BERRY, J.
This interlocutory appeal is from two suppression orders: the Commonwealth appeals from an order suppressing certain statements of the defendant, and the defendant cross-appeals from an order denying his motion to suppress evidence seized in a search. We consolidated the appeals.
The case involves an indictment for murder in the first degree, in which the defendant was charged with the homicide of Suzy Goulart. In brief summary, with additional facts provided as pertinent to the respective suppression rulings, the background is that, on April 16, 2005, following a report of a fire at Pleasant View apartments, number 21D, Fall River police discovered Goulart's dead body on the kitchen floor. She had suffered more than fifty stab and cutting wounds.
The Commonwealth, in its appeal, argues that the first Superior Court judge erred in granting the defendant's motion to suppress statements by the defendant in an interview conducted at the police station on April 21, 2005. We conclude that suppression was not warranted. The defendant, in his appeal, argues that a second Superior Court judge erred in not conducting an evidentiary hearing before denying the defendant's motion to suppress physical evidence—in particular, a pair of the defendant's Adidas brand sneakers—which was seized in an October 22, 2008, search of a box in the basement of an apartment to which the defendant's girlfriend had moved following his April 21, 2005, arrest. We affirm the ruling denying the defendant's suppression motion.
A. The Commonwealth's appeal. Having been designated a person of interest in connection with the murder, on April 21, 2005, the defendant was arrested on outstanding warrants in unrelated cases. The police interviewed the defendant at the police station. The interview was recorded with audio-visual equipment. See Commonwealth v. DiGiambattista, 442 Mass. 423, 447-449 (2004). The defendant asserted in his suppression
1. The Miranda warnings. The ultimate findings that underlie the first judge's suppression order, based on a Miranda violation, are subject to heightened appellate review, in that we "conduct an independent review of his ultimate findings and conclusions of law." Commonwealth v. Jimenez, 438 Mass. 213, 218 (2002). Here, the judge's ultimate findings were that the Miranda rights were spoken too quickly by State Trooper Eric Swenson and, in the judge's words, were difficult to discern "in real time." The judge noted that, while watching the recording he could not "determine, without the transcript, which rights were, in fact, provided." On this basis, the judge concluded that the Miranda warnings would not have been understandable by the defendant and, therefore, the defendant's Miranda waiver was not knowingly and intelligently made. Accordingly, the judge suppressed the defendant's statements from the April 21, 2005, interview.
While we independently review ultimate findings leading to conclusions of law, usually, "[i]n reviewing a ruling on a motion to suppress, we accept the judge's subsidiary findings of fact absent clear error." Commonwealth v. Scott, 440 Mass. 642, 646 (2004). In this case, however, "the judge's findings are based almost exclusively on the [recording] of [the defendant's interview], and `we are in the same position as the ... judge in viewing the videotape.'" Commonwealth v. Novo, 442 Mass. 262, 266 (2004), quoting from Commonwealth v. Prater, 420 Mass. 569, 578 n.7 (1995). "Therefore, we will `take an independent view' ... and make judgments with respect to [the] contents [of the interview] without deference to the fact finder." Ibid., quoting from Commonwealth v. Bean, 435 Mass. 708, 714 n. 15 (2002).
2. The alleged law enforcement ruse and voluntariness of defendant's statements. In the memorandum of decision allowing suppression of the statements, the first judge referred to the police falsely telling the defendant that he had been identified as being near the victim's apartment on the night of the murder by two sources, i.e., by a woman hanging out her laundry and by a family.
Although the judge spoke of identification, the references in the police interview do not refer to actual identification per se, but rather are more oblique.
Considering the totality of the circumstances, including the words and actions of the defendant in the police interview recording (and including, but not limited to, the defendant's acknowledgments that he understood the Miranda warnings), we are unconvinced—even assuming the suggestion of identification by the police—that the defendant's rational intellect and free will were overcome such that his statements were not the result of a free and voluntary act. See generally Commonwealth v. Selby, 420 Mass. at 662 & n.1 (despite false statement about suspect's handprint being found at crime scene, Miranda waiver and confession both voluntary where "all other relevant factors specific to the instant case indicate a voluntary waiver was made" and trickery was only factor suggesting involuntariness); Commonwealth v. Edwards, 420 Mass. 666, 671 (1995) (confession admissible where nothing other than use of trickery would suggest involuntariness). Thus, the first Superior Court judge erred in allowing the defendant's motion to suppress statements from the April 21, 2005, interview.
B. The defendant's appeal. The defendant filed motions to suppress physical evidence seized during two separate searches. One motion to suppress challenged the October 22, 2008, search of an apartment on Flint Street in Fall River, where the defendant's girlfriend had moved after the defendant's arrest on April 21, 2005. The defendant's motion to suppress this search was denied. That denial of suppression directed at the Flint Street search is the subject of the defendant's interlocutory appeal discussed herein.
There was another motion to suppress in which the defendant also challenged the April 22, 2005, search of the apartment at 671 Durfee Street in Brockton where the defendant had been living with the girlfriend at the time of his arrest. This portion of the defendant's motion to suppress was denied by a third Superior Court judge on the basis that the search of the Durfee Street apartment had been consented to by the girlfriend. This suppression ruling is not the subject of this interlocutory appeal. To be noted, however, is that photographs taken during this Durfee Street search showed a pair of sneakers that appeared to
We turn to the search at issue in this appeal, i.e., the October 22, 2008, search when police executed a warrant at 37 Flint Street in Fall River, the place where the girlfriend had moved following the defendant's arrest.
The defendant contends that the second Superior Court judge erred in not holding an evidentiary hearing on his motion to suppress evidence obtained in the Flint Street search. Such an evidentiary hearing was not warranted for two reasons. First, the affidavits filed in support of the motion to suppress were not sufficient to prompt an evidentiary hearing. Second, the motion judge held a lengthy nonevidentiary hearing on the suppression issues, and heard argument of counsel concerning the dual issues of standing and expectation of privacy. Based on the
1. Inadequacies in the affidavits supporting the search warrant. We turn first to the affidavits. A defendant filing a suppression motion pursuant to Mass.R.Crim.P. 13(a)(2), as appearing in 442 Mass. 1516 (2004), must file an affidavit detailing all facts relied upon in support of the motion.
Commonwealth v. Mubdi, 456 Mass. 385, 389 (2010).
In this case, neither the affidavit of the defendant, nor that of his girlfriend, Reis, sets forth facts that would demonstrate a reasonable expectation of privacy in the unsecured box held in the common basement area of the Flint Street multi-unit apartment building where Reis had moved after the defendant's arrest. (To repeat for ease of reference, the defendant was arrested on April 21, 2005, and held in custody after that date; the subject search and seizure occurred on October 22, 2008, approximately three and one-half years after the defendant's arrest; the defendant had been in custody since his arrest).
"An evidentiary hearing is necessary only when the defendant has alleged facts that, if true, would establish (1) that evidence was obtained through a search or seizure for which the Commonwealth must prove probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or
Here, we accept for analysis that the defendant had standing (as the second Superior Court judge found).
As noted, the girlfriend's affidavit does not establish any reasonable expectation of privacy in the basement area or in the box. The defendant's affidavit adds nothing to the privacy calculus. Indeed, the defendant's affidavit says nothing about the Flint Street apartment and the basement area, which would establish any connection to that place by the defendant. In any event, it is clear from the record—specifically from the date of the defendant's arrest on April 21, 2005, and his being held in custody continuously thereafter—that the defendant never was present at the Flint Street apartment, much less resided there.
"When a defendant has standing under our rule for State constitutional purposes, we then determine whether a search in the constitutional sense has taken place. This determination turns on whether the police conduct has intruded on a constitutionally protected reasonable expectation of privacy. The measure of the defendant's expectation of privacy is (1) whether the defendant has manifested a subjective expectation of privacy in the object of the search, and (2) whether society is willing to recognize that expectation as reasonable. The defendant bears
2. The claim of procedural error. The defendant next contends that there was nonetheless a procedural error in that the motion judge indicated at the original nonevidentiary hearing that, if the judge determined that the defendant had standing, then the judge may conduct an evidentiary hearing. The defendant reads this remark as, in effect, a guarantee—which it was not— that an evidentiary hearing would be held after the nonevidentiary suppression hearing. Thereafter, the judge entered an order denying suppression and ruling that the defendant had standing, but no reasonable expectation of privacy. The defendant then moved to set aside a portion of the ruling, raising this claim of entitlement to an evidentiary hearing. In denying the motion, the judge issued another ruling, stating that the expectation of privacy issue was "encompassed" in the standing issue—both of which issues were addressed by counsel at the nonevidentiary suppression hearing, and resolved by the order denying suppression.
This latter ruling is correct. The defendant's claim that his expectation of privacy was not addressed at the nonevidentiary hearing is not supported. Rather, it is clear from the transcript of the lengthy hearing that not only was standing addressed, but also the ensuing issue whether there was any reasonable expectation of privacy in the common area basement and the box stored there. Defense counsel argued the issue whether there was an expectation of privacy, citing case law. The prosecutor presented counter argument and case law to demonstrate that neither the defendant, nor his girlfriend, asserted a subjective expectation of privacy on behalf of the defendant in the locus of the search leading to discovery of the defendant's sneakers, i.e., the unsecured box in the accessible basement area of the multi-family dwelling. There was no error in the motion judge's denial of the defendant's motion to suppress evidence obtained at the Flint Street address.
So ordered.