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People v. Medina6/25/2001
ORDER AFFIRMED
EN BANC
JUSTICE RICE dissents, and CHIEF JUSTICE MULLARKEY and JUSTICE COATS join in the dissent.
In this interlocutory appeal, we review the trial court's order suppressing statements it found to be involuntary. The trial court concluded that the challenged statements resulted from a police threat, which was calculated to and did result in the defendant's confession. The record supports the trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law that the interrogating detective 's threat to have the child taken from both parents, unless the defendant confessed to injuring the child, had a significant role in inducing his confession. We therefore uphold the trial court's suppression order.
I.
On March 30, 2000, Joseph Medina (Medina) pled not guilty to two counts of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, pursuant to section 18-6-401(1)(a) & (7)(a)(III), 6 C.R.S. (1999), a class three felony. Medina filed a motion to suppress statements he made in two separate interviews with the police as involuntarily given. The trial court held four hearings on the motion between August 31 and October 16, 2000, and issued its suppression order on November 13, 2000. On the issue of whether Medina's statements to the police were voluntary, the evidence in the record upon which the trial court based its suppression order included the following.
On November 24, 1999, the Lakewood Police Department assigned a detective to investigate a possible child abuse incident involving a ten- week-old child. That evening, the detective traveled to Children's Hospital in Denver to see the victim (the child) and interview the family and treating physicians. Doctors at Children's Hospital conducted tests on the child; these tests showed brain injuries and fractured and bruised ribs. The doctors concluded that the injuries were consistent with someone having violently shaken the child.
While at the hospital, the detective spoke with the child's mother, Selena Sandoval (Selena). Selena told the detective that she had taken the child to a babysitter that morning. Approximately two hours after she left the child, the babysitter called, stating that the child was having a seizure. Selena said that Medina, the child's father, might be responsible for the child's injuries.
At the hospital, the detective also spoke with a caseworker assigned by the Jefferson County Department of Social Services, Tanis Doyle (Doyle), the child's maternal grandmother, Mary Sandoval (Mary), and the child's paternal grandmother, Lori Moore (Moore), as well as Medina. After speaking with Medina, the detective told Doyle and Selena that Medina "as much as" admitted to shaking the child and the detective felt certain that he was the perpetrator. Doyle testified that the detective's child abuse investigation at the hospital focused "on Joe Medina." Selena was not a suspect. The detective advised Selena that he had asked Medina to leave the hospital, to have no contact with the child, and to call him at the Lakewood Police Department for an interview. Medina told the detective he would call to set up the interview and intended to cooperate.
Moore testified that the detective asked Medina, her son, to talk with him out in the hall. Medina returned after a ten-minute conversation with the detective. He told Moore that the police "think that I did it," and the detective had ordered him to leave the hospital and to have no contact with his son. Moore confirmed with the detective that he had asked Medina to leave. She asked the detective "what the next step would be for Joseph to be able to be reunited with his son and his family, and [the
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