Cartnail v. State

1

RICHARD EUGENE CARTNAIL, JR., v. STATE OF MARYLAND

No. 0003-2022

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland^[**]

April 24, 2023

Circuit Court for Frederick County Case No. C-10-CR-20-000355

Berger, Beachley, Ripken, JJ.

OPINION ^[*]

RIPKEN, J.

In July of 2020, Appellant, Richard Eugene Cartnail, Jr. ("Cartnail"), was interviewed at the Frederick County Sheriff's Office regarding the death of Ty'Kerria Dawson ("Dawson"), who had been found shot three times in the head. Dawson was found deceased the day before her 18th birthday in a wooded area near Cartnail's home. During the interview, Cartnail made incriminating statements and confessed to shooting Dawson. Cartnail was charged in the Circuit Court for Frederick County with first degree murder, conspiracy to commit first degree murder, possession of a firearm by a minor, and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. Cartnail, who was 16-years-old when charged, petitioned to transfer jurisdiction of his case to juvenile court, and that petition was denied. Subsequently, Cartnail filed a motion to suppress his statements to the interviewing officers as involuntarily made. Following a hearing, the circuit court denied the motion.

In December of 2021, a jury found Cartnail guilty of all charges. The circuit court imposed a life sentence for first degree murder, a concurrent life sentence for conspiracy to commit first degree murder, a concurrent five years for possession of a firearm, and a consecutive twenty years for use of a firearm in a crime of violence. Cartnail now appeals to this Court.

For the following reasons, we shall affirm the judgments of the circuit court.

ISSUES PRESENTED FOR REVIEW

Cartnail presents two issues for our review:^[1] I. Whether the circuit court erred in denying Cartnail's motion to suppress his statements to police officers.

II. Whether the circuit court erred in denying Cartnail's petition to transfer his case to juvenile court.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND ^[2]

On June 27, 2020, Dawson's body was found in a wooded area in Frederick, Maryland. Dawson lived in Hagerstown and had been in Frederick the previous evening to visit Cartnail, who was her boyfriend at the time. On June 28, Sergeant Joseph McCallion, Detective Jennifer Skelley, and a third officer went to Cartnail's home to gather "general information" because Dawson's family indicated they believed Cartnail was the last person who had been with Dawson. Cartnail was "calm" when answering the officers' questions.

However his mother was "very upset" and frequently interrupted the officers' conversation with Cartnail by interjecting information about Dawson's mental health that she contended she had learned from Dawson's father. Cartnail provided the officers with a one-page written statement outlining his version of what had happened while he was with Dawson on June 26 and 27.

On July 1, 2020, police returned to Cartnail's home to request that he go to the sheriff's office for an interview. Sergeant Kevin Britt, the first officer to arrive at Cartnail's residence, testified that Cartnail "appeared to be around 18"-years-old, although he was 16-years-old at the time. Cartnail agreed to speak further with the officers and, upon arrival at the sheriff's office, the officers placed Cartnail in an interview room and his mother in a conference room down the hall. Sergeant McCallion spoke with Cartnail's mother for about an hour while Cartnail waited alone in the interview room.

A. Interview

At approximately 6:10 pm, Sergeant McCallion and Detective Skelley began interviewing Cartnail. Prior to reading Cartnail his Miranda rights,^[3] the officers told Cartnail that he was "not free to leave." The officers asked Cartnail whether he understood his Miranda rights, and Cartnail responded "Mm-hmm" to each, in turn.^[4] Cartnail then signed his initials next to each right on the waiver form provided to him. Cartnail conveyed that he had completed tenth grade and could read and write "pretty well" before choosing to read aloud the "Waiver of Rights" portion of the waiver form. While reading out loud, he did stumble over the word "coercion"; however, he stated that he understood the waiver and that he was "cool" with talking to the officers. Having read, indicated he understood, and agreed to speak with the officers, Cartnail then signed the waiver form.

Throughout the interview, the officers repeatedly indicated that they had "done [their] homework" and "already [knew] the answers" to their questions. They urged Cartnail to be truthful and assured him that they were just searching for "the truth" of "why [Dawson] was killed" because the "[f]amily need[ed] answers." Sergeant McCallion told Cartnail that the evidence was "overwhelming" against him but conveyed that he "did not want to paint the picture that [Cartnail] was a monster," as opposed to someone who had made a "stupid . . . mistake." Sergeant McCallion indicated that if Cartnail told the officers "the why" of what happened, they "could put in [their] report" that "[Cartnail] [was] not a monster." Cartnail ultimately confessed to shooting and killing Dawson, and the interview concluded approximately 15 minutes later. Cartnail declined to provide a written statement at that time. The interview lasted two hours and 17 minutes in total.

B. Petition to Transfer Jurisdiction

Prior to trial, Cartnail petitioned to transfer his case to juvenile court, arguing that the prohibition of transfer outlined in section 4-202 of the Criminal Procedure Article ("CP") of the Maryland Code denied him his due process and equal protection guarantees under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 24 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights. The statute precludes the court from transferring jurisdiction to the juvenile court if "the alleged crime is murder in the first degree and the accused child was 16 or 17 years of age when the alleged crime was committed." Md. Code Ann., CP § 4-202(c)(2). The circuit court denied Cartnail's motion.

C. Suppression Hearing

1. Testimony

Cartnail moved to suppress the inculpatory statements he made during the interview on the basis that they were involuntary under Maryland common law.^[5] Both Sergeant McCallion and Detective Skelley testified at the suppression hearing and described Cartnail as "calm" during the interrogation. Detective Skelley testified that she told Cartnail his mother was "right down the hall" and that, in the interview room, Cartnail could "say what [he] need[ed] to say without some interruptions from mom."

Detective Skelley and Sergeant McCallion both testified they had not offered Cartnail any benefit for speaking with them. When asked on direct examination whether, during training, Detective Skelley was, "taught to talk to juveniles any differently than [she] would talk to adults," Detective Skelley responded, "Yes. We take into . . . consideration their age, their intelligence, things like that, but I wouldn't use words that maybe a juvenile wouldn't understand." Sergeant McCallion confirmed that, although officers are not given "special training as far as interrogating juveniles," they consider such factors as "[a]ge, mental competency, communication skills, [and] education level" when conducting all interviews.

Cartnail testified that the interview room was "very cold" and that he was "very shaky" and "very nervous." Cartnail initially testified that he wanted his mother in the interview room with him "[s]o she [could] hear everything," but he thought he was not allowed to have her present. Shortly thereafter, however, Cartnail testified that he did not ask for his mother because he was "in the moment" and "nervous," even though he wanted to ask for her "later on." When asked why he did not exercise his Miranda rights, Cartnail responded, "Because I felt like I needed to talk to them.... There [were] questions that needed to be answered[.]" Cartnail testified that he repeatedly told the officers that he was not the shooter. Per Cartnail, there came a point where he no longer wanted to speak to the officers, but he did not ask the officers to stop the interview because he "felt [he] couldn't leave."

Defense counsel questioned Cartnail about the conversation he had with Sergeant McCallion in the minutes leading up to his confession, during which Sergeant McCallion indicated that the evidence against Cartnail was "overwhelming" and that, if Cartnail told them "the why" of what happened, the officers could "put in [their] report" that Cartnail was "not a monster." When asked what effect the officer's statements had on him, Cartnail answered, "I didn't know what evidence they had on me, but I was overwhelmed." Cartnail added various explanations regarding his reasoning, from "whatever I said[,] they were going to say something else" to "I kind of gave up" and "didn't care anymore" because "they [were] basically telling me I killed somebody, committed a murder."

Ultimately, Cartnail testified that he told the officers that he was the shooter because his "mind[] [was] a little messed up at the time" and he "wanted full responsibility of it, because [Dawson] was last with [him]." Cartnail described his feeling that he "wouldn't be allowed to leave the room until they heard what they wanted to hear" as a factor in his decision to confess: "I basically told them . . . what they wanted to hear, so I could leave, because at the time, I was like it's whatever now."^[6]

2. Ruling

The circuit court indicated that the standard for juvenile confessions and inculpatory statements is different than that for adults. Accordingly, the court applied a totality of the circumstances analysis "from the juvenile suspect's point of view." In doing...