agreed with our analysis here, stated so on the record, and apparently granted the subject motion, after earlier denying it, as an appellate accommodation to the parties so that both the Miranda and sworn motion issues could be taken up in a single state appeal. Our reversal of the order granting the defense motion to dismiss, then, only vindicates the trial court’s true evaluation of this issue.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- McNAMARA v. State, 357 So. 2d 410 (Fla. 1978)
- State v. Roberts, 415 So. 2d 796 (Fla. 3d DCA 1982)
- Dade Cnty. Pub. Health Tr. v. Fuentes, 400 So. 2d 162 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981)
- State v. Holder, 400 So. 2d 162 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981)