RICHARD J. LEON, United States District Judge.
Defendant Roger Redrick seeks to suppress all physical evidence seized during the execution of a search warrant at his apartment on April 30, 2013, including firearms and drugs, on the grounds that such evidence was seized in violation of his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. See Def.'s Mot. to Suppress Evidence and Mem. of P. & A. ("Def.'s Mot. Suppress Evid.") [Dkt. # 6]; Def.'s Supplemental Mot. in Supp. of His Mot. to Suppress Tangible Evidence and Statements ("Def.'s Suppl. Brief") [Dkt. # 15]. He also seeks to suppress statements he made to law enforcement officers that day on the grounds that they were made in response to custodial interrogation without the preliminary warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and were not voluntary. See Def.'s Mot. to Suppress Statements and Mem. of P. & A. ("Def.'s Mot. Suppress Stmts.") [Dkt. # 7]; Def.'s Suppl. Brief. The Court held an evidentiary hearing on the defendant's two motions on September 17, 2013, at which Metropolitan Police Department ("MPD") Detectives John Bolden and Kirk Delpo testified to the events surrounding the defendant's arrest, the protective sweep of his apartment, and his questioning both at his apartment and, later, at the police station. See Transcript of Sept. 17, 2013 Motion Hearing, United States v. Redrick ("Hr'g Tr.") [Dkt. # 12]. Upon careful consideration of the defendant's motions, the government's oppositions thereto, the testimony and arguments of counsel at the evidentiary hearing, the parties' supplemental pleadings, and the relevant law, the Court DENIES Defendant's Motion to Suppress Evidence, and GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Defendant's Motion to Suppress Statements.
Shortly after 6:00 a.m. on April 30, 2013, members of the Fugitive Task Force, including
When Redrick opened the door, wearing pants but no shirt, the officers immediately arrested him at the threshold of the apartment and handcuffed him. Hr'g Tr. at 5, 25; Search Warrant Affidavit [Dkt. # 6-2] at 3. The officers then sat him down at the dining table in the combination living room/dining room, and they proceeded to conduct a protective sweep of the apartment to ensure that no other persons were present. The apartment is a one-bedroom apartment. The front door opens into a combination living room/dining room, which is open to a galley kitchen and a bathroom on the left-hand side. The bedroom is a separate room located straight back from this living area. See Gov't's Opp'n at Ex. A [Dkt. # 10-1] (Diagram of Apartment).
While three or four other officers were conducting a protective sweep of the apartment, MPD Detective John Bolden was standing next to the door of a closet in the living room/dining room, which was adjacent to the dining table where Redrick was seated. Hr'g Tr. at 28-29. Bolden heard a noise come from the closet, at which point he looked at the closet door and noticed that the throw rug in front of the door was bunched up. Hr'g Tr. at 10-11. Bolden checked the door, found it was locked, and asked Redrick a question about the closet. Bolden could not remember the wording of his question, but Redrick responded that maintenance had been there a couple days earlier. Hr'g Tr. at 12. At that point Bolden used his own knife to unlock the closet, drew his weapon, and opened the closet door. Hr'g Tr. at 12; Gov't's Opp'n at 3.
When he opened the closet door, Bolden saw that the closet was small and contained a water heater, but no person was hiding inside. Hr'g Tr. at 13. At that point, aware that no one was in the closet, Bolden asked Redrick a question, phrased either as "is there anything I need to know about in this closet?", Hr'g Tr. at 13, or "is there anything in here I need to know about?", Hr'g Tr. at 46.
Bolden alerted the other members of the team that he had found a gun box, and Deputy Marshal Versage called the Gun Recovery Unit to start the process of obtaining a search warrant. Hr'g Tr. at 16-17. Then another officer, Deputy Marshal Gause, asked Redrick if there was anything else they needed to know about, and Redrick responded that there was "coke" in the kitchen on top of the cabinet. Hr'g Tr. at 36; Gov't's Opp'n at 3. Gause then went to the kitchen, retrieved a small black bag from on top of a cabinet, opened it, and found a clear plastic bag containing a white rock substance. Hr'g Tr. at 36-37; Gov't's Opp'n at 3. He also found a green plastic wrap on the cabinet containing a white rock substance. Gov't's Opp'n at 3. When Gause brought the bags back into the living room/dining room, Redrick stated that there was a gun under the couch. Hr'g Tr. at 18; Gov't's Opp'n at 3-4. The officers then apparently lifted the couch and saw a pistol on the floor, but did not move it.
At around noon, MPD obtained a search warrant for Redrick's apartment. See Search Warrant [Dkt. # 6-2] at ECF p. 6. The police affidavit in support of the application for a search warrant relied on the discovery of the gun box and the drugs, as well as on Redrick's un-Mirandized statements, as the grounds for finding probable cause to search the apartment. See Search Warrant Affidavit at 1, 3. During the execution of the search warrant, the police seized the gun box from the closet, which contained a Glock model 17 (9 mm) pistol, a loaded Glock model 22 (.40 caliber) pistol from under the couch, 227 grams of a white rock-like substance from the kitchen, which field tested positive for cocaine, a scale, and other drug paraphernalia. See Criminal Complaint [Dkt. # 1] and Statement of Facts [Dkt. # 1-1]; Search Warrant [Dkt. # 6-2] at ECF p. 6; Gov't's Opp'n at 4-6.
After his arrest, Redrick was brought to the police station to be interviewed. Gov't's Opp'n at 6. MPD Detective Kirk Delpo interviewed Redrick at approximately 4:00 p.m. Hr'g Tr. at 52. After some preliminary discussion of the charges, Detective Delpo read the Miranda warnings to Redrick, and Redrick signed a Miranda waiver card at 4:52 p.m. See Gov't's Opp'n at Ex. B [Dkt. # 10-1] (Miranda Waiver Form); Hr'g Tr. at 52-56. During the subsequent interview, Redrick admitted that the guns and drugs discovered at the apartment were his and that he sells cocaine. Hr'g Tr. at 62-63, 73; see also Gov't's Opp'n at 6.
Redrick was charged by Criminal Complaint on May 1, 2013. On May 30, 2013, he was charged in a three-count Indictment with one count of Unlawful Possession with Intent to Distribute 28 Grams or More of Cocaine Base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B)(iii),
The defendant moves to suppress the guns and drugs found at his apartment, as well as his statements, based on three alternative legal theories. First, he argues that the police's search of the closet in his apartment incident to his arrest exceeded the scope of a permissible warrantless "protective sweep." And since all physical evidence ultimately discovered in the apartment pursuant to a later-executed search warrant, as well as his statements, derived from that closet search, all physical evidence and statements must be suppressed as the fruit of the poisonous tree. See Def.'s Mot. Suppress Evid. at ECF pp. 1, 3-5. Second, and in the alternative, the defendant argues that even if opening the closet was within the scope of a valid protective sweep, that sweep ended before Detective Bolden asked him a question without first giving him Miranda warnings, and, based on his response, discovered a gun box in the closet. Accordingly, the defendant's first unwarned statement and follow-on statements in the apartment must be suppressed as Miranda violations, and all physical fruits thereof must also be suppressed. See Def.'s Suppl. Brief at 8. Finally, the defendant claims that all of his statements, both those made at the apartment and those made during a later custodial interview at a police station, were involuntary, and therefore the statements and all physical evidence must be suppressed. See Def.'s Mot. Suppress Stmts. at 3-5; see also Hr'g Tr. at 58-60. For the reasons discussed below, the defendant's first and third arguments are meritless. His second argument, on the other hand, is correct in part. As a result, certain of his statements must be suppressed, but none of the physical evidence will be.
The defendant's legal arguments all hinge on the initial discovery of the gun box in the closet. As such, my first concern is the constitutionality of the police's protective sweep, Detective Bolden's first question to Redrick and his response, and the discovery of the gun box in the closet.
Redrick first argues that the warrantless "protective sweep" of his apartment was overbroad. The Fourth Amendment, of course, "prohibits only unreasonable searches and seizures." United States v. Ford, 56 F.3d 265, 268 (D.C.Cir.1995). While the search of a home without a search warrant is generally per se unreasonable, see id. there are exceptions to the warrant requirement, including that "officers executing an arrest warrant may enter a dwelling given `reasonable belief that the suspect lives there and is present at the time." United States v. Taylor, 497 F.3d 673, 678 (D.C.Cir.2007) (citing United States v. Thomas, 429 F.3d 282, 285-86 (D.C.Cir.2005)); see also Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 603, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980). And upon entering a dwelling to execute an arrest warrant, law enforcement officers may, without a search warrant or probable cause, conduct a "protective sweep," which is "a quick and limited search of premises, incident to an arrest and conducted to protect the safety of police officers or others." Maryland v. Buie, 494 U.S. 325, 327, 110 S.Ct. 1093, 108 L.Ed.2d 276
The Supreme Court has sanctioned two types of protective sweeps. Thomas, 429 F.3d at 287 (citing Buie, 494 U.S. at 334, 110 S.Ct. 1093). The first type, which may be conducted "as a precautionary matter and without probable cause or reasonable suspicion," limits officers to "look[ing] in closets and other spaces immediately adjoining the place of arrest from which an attack could be immediately launched." Buie, 494 U.S. at 334, 110 S.Ct. 1093. The second type, by contrast, "may extend beyond immediately adjoining spaces but must be based upon `articulable facts which ... would warrant a reasonably prudent officer in believing that the area to be swept harbors an individual posing a danger to those on the arrest scene.'" Thomas, 429 F.3d at 287 (quoting Buie, 494 U.S. at 334, 110 S.Ct. 1093).
Here, Detective Bolden's search of the closet in Redrick's apartment was a valid protective sweep under either of the two types identified in Buie. First, Redrick was immediately arrested at the threshold of his apartment front door, which opens into the main living room/dining room area. The apartment was small, consisting of the living room/dining room, a galley kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom, and the closet in question was located in that living room/dining room next to the dining table at which Redrick was seated after being handcuffed. Accordingly, the closet was a place "from which an attack could be immediately launched" that was "immediately adjoining the place of arrest," and therefore the police could permissibly search it under the first type of protective sweep. See Thomas, 429 F.3d at 288 (upholding validity of first type of Buie protective sweep of bedroom where defendant was arrested in hallway immediately inside front door of his one-bedroom apartment, and the bedroom was "a straight shot down the hallway" from that spot); Ford, 56 F.3d at 270 (upholding validity of first type of Buie protective sweep of bedroom where defendant was arrested in hallway of apartment after emerging from that bedroom, which was immediately adjoining the hallway). In fact, Buie itself expressly identified closets as places that can be searched as part of a protective sweep if they "immediately adjoin[] the place of arrest," as this closet did here.
Moreover, the search of the closet was valid even under the more demanding second type of Buie protective sweep because Detective Bolden had a reasonable belief, based on specific and articulable facts, that the closet harbored an individual posing a danger to the officers. Specifically, Bolden testified that he heard a noise in the closet and saw the rug in front of the closet door bunched up. In addition, it took Redrick a few minutes to open the apartment door after the officers initially announced their presence, potentially giving Redrick time to hide another person in the closet. Taken together, these facts warranted a "reasonably prudent officer" in believing that a person could be hiding in the closet, and Bolden testified that he did, in fact, believe that. Hr'g Tr. at 13, 19, 40. In sum, Bolden's search of the closet falls within the scope of a valid protective sweep and thus was a permissible warrantless search.
Finding that the police permissibly searched the closet as part of a valid protective sweep does not end the Court's inquiry, however, because the record shows that Detective Bolden did not actually see the gun box when he first opened the closet. Instead, after opening the closet and seeing no person inside, Bolden asked Redrick if there was anything in the closet he needed to know about, and Redrick responded, "there is a piece in there." Only then did Bolden look down and see the gun box in the closet. The next issue, therefore, is whether this question posed to Redrick before he received Miranda warnings violated his constitutional rights, and if so, whether the appropriate remedy includes suppression of the gun box — the physical evidence discovered as a result of this un-Mirandized statement.
To protect a suspect's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Miranda warnings must be given to an individual before he is subjected to custodial interrogation. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 443-44, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Custodial interrogation is "questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way." Id. at 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602. And interrogation includes not only "express questioning," but also "any words or actions... that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response from the suspect." Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980). Absent any exception to the Miranda requirement, the police's failure to administer the warnings before a defendant is subjected to custodial interrogation requires the exclusion of his statements from evidence. See Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444, 86 S.Ct. 1602; Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 429, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984).
Here, there is no dispute that Redrick was in custody. Nor does the government contest that the express question "is there anything in here I need to know about?" constituted interrogation. Instead, the government argues that an exception to the Miranda requirement applies. In the government's view, the protective sweep was still underway when, after opening the closet and seeing no one inside, Detective Bolden asked Redrick this question, and
In New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649, 104 S.Ct. 2626, 81 L.Ed.2d 550 (1984), the Supreme Court recognized a "narrow exception" to the Miranda rule, holding that the requirement of giving Miranda warnings before questioning should not apply to "a situation in which police officers ask questions reasonably prompted by a concern for the public safety," or for the safety of the arresting officers. Quarles, 467 U.S. at 656, 658-59, 104 S.Ct. 2626. In Quarles, a woman approached two police officers in their car, told them she had just been raped by a man carrying a gun, described the suspect, and told them he had just entered a nearby supermarket. Id. at 651-52, 104 S.Ct. 2626. One officer pursued the suspect inside the supermarket, and upon apprehending and frisking him, discovered he was wearing an empty shoulder holster. Id. at 652, 104 S.Ct. 2626. After handcuffing the suspect but before giving him Miranda warnings, the officer asked him where the gun was. Id. The suspect nodded towards some empty cartons and responded, "the gun is over there," and the officer retrieved a pistol from one of the cartons. Id. In reversing the lower courts' exclusion of that statement from evidence, the Supreme Court reasoned that the police had reason to believe the suspect had just removed the gun from his holster and discarded it in the supermarket, and "[s]o long as the gun was concealed somewhere in the supermarket, with its actual whereabouts unknown, it obviously posed more than one danger to the public safety: an accomplice might make use of it, a customer or employee might later come upon it." Id. at 657, 104 S.Ct. 2626. In such circumstances, "the need for answers to questions in a situation posing a threat to the public safety outweighs the need for the prophylactic rule protecting the Fifth Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination." Id.
Our Circuit Court has addressed the public safety exception only twice. In United States v. Brown, 449 F.3d 154 (D.C.Cir.2006), the court found, with little discussion, that the public safety exception applied when police officers apprehended a suspect moments after he had robbed a bank at gunpoint and then asked him the location of the gun before giving him Miranda warnings. Brown, 449 F.3d at 159, abrogated in part on other grounds by Dean v. United States, 556 U.S. 568, 129 S.Ct. 1849, 173 L.Ed.2d 785 (2009). Three years later, in United States v. Jones, 567 F.3d 712 (D.C.Cir.2009), the court elaborated on the scope of the exception and again held that the exception applied, this
In analyzing whether the officer's question fell within the public safety exception, our Circuit Court made clear that a court must consider the "totality of the circumstances" confronting the questioning officer. Highlighting all of the factual circumstances at play in Jones, the court found that "in combination" they "clearly establish[ed]" that the officer's question "fell squarely within the public safety exception." Id. at 715. The court nonetheless went on to discuss, "[w]ithout necessarily endorsing them," factors that other Circuits have emphasized when finding the public safety exception applies, including: (1) the defendant's prior criminal record, (2) the defendant's drug dealing, (3) the fact that the defendant was not yet handcuffed, and (4) the dangerous nature of the neighborhood where the defendant was arrested. Id. at 715-16. The court concluded that all four of these factors were present in Jones, in addition to the other circumstances it had listed. Id.
In the instant case, the circumstances surrounding Detective Bolden's question to Redrick differ sharply from those present in Quarles, Brown, and Jones, and based on the totality of the circumstances, I find that this question does not fall within the narrow public safety exception. How so?
First, although Redrick had a prior conviction for armed robbery of which the arresting officers were aware, see Hr'g Tr. at 4-5, the officers were executing an arrest warrant for a parole violation and had no particular reason to think Redrick might be armed. That fact distinguishes this case from Jones, where police were seeking a suspect who, though he also had prior gun and drug offenses, was being sought in connection with a much more severe crime — a murder that had taken place just two weeks earlier — and who police had reason to believe might possess two firearms. And Redrick's circumstances are even further removed from those at play in Quarles and Brown, where the arresting officers knew that the suspect had just committed a crime with a gun and might still possess it or have discarded it nearby.
Most important to my decision, however, are two other factors: by the time Bolden asked the question, (1) Redrick was handcuffed, and (2) the protective sweep of the
Next, at the time Bolden asked the question, the officers had completed their protective sweep and confirmed that no other persons were present in the apartment.
Despite these clear implications of Bolden's testimony, the government nonetheless maintains that the protective sweep was still ongoing when Bolden posed his question — and, by extension, there was an ongoing concern for officer safety that made the public safety exception applicable — and urges this Court not to "Monday morning quarterback" the decision of the on-scene officer who faced a "fluid" situation and was still subjectively concerned about officer safety at the time he asked the question. See Hr'g Tr. at 13, 19, 47-48; Gov't's Opp'n at 10-12; Gov't's Suppl. Brief at 8-9. While I do not doubt or downplay the safety risks that law enforcement officers routinely face when searching premises, our Circuit Court has cautioned that courts "must ... take care that the [public safety] exception not be applied so routinely as to swallow the rule." Jones, 567 F.3d at 717. As such, I think it prudent to heed that advice in circumstances like those presented in this case. Accordingly, since there was no reasonable concern for the safety of the officers (or others) to justify excepting Bolden's question from the requirements of Miranda, Redrick's statement that "there is a piece in there" was obtained in violation of Miranda and must be suppressed.
This brings me to the physical evidence derived from that un-Mirandized statement: must the gun box in the closet, which Detective Bolden would not have seen but for Redrick's statement, also be suppressed along with the statement itself? Because the physical fruits of a suspect's un-Mirandized but voluntary statements are not excludable under the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine, Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963), the answer must be "no." See United States v. Patane, 542 U.S. 630,
Here, Redrick's statement was voluntary, as will be discussed later in the opinion. See infra Section III. And the search and seizure were indeed lawful because, in light of my holding above that the scope of the permissible protective sweep included opening and searching the closet, the police could have seized the gun box under the "plain view" doctrine without any further warrantless search occurring.
That brings me to the police's follow-up question to the defendant, his response, and the subsequent discovery of drugs and the second gun. Following Detective Bolden's first question to Redrick and his discovery of the gun box in the closet, a different officer, Deputy Marshal Gause, asked Redrick if there was anything else the officers needed to know about. Redrick initially responded that there was coke in the kitchen. Then, when the officer returned to the room with the drugs, Redrick stated that there was a gun under the couch.
Both of these statements must be suppressed as violations of Miranda In view of my conclusion that Bolden's first question did not fall within the public safety exception, this follow-up question — asked
As such, the next issue to be considered is whether the physical evidence discovered as a result of this second Miranda violation must also be suppressed. Once again, the answer is "no." To be sure, the police's retrieval of the drugs from the kitchen, their opening of the black bag, and their lifting of the couch to see the second gun were warrantless searches that were conducted after the protective sweep concluded, and, absent any other exception to the warrant requirement, violated Redrick's Fourth Amendment rights. But this physical evidence is nonetheless admissible under the doctrine of "inevitable discovery."
The inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule allows evidence initially detected as the result of unlawful government conduct to be introduced nonetheless "[i]f the prosecution can establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the information ultimately or inevitably would have been discovered by lawful means." Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 444, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984) (holding that exclusionary rule did not apply to evidence regarding the location and condition of murder victim's body, even though defendant's statements regarding the same were suppressed due to a violation of his Sixth Amendment rights, because a search party — which had ceased its search once defendant agreed to lead police to the body — inevitably would have found the body anyway). Here, the discovery of the gun box — which, as I held above, is admissible evidence despite the Miranda violation that led to its discovery — gave the police probable cause to obtain a search warrant. See United States v. Warren, 42 F.3d 647, 652 (D.C.Cir.1994) (probable cause for search warrant requires only "`fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place'") (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983)); United States v. Whichard, 304 Fed.Appx. 887, 888 (D.C.Cir.2008) (discovery of crack cocaine in plain view during protective sweep provided adequate basis for search warrant). And the police would have obtained a search warrant and turned up the drugs and second gun when executing that warrant had they not illegally discovered those items first. Indeed, the record shows that the police initiated the process of securing a search warrant before, or at about the same time as, the Deputy Marshal posed his follow-up question to Redrick and the drugs and second gun were found, see Hr'g Tr. at 16-17, and therefore the officers were actively pursuing independent lawful means of searching the apartment before the illegal search occurred. See United States v. Holmes, 505 F.3d 1288, 1293-94 (D.C.Cir.2007) ("`inevitable discovery involves no speculative elements but focuses on demonstrated historical facts capable of ready verification'"; the government's showing that discovery was inevitable must be "more than [a] possibility" (quoting Nix, 467 U.S. at 444 n. 5, 104 S.Ct. 2501)).
Finally, Redrick argues that all of the statements he made at his apartment were not voluntary, see Def.'s Mot. Suppress Stmts. at 3-4, which, if true, would require suppression of not only his statements, but also all physical evidence derived from those statements.
A defendant's statement is inadmissible "if under the totality of the circumstances it was involuntarily obtained." United States v. Reed, 522 F.3d 354, 358-59 (D.C.Cir.2008) (citation and quotation marks omitted). Whether a statement was involuntary depends "on whether the `defendant's will was overborne' when he gave [it]," United States v. Murdoch, 667 F.3d 1302, 1305 (D.C.Cir. 2012) (quoting Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 226, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973)), but, importantly, "coercive police activity is a necessary predicate
As to the statements he made at his apartment, Redrick notes only that he was subjected to custodial interrogation without receiving Miranda warnings and without the presence of counsel. See Def.'s Mot. Suppress Stmts. at 3-4. That is accurate, but it is insufficient: although the "[f]ailure to administer Miranda warnings creates a presumption of compulsion," Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 307, 105 S.Ct. 1285, 84 L.Ed.2d 222 (1985), that failure "in and of itself does not render a confession involuntary," Quarles, 467 U.S. at 655 n. 5, 104 S.Ct. 2626. See also Murdock, 667 F.3d at 1306 ("The detective's failure to honor [defendant's] Miranda right is certainly relevant to whether [defendant's] statements were voluntary, but it is insufficient by itself to establish involuntariness.").
Next, and more importantly, the record does not reflect that the police used any coercive tactics while at Redrick's apartment. The officers handcuffed him and seated him at a table while they conducted a protective sweep — typical events incident to an arrest — and thereafter they asked him if there was anything in the closet and the apartment they needed to know about. But simply being handcuffed does not render one's statements involuntary. See United States v. Mohammed, 693 F.3d 192, 198 (D.C.Cir.2012) ("no court has found that [Miranda] waivers made while a suspect is handcuffed are invalid for that reason alone, ... much less that statements obtained while handcuffed are themselves involuntary"). In fact, "egregious facts [are] necessary to establish that the statements [the defendant] made during questioning were involuntary." Id. And here there is simply no evidence whatsoever that the officers made promises or threats to Redrick, or used any physical or psychological pressure to coerce him into making his statements. Compare Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 398-400, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978) (finding confession involuntary where detective gave Miranda warnings but persisted in questioning defendant who had been wounded a few hours earlier, was in a hospital bed in an intensive care unit encumbered by tubes and needles, was complaining of intense pain, gave confused and incoherent responses, and repeatedly asked that the interrogation stop until he could get a lawyer), with Berghuis v. Thompkins, 560 U.S. 370, 386-87, 130 S.Ct. 2250, 176 L.Ed.2d 1098 (2010) (finding no coercion in a three-hour interrogation absent evidence "that police threatened or injured [the defendant] during the interrogation or that he was in any way fearful"), and Mohammed, 693 F.3d at 198 (finding statements voluntary even though the defendant may have been handcuffed during two-hour interrogation and DEA agents lied to him that his hands tested positive for heroin; the DEA agents "did not threaten or intimidate [the defendant]"), and Reed, 522 F.3d at 359 (finding confession voluntary because district court credited FBI agent's testimony that defendant was not hit in the face and was given a blanket when placed in a cold room, and defendant's remaining allegation — that he was forced to wear a jumpsuit without underwear — did not rise to the level of coercion).
Turning to the custodial interview at the police station following his arrest, Redrick also moves to suppress incriminating statements he made during that interview about the guns and drugs found in his apartment. See Def.'s Mot. Suppress Stmts. at 4-5; Def.'s Suppl. Brief at 15. As a preliminary matter, there is no dispute that the police gave Redrick Miranda warnings prior to this interview and that he signed a Miranda waiver card. See Gov't's Opp'n at Ex. B (Miranda Waiver Form); Hr'g Tr. at 52-56; Gov't's Opp'n at 14-15; Def.'s Mot. Suppress Stmts. at 5. He nonetheless argues that any post-warning statements he made during this interview were "tainted" by the police's failure to give him Miranda warnings earlier in the day when he made unwarned, incriminating statements in response to their questions. See Def.'s Mot. Suppress Stmts. at 5; Def.'s Suppl. Brief at 15. This argument is unconvincing, and more importantly, the Supreme Court squarely rejected it Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 105 S.Ct. 1285, 84 L.Ed.2d 222 (1985).
In Elstad, the Supreme Court considered whether an officer's initial failure to administer Miranda warnings, without more, taints subsequent admissions made by the defendant after he has received Miranda warnings and waived those rights. The Court held that "there is no warrant for presuming coercive effect" when a defendant's initial, unwarned statement is voluntary. Elstad, 470 U.S. at 318, 105 S.Ct. 1285. Instead, "[t]he relevant inquiry is whether, in fact, the second statement was also voluntarily made." Id. And "[a] subsequent administration of Miranda warnings to a suspect who has given a voluntary but unwarned statement ordinarily should suffice to remove the conditions that precluded admission of the earlier statement." Id. at 314, 105 S.Ct. 1285.
Thus, for the foregoing reasons, the Court DENIES Defendant's Motion to Suppress Evidence [Dkt. # 6], and GRANTS in part and DENIES in part Defendant's Motion to Suppress Statements [Dkt. # 7]. A separate order consistent with this Memorandum Opinion shall issue this date.
