THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
MARIE GILLES, APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 1997-10-29
No. 96-2551
Before NESBITT, COPE and FLETCHER, JJ.
701 So. 2d 375 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1997) Positive Treatment
Cited by 7 cases

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Synopsis

The State appeals a trial court's order suppressing statements made by Marie Gilles to police investigating her husband's murder. The appellate court reverses, holding that the pre-Miranda statements were not made while in custody and the post-Miranda statement was voluntary, rejecting the trial court's reliance on the defendant's subjective fear based on her Haitian background.


Holding

The court reversed the suppression order, holding that under the objective test established in Stansbury v. California, the defendant was not in custody because she was free to leave the police station at any time and the detective did nothing coercive. The defendant's subjective fears based on her personal background, unless created by the interrogator's conduct, do not constitute grounds for suppression.


Headnotes

[1] Miranda warnings are required only when a person is in custody.

[2] The determination of whether an individual is in custody for Miranda purposes depends on the objective circumstances of the interrogation, not the subjective views of the…

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Key Quotes

“the ultimate inquiry is simply whether there [was] a formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement of the degree associated with a formal arrest.”

Establishes the objective test for determining custody under Stansbury v. California, which requires examining whether there was a formal arrest or restraint on freedom equivalent to formal arrest.

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Facts & Procedural History

Police responded to a murder at the Gilles home where the defendant's husband was killed during an apparent home invasion robbery. The defendant and h…

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Opinion of the Court
FLETCHER, Judge.

FLETCHER, Judge.

The State appeals an order suppressing statements made to police by defendant Ma- ríe Gilíes. Because our review of the record reveals that her pre-Miranda warning statements were not made while in custody, and her post-Miranda warning statement was voluntarily given, we reverse.

At 11:30 one evening in 19951 uniformed police were summoned to a murder scene at the home of the defendant and her family. By initial appearances the defendant and her husband had been the victims of a home invasion robbery during which the husband was killed.

The lead detective arrived on the scene at 1:29 A.M. Shortly thereafter, the detective had the defendant and her two children (ages fourteen and sixteen) driven to the North Miami police station because the Gilíes home had been roped off for crime scene processing and the family could not be allowed back in. The detective also wished to obtain statements about the occurrence.

At the North Miami police station the defendant was seated in the lobby together with her son and daughter. The North Miami police station lobby is not large and contains a row of padded chairs along a wall, a water fountain, restrooms, and a telephone. The front door to the police station (which was unlocked) was approximately four feet from where the defendant and her children were situated. The defendant was free to leave at any time, for food, for a change in clothing, in order to sleep elsewhere, or for no reason but her desire to do so.

At about 4:15 A.M., the defendant was interviewed by the lead detective in a small room in the detective bureau which is located by the lobby. At that time the defendant was not a suspect of any kind but was viewed as a witness and victim. Because of this, she was not “read her rights” at that time and remained free to leave. This first interview lasted for a short time, up to one hour, after which the defendant returned to the lobby where her teenage son and daughter were waiting.

At 7:00 A.M., the detective interviewed several other persons who placed the defendant at the home of the suspected shooter prior to the murder of her husband. This gave the detective some concern as to the true status of the defendant. As a consequence, shortly after the conclusion of the other interviews (at 10:45 A.M.) the detective re-interviewed the defendant, who had been waiting in the lobby although she was, and had remained, free to leave.

Early in this second interview the defendant confirmed to the detective that she had been at the house of the co-defendant-to-be and had “summoned him to come over there to do something.” At this time the detective had the defendant read her rights out loud in the presence of another detective and himself. The defendant was then pre-inter-viewed, then her statement was tape recorded.

It would appear that a legally unremarkable series of events had taken place, i.e., a person not in custody was interviewed by the police, voluntarily gave a statement, was re-interviewed, warned as to her rights, and voluntarily gave a further (taped) statement. Such a series of events does not call for suppression of the statements. See Caso v. State, 524 So. 2d 422 (Fla.l988)(police are required to give Miranda warnings only when the person is in custody), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 870, 109 S.Ct. 178, 102 L.Ed.2d 147 (1988); State v. Polanco, 658 So. 2d 1123 (Fla. 3d DCA 1995)(a suspect who responded to unwarned yet uneoereive questioning may yet waive his rights and confess after required Miranda warnings.) The trial court, however, concluded that the defendant was in police custody notwithstanding that she was at the police station as an apparent victim and witness to her husband’s murder and notwithstanding that she was free to leave the police station at any time. As a consequence of the determination, the trial court concluded that the unwarned statements were not admissible and the warned statement was coerced, thus not admissible, and ordered the statements suppressed.

The appropriate test for determining whether a person is in custody and thus must be given Miranda warnings is laid out in Stansbury v. California, 511 U.S. 318, 322-23, 114 S.Ct. 1526, 1529, 128 L.Ed.2d 293, 298 (1994):

“In determining whether an individual was in custody, a court must examine all of the circumstances surrounding the interrogation, but ‘the ultimate inquiry is simply whether there [was] a formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement of the degree associated with a formal arrest.’ (citation omitted).

Our decisions make clear that the initial determination of custody depends on the objective circumstances of the interrogation, not on the subjective views harbored by either the interrogating officers or the person being questioned.”

The suppression order reveals that the trial court erred in its analysis of the custody question by departing from the objective circumstances and basing its decision on the subjective view of the defendant. In doing so the trial court stated:

“One cannot examine the totality of the circumstances without also recalling that Ms. Gilíes is a native of Haiti. Although she had resided in the United States for some time, her background would still be one which would be fearful of police authority and submissive to authority....

[T]his court finds that the lobby of the police station was not any different in the mind of Defendant Gilíes than a holding cell would have been.” [emphasis supplied]

R. 62-63.

As we have noted, the test to be applied to determine whether a person is in custody is an objective one. The interviewee’s own set of apprehensions or mental state, unless visited upon her or him by the interrogator, does not require suppression. See Johnson v. State, 696 So. 2d 326 (Fla.1997). Here, the detective did nothing other than his proper duty. That the defendant may have acted on her own fears and apprehensions was not a proper basis for suppression.

The tragedies in Haiti are not here ignored or attempted to be understated. Indeed, oppression and police brutality anywhere are anathema, but cannot be transported into the North Miami police station so as to render a custody issue into a personal view in each ease. The police would soon be hamstrung from making inquiry of anyone until they had biographical background information indicating what type of behavior on the part of the police would cause the interviewee to have a level, of apprehension that would equate to “custody.” For example, the record here shows that the defendant had resided in the United States for twenty-eight years prior to the instant events and can speak, read, and understand English. The record is devoid of evidence as to the defendant’s experience, if any, with the Haitian police of the 1960’s, yet the trial court concluded that because of the defendant’s background, she would be fearful of and submissive to authority. Such results would have to be anticipated by the police in each and every instance and their procedures tailored specifically to the individual interviewee, based on the police officer’s understanding of the interviewee’s past experience. The task would be impossible.

The order suppressing the defendant’s statements is reversed.

. The information refers to September 19, 1995. Testimony at the suppression hearing refers to August 19, 1995.


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Citator

Cited By

  • State v. Shawanta Scott, 786 So. 2d 606 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001)
    …74. See Mansfield v. State, 758 So. 2d 636 (Fla.2000). The state correctly contends that an “interviewee’s own set of apprehensions or mental state, unless visited upon her or him by the interrogator, does not require suppression.” State v. Gilles, 701 So. 2d 375, 377 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997). The Gilles court cited to the supreme court’s decision in Johnson v. State, 696 So. 2d 326 (Fla. 1997), cert. den., 522 U.S. 1095, 118 S.Ct. 892, 139 L.Ed.2d 878 (1998) in which the court held that a confession will not be s…
  • State v. Weiss, 935 So. 2d 110 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006)
    …e to leave did not mean he was in custody). Given the totality of the circumstances, we agree with the trial court that the defendant was in custody for Miranda purposes. We need not consider the defendant’s particular mindset. See State v. Gilles, 701 So. 2d 375, 377 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997). However, we may consider her youth and lack of exposure to the criminal justice system. See Ramirez, 739 So. 2d 568. In sum, the evidence revealed at the suppression hearings shows that the defendant was approached in the ea…
  • Menchillo v. State (Fla. 2d DCA 2022)
    …interrogator, does not require suppression.' . . . Thus, the fact that Scott testified that she did not feel that she was free to leave the scene during her interview with [Officer] Longson is not dispositive of this case." (quoting State v. Gilles, 701 So. 2d 375, 377 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997))). And "[i]n the absence of any indicia of coercion or intimidating circumstances, police questioning about criminal conduct or activity alone, does not convert an otherwise consensual encounter into a custodial interrogati…

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