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K.J.M. v. State4/30/1991
The opinion of the court was delivered by: LANE, Presiding Judge.
On November 22, 1990, K.J.M. was certified to stand trial as an adult for the offenses of Concealing Stolen Property (JF-89-2011), Attempted Robbery with Fire-arms (JF-89-2074), Assault with a Deadly Weapon (JF-89-2076) and Shooting with Intent to Kill (JF-89-2077) in the District Court of Oklahoma County. The proceedings below were stayed pending this Court's review of the following allegations of error: that the trial court erred when it refused to suppress the statements made by K.J.M. to police, that the evidence was insufficient to support three of the charges and that the trial court erred when it determined that K.J.M. was not amenable to rehabilitation under the supervision of the Department of Human Services. We disagree and affirm the decisions of the trial court.
In his first assignment of error, Appellant challenges the finding of prosecutive merit as to the charges brought in JF-89-2074 and JF-89-2077. The evidence offered at the hearing established that K.J.M. and three other boys pulled up in front of a Del City home, ostensibly to ask directions to a convenience store from a man working in his yard. After asking for the directions, one of the boys demanded money, then shot the man in the stomach.
The boys were apprehended near the scene a short time later. They were taken to the Oklahoma County police department. K.J.M. was detained for several hours before being taken to the juvenile detention center. He claims that this delay and several occurrences during the delay should mandate that his statements to the police concerning the shooting must be suppressed.
Appellant directs our attention to the portion of 10 O.S.Supp. 1989 § 1107 [10-1107] wherein the legislature provided that immediately upon his arrest, a child must be taken before a judge or to a detention facility. He fails to cite 10 O.S.Supp. 1989 § 1107.1 [10-1107.1](C)(2) which provides that police officers may detain a child at the police station for up to six (6) hours "for purposes of identification, processing or arranging transfer to detention." The subsection also provides that if the time limitation is exceeded, that alone will not constitute a defense in any subsequent criminal proceeding. Insofar as Appellant fails to allege that any prejudice occurred as a result of his detention, we will not suppress the evidence against him on this ground alone.
Appellant's next allegation in conjunction with his interrogation concerns the fact that he was not able to meet privately with his mother at anytime prior to making his statement to the investigating officer. Appellant offered the testimony of his mother who stated that she requested to speak to her son on two different occasions prior to the start of the interrogation but was refused. He cites Layton v. State, 551 P.2d 270 (Okl.Cr. 1976), a case which does not involve a juvenile proceeding, in support of his proposition that his mother's inability to speak to him prior to the actual interrogation requires suppression of the subsequent statement. We disagree.
The dispositive question when considering the admissibility of a statement is whether or not it was voluntary under the circumstances existing at the time the statement was made. T.C. v. State, 740 P.2d 739 (Okl.Cr. 1987). The Layton case was reversed not because the defendant's mother did not speak to her before questioning, but because the jury at her trial was not properly instructed as to the required finding that the defendant's confession was voluntary. We do not have that situation here.
The record befor
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