WILSON V. COM.
CRIMINAL: Miranda
2004-SC-000800-MR.pdf
TO BE PUBLISHED
AFFIRMING; ROACH
DATE RENDERED 8/24/2006
The statements made by the Defendant after being taken into custody were not obtained in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights, and the trial court did not err in denying his motion to suppress the statements. There is no evidence that Defendant’s freedom of movement was in any way restrained when he entered the police station and allegedly invoked his rights to silence and counsel. Most compelling is the fact that Defendant made this "invocation" when he voluntarily returned to the police station after having been allowed to go to lunch with his family . Under these circumstances, a reasonable person would have felt free to leave. Thus, SC concluded that Defendant was not in custody when he attempted to invoke his Miranda rights to silence and counsel. For that reason Defendant’s Miranda rights had not yet attached, and he could not at that time make a valid assertion of those rights. Defendant did not invoke his rights after being arrested.
