Coleman v. Singletary (30 F.3d 1420, 1994)

CARNES, Circuit Judge:

Gerald Anthony Coleman appeals from the district court’s order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. At Coleman’s trial, the evidence against him included statements he made to two detectives shortly after his arrest. On appeal, Coleman raises two issues that merit discussion. First, he contends that the detectives continued to interrogate him after he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, and that his subsequent statements were therefore inadmissible. Second, he contends that his waiver of his Miranda rights was ineffective because of his youth and mental illness. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Coleman was convicted by a Sarasota County jury of the second-degree murder of his ten-year-old sister, a crime committed when he was fifteen years old. He was sentenced to forty years imprisonment. The Second District Court of Appeal affirmed Coleman’s conviction and sentence. Coleman v. State, 515 So.2d 313 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App. 1987). His writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of Florida was denied. Coleman v. State, 523 So.2d 576 (Fla.1988).

Coleman filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, arguing that his confession was obtained in violation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The district court denied the petition.

The facts in this case are undisputed. On January 18, 1984, when Coleman returned home from school, he decided to kill his father. He therefore asked his sister to leave the house; she declined to do so and instead went to her bedroom to play with a stuffed animal. Coleman picked up a knife and followed his sister into her bedroom, telling her he was going to kill her. After backing her into a closet with the knife, Coleman strangled her with his hands for a few minutes. She started to breath again after he relaxed his grip, so he strangled her again until his hands grew tired. Then he knotted a belt around her neck. When he was finished, he wrapped her dead body in a blanket and placed it in the closet next to the teddy bear with which she had been playing. He then rode his bicycle to a store where he bought himself candy and a soft drink.

Upon his return, Coleman called a suicide counseling center and reported that he had killed his sister. He then went out again. A police officer found him in the neighborhood, arrested him, and read him the Miranda warnings, after which Coleman told the officer that he had strangled his sister. Coleman was taken to the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office, where he was questioned by Detective Paul Rigney and Detective-Sergeant Dario Valente. Rigney advised Coleman of his Miranda rights again; Coleman responded that he understood his rights and that he was willing to talk; he then confessed for the second time that he had killed his sister.

Rigney and Valente then turned on a tape recorder to record the interrogation. At the beginning of the recorded segment, they informed Coleman of his Miranda rights once more, which was the third time he had heard them that day. Coleman again expressed his willingness to talk, and for the third time confessed that he had strangled his sister. A few minutes later, the interrogation was interrupted when the detectives received a telephone call from Freda Pflaum, a public defender who was notified of Coleman’s arrest by the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. The detectives told Coleman that the public defender asked them to “cease any further interview at this time”; they then turned off the tape recorder.

The detectives put public defender Pflaum in contact with Assistant State Attorney Douglas Spangler. When Pflaum said that she intended to instruct Coleman not to answer any more questions, Spangler told her that she could not talk to Coleman on the telephone, but that she could sé'e him if she drove to the station. Pflaum declined to do so. Coleman was not informed that Pflaum had said she intended to instruct him not to answer any more questions.

Rigney and Valente then turned the tape recorder back on and resumed their interrogation. Shortly afterwards, the following exchange took place:

Valente: “And what you’re saying, or what you’re about to say you’re going to do of your own free will; is that correct?”

Coleman: “Yes. Unless, what about that one guy, though?”

Valente: “What guy?”

Coleman: “The guy — ”

Rigney: “Public defender.”

Coleman: