JOHNSON, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which KELLER, P.J., and PRICE, WOMACK, KEASLER, HERVEY, COCHRAN, and ALCALA, JJ., joined.
Appellant was 16 years old when he was arrested for, and charged with, aggravated robbery. Because he was a juvenile,
The court of appeals affirmed appellant's conviction. Appellant filed a petition for discretionary review in this Court, raising one issue: whether Section 51.095(a)(1)(A) permits law-enforcement officers to be present when a juvenile is initially read his rights.
On May 24, 2010, the complainant and three of his friends were robbed in Texarkana by three people, one of whom brandished an AK-47 assault rifle. Later that night, a Texas Department of Public Safety patrolman saw a vehicle approaching him with its headlights off. The vehicle's headlights went on, and then off, and then on again. The officer followed the vehicle into a parking lot and saw the two rear-seat passengers, one of whom was appellant, exit the vehicle, place an object wrapped in a white cloth behind the vehicle's back tire, and walk away. The officer picked up the object and saw that it was an AK-47. He ran after appellant and caught him, then handcuffed appellant and placed him in the patrol car. The officer questioned appellant about the vehicle's other occupants, whom appellant identified. The officer found women's jewelry and a cell phone on appellant. The phone was later identified as belonging to a recently robbed Hooks resident.
The two Texarkana officers took appellant to the office of Justice of the Peace Kenneth Alford. Alford read the Miranda warnings to appellant, which according to Alford, appellant understood and voluntarily waived his rights. At the later suppression hearing, Alford stated that he was alone in his office when he administered the warnings to appellant, but one of the Texarkana officers stated that both the officers were present for the warnings.
After the magistrate read the warnings to him, appellant was interrogated by the officers. One officer asked most of the questions, while the other typed appellant's statement. Appellant's statement was given to Alford, who, according to his testimony at the suppression hearing, reviewed it with appellant outside the presence of the officers, and appellant signed it voluntarily. In the signed statement, appellant admits to taking part in the charged robbery, as well as other robberies and burglaries.
Appellant moved to suppress the signed statement at trial, but the motion was denied. Appellant was found guilty and appealed. Relying on Diaz v. State, 61 S.W.3d 525, 527 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 2001, no pet.), which stated in dicta that "[n]o law enforcement personnel are allowed to be present during the [magistrate's] warnings ...," appellant argued that the statement should have been suppressed because it was obtained in violation of Section 51.095(a)(1)(A). The court of appeals disagreed, holding instead that "[t]here is no requirement anywhere in § 51.095 mandating that the magistrate be alone with the juvenile at the time the warnings are given." Herring v. State, 359 S.W.3d 275, 280 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2012, pet. granted). Appellant filed a petition for discretionary review in this Court to resolve the apparent conflict between the courts of appeals.
At issue are various subsections of Texas Family Code section 51.095. § 51.095 Admissibility of a Statement of a Child
Section 51.095(a)(1) delineates what is required before a juvenile's written statement may be admitted as evidence. Subsection 51.095(a)(1)(A) requires that the statement show "that the child has at some time before the making of the statement received from a magistrate" the statutory warnings set out in subsections 51.095(a)(1)(A)(i)-(iv). Subsection 51.095(a)(1)(B)(i) requires that "the statement [] be signed in the presence of a magistrate by the child with no law enforcement officer or prosecuting attorney present...." Subsection 51.095(a)(1)(D) instructs the magistrate to determine that the juvenile understands the contents of the statement and that the juvenile has knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived his rights. This section also requires the magistrate to certify that "the magistrate has examined the child independent of any law enforcement officer or prosecuting attorney ... and has determined that the child understands the nature and contents of the statement and has knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived these rights[.]" At issue in this case is whether Subsection 51.095(a)(1)(A) likewise prohibits the presence of law enforcement when the magistrate gives the warnings to the juvenile.
All that Subsection 51.095(a)(1)(A) requires is that a magistrate read the juvenile the statutory warnings enumerated in Section 51.095(a)(1)(A)(i)-(iv). There is no explicit requirement in this section that the magistrate be alone with the juvenile or that law-enforcement officers not be present. In contrast, Subsections 51.095(a)(1)(B)(i) and 51.095(a)(1)(D) expressly prohibit the presence of law-enforcement officers, unless it is required for the safety of court personnel. Appellant urges us to import the express prohibition
Appellant concedes that Subsection 51.095(a)(1)(A) is silent as to the presence of law-enforcement officers. Appellant also correctly states that, in Diaz, the Fourth Court of Appeals made "clear that no law-enforcement officers are allowed to be present during any of the warnings." See Diaz, 61 S.W.3d at 527. However, the issue in Diaz was not the presence of law-enforcement officers, but misstatements by the magistrate about the maximum range of punishment. While the court of appeals did state that no officers may be present during the warnings, it cited only generally to Section 51.095 without discussion or analysis as to why that could be true. See id. Neither Diaz nor appellant offers convincing analysis as to why our interpretation should stray from the text of the statute. See Boykin v. State, 818 S.W.2d 782, 785 (Tex.Crim.App.1991) ("Where the statute is clear and unambiguous, the Legislature must be understood to mean what it has expressed, and it is not for the courts to add or subtract from such a statute.")
Appellant also proposes general policy reasons why the Diaz approach "complies with the purpose of the Juvenile Justice Code," but appellant's argument "is nevertheless one of policy, not of statutory construction." See Tyra v. State, 897 S.W.2d 796, 799 (Tex.Crim.App.1995).
Because Texas Family Code subsection 51.095(a)(1)(A) does not explicitly prohibit the presence of law-enforcement officers when a magistrate reads the required statutory rights to a juvenile, while other subsections of Section 51.095 expressly forbid the presence of law-enforcement officers during other kinds of proceedings, we hold that, by omitting such a prohibition in Subsection 51.095(a)(1)(A), the legislature expressed its intent that such a prohibition should not apply to the reading of the statutory warnings.
MEYERS, J., did not participate.