California Court of Appeal

In this case, the juvenile court sustained one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder against defendant-juvenile, found the firearm and gang allegations to be true, and sentenced defendant to 25 years. The juvenile court further denied defendant's motion to suppress statements he made to the officers while in custody as violating his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded, where: 1) defendant's statement, "Could I have an attorney? Because that's not me," made during the course of a custodial interrogation after watching a video of the shooting-at-issue was an unequivocal and unambiguous invocation of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona; 2) a reasonable officer would have understood defendant's statement to be a request for an attorney; and 3) the Miranda error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt under Chapman v. California.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/11/2015
• Published 02/11/2015

Judges

• Feuer

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel