Case Studies
Chapter 6: Interrogations and Confessions
Case 1
Officer Smithwick arrested Jon Doreme for drug possession. At the time of the arrest, Doreme was at a bar, and he was also intoxicated, but not grossly so. He was in fine spirits when he was brought into the station, chatting up people as Officer Smithwick took him through the station for interrogation. Back at the bar, he had told Officer Smithwick that the drugs weren’t his and that someone planted them on him.
Officer Smithwick advised him of his rights and began to ask him questions pertaining to the cocaine she found on him that he claimed was not his.
But Doreme wanted to talk about music. Doreme played keyboards in a local band and had just come into possession of a “sick baby grand piano. You should hear me play this thing. It just sounds so sweet!”
Officer Smithwick continued to question Doreme about how he came to have a baggie of cocaine sticking out of his back pocket at Sometown Pub that evening, but Doreme kept going back to the piano.
“It’s just such a great piano. It’s so pretty. Really, you should hear me play it sometime. But I don’t take it out when I’m playing with the band. So I guess you’d have to come to my house.”
“Mr. Doreme, could we get back to how you came to be in possession of the cocaine, please?”
“Seriously, though. Do you want to know the best part about this piano? I stole it. From Mr. Plink’s Piano shop. I snuck in there three weeks ago with some buddies of mine, and we stole a freaking piano!”
After another 15 minutes of questioning, Doreme confessed that the cocaine was his. In addition to facing charges for drug possession, Doreme was also brought up on theft for the baby grand piano.
Questions
Case 2
Officer Jones arrested Miriam Candlewick on suspicion of receiving stolen property. Upon arresting Candlewick, Officer Jones read Candlewick her Miranda warnings: “You have a right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to represent you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?”
At the police station, Officer Jones entered the interrogation room, where Candlewick was waiting. Before she began questioning Candlewick about the stolen rare vase found to be in her possession, Officer Jones again advised Candlewick of her Miranda rights. Candlewick, who was protesting innocence, agreed to talk to Officer Jones. Officer Jones gave her a statement to sign. Candlewick signed it, and then questioning began.
Interrogation had been going on for about 20 minutes, with Officer Jones asking Candlewick how she got the vase, how long she’d been in possession of it, where she purchased it, how she paid for it, and what she knew about its provenance. Candlewick answered questions willingly at first, but as the questions grew more specific, Candlewick got nervous.
“Maybe I should talk to a lawyer,” Candlewick said to Officer Jones, hesitantly.
“Ms. Candlewick, you say that you bought the vase in the back of an abandoned warehouse and paid cash for it. You knew that it had been in a museum for a decade after that? Didn’t you also know that the vase was stolen?”
At that point, Candlewick said, “I want a lawyer.” The questioning ceased.
Questions
Case 3
A prosecutor with the district attorney’s office has determined that there was probable cause to seek an indictment against Kyle Butler for the murder of Dorothy Flowers and goes to a judge to obtain it. The judge agrees and issues an indictment. A warrant has been issued for Butler’s arrest.
The police went to Butler’s home and informed him that they had a warrant for his arrest. Butler was a quiet man and showed no signs of attempting to flee, and so police started to interrogate him about the murder. At first Butler did not reveal much, but over the course of the interrogation, it came out that he was furious at Flowers for firing him from his job and had learned her schedule and had begun following her around. “She took everything from me,” Butler said, “and I was determined to make her sorry.”
Police continued to question Butler about the morning of October 2, 2010, when Flowers was found brutally murdered in her apartment. They asked Butler about his whereabouts. At first he said that he was at the gym, but when he was asked to provide the name of a witness who could verify his story, he then said that he had been in Flowers’s neighborhood, having breakfast. The police officers pressed further, and finally Butler blurted out, “I did it! OK! I killed that vile little woman! She deserved it! She ruined my life, and I made her pay!”
The police officers then arrested Butler and read him his Miranda warnings.
Questions
Case 4
Let’s revisit Kyle Butler’s case. Despite the inadmissibility of Butler’s confession, enough forensic evidence was retrieved from the crime scene that, when combined with witness testimony about Butler’s continued harassment of Dorothy Flowers, that the prosecution was able to put Butler on trial. When the prosecution rested, the defense called Kyle Butler to the stand.
His testimony directly contradicted what he told police. On the morning of the murder, he said, he was at home alone, watching the morning news. He claimed that he did not leave his house until later on that day, when he had lunch at a coffee shop in his neighborhood. He admitted to harassing Flowers and for having a grudge against her for firing him. He also admitted that he had been in her home prior of the morning of the murder, but that, he said was only because he wanted her to understand that she should not have fired him. Kyle Butler insisted that he did not kill Flowers.
“I hated her, it’s true. But I did not kill her. I was all the way across town, at home, watching the news the morning of the murder, so I couldn’t have killed her.”
Upon cross-examination, the district attorney used the confession that Butler had given police the day they arrested him.
“Did you not tell police that you murdered Dorothy Flowers?” she asked. “Did you not confess, saying, ‘I did it! OK! I killed that vile little woman! She deserved it! She ruined my life, and I made her pay!’?”
Butler’s attorney objected, stating that Butler’s confession was inadmissible. The judge overruled.
Questions
Case 5
Henrietta Snodgrass and Margie Sampson ran an illegal poker game in the back of Sometown Pub. Sampson ran the game itself, and Snodgrass funded the operation and made sure that players paid their debts. Unfortunately for Snodgrass and Sampson, Sampson did not screen all the players carefully before letting them in to the game. An undercover officer had been playing at the table for a couple of weeks, gathering evidence on the operation. Saturday night, police arrested Sampson.
At the station, police questioned Sampson for several hours. They asked her about how the game was run, who played, how debts were repaid, but what they were really interested in was information on Henrietta Snodgrass. There had been several recent assaults associated with the Sometown Pub poker game, and police suspected that Snodgrass’s team of debt collectors were behind it. Margie Sampson was the closet person to Snodgrass, and police wanted to see if she would provide enough information on Snodgrass to put in her in jail for years.
As the questioning about Snodgrass went on, Sampson grew increasingly resistant to answering questions. “Why on earth should I help you nail Henrietta?” Sampson asked. “Anything I say up there you’re just going to use against me. I know my rights. You can’t make me incriminate myself just so you can make your case.”
Margie Sampson had a point. The assistant district attorney was observing the interrogation from the other side of the glass, and the lead investigator stepped out briefly. When he came back in, he gave Sampson some news, and she spilled the proverbial beans on Henrietta Snodgrass.
Questions