State V. Walton

The primary issue in this case is whether the appellee was subjected to custodial interrogation in violation of the requirements of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), when officers questioned him in response to his volunteered, but unwarned, statements. The Dyer County Circuit Court found that although the appellee was placed in custody, his statements to the police as to the location of stolen property were spontaneous, voluntary, and not the result of interrogation. The appellee then entered a conditional guilty plea, reserving for appeal the question of whether he was subjected to custodial interrogation. The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, finding that the greater weight of the evidence established that the appellee's statements were a result of interrogation, and it suppressed the appellee's statements and the physical evidence derived from his statements. The State then requested permission to appeal to this Court on the issue of whether the appellee was subjected to custodial interrogation in violation of Miranda. We agree with the intermediate court that the appellee was placed in custody and subjected to interrogation, but we decline to suppress the physical evidence recovered by the officers absent any evidence that his statements were the product of actual coercion. Because the appellee's plea was made with the expectation that his statements were admissible as evidence, we remand this case to the Dyer County Circuit Court to give the appellee the opportunity to withdraw his plea should he so desire.