Person who volunteers to ride with police and give statement is not in custody for Miranda
Facts In 2014, a five year old girl went missing from her apartment. After a 12 hour search, her body was found in an abandoned trailer fifty yards from her apartment complex. She had been raped and killed. Based on a tip, police were searching a neighbor’s apartment when Alberto Garcia approached them and engaged […]
Clarifying ambiguous requests to remain silent and/or requests for a lawyer are good police practices but not required
Facts 13 year-old Amy is Jessica Orr’s aunt’s daughter, but Amy has lived with Orr since her birth due to her mother’s death. Amy is a special needs child and has ADHD. In 2016, Jessica Orr walked down the street to pick up her children, who had been playing in the neighbor’s pool. As Orr […]
Admissibility of confession depends on degree of intoxication
Facts In 2016, Captain Chris Selman of Forrest County S.O. was monitoring traffic from a marked vehicle in the parking lot of a shopping center in Hattiesburg when Melissa Cruz approached him and said she had just killed her boyfriend. Cruz was not emotional or upset. Selman noticed the hood of her car was caved […]
Checkpoint for license and insurance is constitutional
Facts In 2016, Collins P.D. set up a checkpoint for drivers for safety purposes and were stopping every vehicle. Albert Stewart pulled up to the safety checkpoint in a gray Dodge pickup and after some delay handed Officer Bruce McDonald his driver’s license with his left hand. Stewart’s right hand was resting on his middle […]
Subject left his cell phone in the car when he fled
Facts In 2017, Gary Bounds, a patrol sergeant with Petal Police Department (PPD), observed a white vehicle making a left-hand turn onto Byrd Park Boulevard. The driver of the vehicle failed to use a turn signal. Sergeant Bounds proceeded to run the license plate number on the vehicle. The search revealed that the vehicle was […]
Nervous demeanor and officer’s knowledge of headliner equals constructive possession
Facts Sergeant Marion Overby testified that on July 18, 2017, he was patrolling on the frontage road of Highway 49 in Richland when he noticed an 18-wheeler parked on Lake Drive facing the highway with a vehicle parked in front of it. According to Overby, the truck was noticeably leaking fluid, so he went to […]