RAYMOND DAVID AYCOCK, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1988-07-08
No. 86-157
CAMPBELL, A.C.J., and PARKER, J., concur.
528 So. 2d 1223 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1988) Positive Treatment
Cited by 4 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Raymond David Aycock appealed his convictions for first-degree felony murder, kidnapping, and robbery, challenging the admission of statements he made to law enforcement officers in Georgia and Florida, including a taped statement and a signed Miranda waiver. The Florida District Court of Appeal affirmed the convictions, holding that any equivocal invocation of the right to counsel was clarified and waived by Aycock's re-warning and signed waiver before interrogation resumed.


Holding

The trial court did not err in denying the motion to suppress because Aycock's apparent misunderstanding regarding attorney availability was clarified by the third Miranda warning that specifically stated he could have an attorney present, and he thereafter effectively waived his right to counsel by signing a written waiver with no evidence of coercive tactics.


Headnotes

[1] A suspect's equivocal invocation of the right to counsel requires police to clarify the suspect's wishes regarding counsel.

[2] A suspect's misapprehension about the availability of counsel does not render subsequent statements inadmissible if the suspect is properly readvised of their rights and…

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Key Quotes

“Since I'm so far from home and there's no attorney here that's gonna come talk to me, I might as well cooperate while I'm here instead of upsetting y'all, so I decided to just — or long as my attorney down yonder gets a copy.”

Aycock's statement at the beginning of the taped conversation that demonstrated he believed no attorney would be available, potentially constituting an invocation or equivocal invocation of the right to counsel

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Facts & Procedural History

Aycock was apprehended by Georgia law enforcement officers who gave him a Miranda warning and questioned him. Subsequently, Florida law enforcement of…

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Opinion of the Court
LEHAN, Judge.

LEHAN, Judge.

Defendant appeals his convictions and sentences for first-degree felony murder, kidnapping, and robbery. We affirm.

Defendant first argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress statements he had made to Georgia and Florida law enforcement officers, including a taped statement to the Florida officers, and a signed waiver of Miranda rights. Defendant was initially apprehended by law enforcement officers in Georgia. These officers promptly gave defendant a Miranda warning and questioned him. Subsequently, law enforcement officers from Florida, before speaking with defendant, also gave defendant a Miranda warning. At this point defendant agreed to questioning by the Florida officers and to the taping of the questions and answers. At the beginning of the taped conversation, defendant stated:

Since I’m so far from home and there’s no attorney here that’s gonna come talk to me, I might as well cooperate while I’m here instead of upsetting y’all, so I decided to just — or long as my attorney down yonder gets a copy.

The substance of this statement appears to be that defendant agreed to talk with the officers only because of his misapprehension that no attorney would be available at that time.

Thus, the officers were faced with an invocation of defendant’s right to counsel or, at the least, an equivocal invocation of that right which “put the police officers on notice that the only permissible further questioning would be questions attempting to clarify ... [his] request for counsel.” Long v. State, 517 So. 2d 664, 667 (Fla.1987), However, the record reflects that after defendant made this statement, he was given a Miranda warning a third time. In fact, he was specifically told: “You have the right to talk to a lawyer now and have him present while you’re being questioned.” (Emphasis added.) When defendant was then asked whether he understood, he replied, "Yes sir.” Defendant thereafter signed a written waiver of his Miranda rights after which he was questioned by the Florida officers.

Whether or not defendant’s above-quoted statement constituted a sufficient, though equivocal, request for counsel, we conclude that he thereafter effectively waived the right to counsel upon receiving a Miranda warning a third time and signing the written waiver. A similar situation existed in Cannady v. State, 427 So. 2d 723 (Fla.1983).

In that case the defendant had said to a police officer, “I think I should call my lawyer.” Id. at 728.

Simultaneously, however, defendant “was also readily confessing his guilt.” Id. Cannady stated, “When a person expresses both a desire for counsel and a desire to continue the interview without counsel, further inquiry is limited to clarifying the suspect’s wishes.” Id. Cannady determined the officer “asking appellant if he wanted to talk about it was meant to clarify appellant’s wishes and was not meant to evoke an incriminating response.

Therefore this question did not amount to an interrogation under Miranda.” Id. at 729.

Cannady further noted that even if the defendant had requested counsel, his right to counsel was waived before he was interrogated further because he “signed a written waiver after being readvised of his right to have counsel present.” Id. at 729.

Under Cannady, then, the trial court in the case at hand did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress because (1) the officer’s statement that defendant could have an attorney present at that time served to correct defendant’s misapprehension and was no less proper than the questioning in Canna-dy which simply served to clarify the defendant’s wishes in that case; and (2) defendant, like the defendant in Cannady, signed a written waiver after being read-vised of his Miranda rights. Nothing in the record indicates that the officers used coercive tactics to obtain the waiver. Unless a showing of such coercion is made, a motion to suppress in this context should be denied. See Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 107 S.Ct. 515, 93 L.Ed.2d 473 (1986).

Defendant in fact indicated at the conclusion of the tape that his statements were made “free and voluntary.”

We find no merit to defendant’s other arguments on this appeal.

Affirmed.

CAMPBELL, A.C.J., and PARKER, J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Newton Carlton Slawson v. State, 619 So. 2d 255 (Fla. 1993)
    …n attorney?” asked prior to being advised of his rights was at best an equivocal request for counsel.2 Reading the consent form to the defendant and insuring that he understood his rights was proper clarification of the request. See Aycock v. State, 528 So. 2d 1223 (Fla. 2d DCA) (giving of Miranda warning proper clarification of equivocal request for counsel), review denied, 536 So. 2d 243 (1988). Slawson does not take issue with the fact that after having his rights thoroughly explained, he freely and volunta…
  • State v. Myron Ernst, 809 So. 2d 52 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002)
    …Ernst reinitiated the conversation and made it clear that he wanted to talk without an attorney by signing a waiver of rights that they continued. This was appropriate conduct. See Lukehart v. State, 776 So. 2d 906, 919 (Fla.2000); Aycock v. State, 528 So. 2d 1223, 1224 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1988). We vacate the order of suppression and remand for further proceedings. Our analysis of Elstad and review of the record leads us to find that while Ernst’s initial, unwarned statements may have been inadmissible, they were…

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