People v. Winters

1

2024 IL App (4th) 230565-U

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ZACHARY T. WINTERS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 4-23-0565

Court of Appeals of Illinois, Fourth District

August 28, 2024

This Order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Rock Island County No. 21DT366 Honorable Clayton R. Lee, Judge Presiding.

JUSTICE DeARMOND delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Harris and Doherty concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

DEARMOND JUSTICE

¶ 1 Held: The circuit court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress the statements he gave to police because defendant was not in custody and was not entitled to preinterview admonishments pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).

¶ 2 The State charged defendant, Zachary T. Winters, with two Class A misdemeanors: (1) driving while under the influence (DUI) of alcohol (625 ILCS 5/11-501(a)(1) (West 2020)) and (2) aggravating fleeing or attempting to elude an officer (625 ILCS 5/11-204.1(a) (West 2020)). Defendant filed a motion to suppress statements he gave to police, which the circuit court denied following a contested hearing. The matter then proceeded to a stipulated bench trial, where the court found defendant guilty of the DUI charge, dismissed the other charge, and sentenced defendant to 12 months of court supervision. Defendant appeals. We affirm.

¶ 3 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 4 A. The Crime and Investigation

¶ 5 The crux of this case is what transpired during the interaction between the police and defendant at the outset of their encounter. Because the circuit court reviewed the entire video recorded incident, we will recite our observations in detail. On October 6, 2021, around midnight, Sergeant Derrick Cullison, of the Moline Police Department, attempted to initiate a traffic stop on a gray 2010 Ford Econoline van in Moline, Illinois. The van did not stop and sped away. Cullison issued a dispatch describing the fleeing vehicle. At approximately 12:51 a.m., Officer Ian Newell located a van matching Cullison's description in the parking lot of the QC Stay Inn in Moline, a few miles from where Cullison attempted the traffic stop. Newell's bodycam captured his investigation of the van.

¶ 6 Newell approached the parked van and verified the license plate matched the plate of the vehicle that fled from Cullison, radioing that he found the van. As he looked around the van, Newell noticed someone looking out at him from a second-floor window in the motel, room No. 239. Within a few seconds, at approximately 12:53 a.m., defendant exited room No. 239, quickly followed by another man. Newell recognized defendant, and when the two men exchanged a "What's up?" Newell asked, "Whose van is this?" The other man answered it was his "mom's van." Newell said to the men, "Why don't you stay right there?" and radioed to dispatch, saying he encountered defendant, identifying him by name as Zach Winters, and another man. Newell asked the other man his name, and he answered, "Dylan Rath." Nearly simultaneously, defendant interjected, "We're both drunk, dude." To which Newell responded, "Alright, stay right there," as he went upstairs to talk with the men on the motel balcony where they stood. Telling them he needed to pat them down for weapons, Newell patted down defendant and Rath. He asked the men if they had weapons, and both answered no. Having determined defendant and Rath were not armed, Newell asked, "Who was driving this van?" Rath quickly answered, pointing to defendant, "He was, I was in here the whole time." Defendant said, "I was driving, he was in the van, too." Rath denied being in the van and implored defendant, "[Y]ou gotta be honest, dude." As defendant and Rath spoke over each other, defendant asked Newell, "Why?"

¶ 7 Newell told the men, "So let's just talk about this, I just want to know what happened." Defendant said, "what happened," and Newell responded, "You tell me." As defendant sighed and turned to the left, Newell said, "Zach, tell me what happened." After a few seconds of silence defendant mumbled, "Can I go in my room real quick?" After clarifying what defendant asked, Newell answered, "Not right this second." Defendant said, "I'm going to jail, I know I am, dude." Newell said, "We haven't even talked about that man. I just want to talk to you about what happened, that's it, okay?" Newell reiterated he had not said anyone was going to jail. When Rath asked if he was free to go, Newell responded, "Not right now."

¶ 8 Defendant, with interjections from Rath, told Newell he drove the van from the QC Stay Inn to Rath's house to get a cigarette machine. Defendant asked several times some iteration of, "Can we not do this tonight?" He also said several times, "I don't want to go to jail" or "I'm going to jail." Newell again told defendant he had not yet said defendant was going to jail. More than six minutes into his encounter with defendant and Rath, Newell was still talking to both men, getting information from both about what they had done that night, where they lived, where they worked, and their phone numbers.

¶ 9 Newell asked defendant if he drank any alcohol since returning to the motel and defendant answered, "No." Newell then asked defendant what happened after the officer tried to pull the van over when he was driving to the motel, and defendant answered, "I got scared, like I know I'm not supposed to be driving." At this point, almost seven minutes into the encounter, a second officer arrived on the motel balcony and began talking with Rath. When Rath began speaking to the officer, defendant turned, looked, and began to engage the second officer, but Newell redirected him by saying, "Zach, they tried to pull you over, you got scared, and then what happened?" Defendant recounted he got scared, called Rath, and tried to get the van to a safe location, which he did. After initially denying it, defendant admitted he fled from police.

¶ 10 Newell next asked defendant again if he drank anything when he returned to the QC Stay Inn. Defendant again said, "No." Newell then asked how much defendant had drunk that night and defendant responded, "Not a whole lot, dude." When Newell said he could smell alcohol on defendant, he said, "I know, but not a whole lot. You know, you know, the thing is, the thing is, dude, I don't eat a lot, and I don't drink enough water." When Newell asked defendant if he felt like he was drunk now, defendant answered, "No." Newell asked defendant if he could do some tests to check if defendant was drunk, and defendant agreed. Newell asked defendant if he would do the tests down in the parking lot, and defendant said, "You're going to take me to jail." Newell again said he had not talked about jail, and he wanted defendant to do the test in an open parking lot rather than a narrow balcony. As the men walked downstairs to the parking lot with the two officers, defendant told Rath, "Take care of my dog, man. *** They're taking me to jail man." Defendant asked if he could remove the New England Patriots sweatshirt he was wearing and give it to Rath because it belonged to him, which Newell allowed. The men then started talking about football with the other officer.

¶ 11 Newell allowed defendant to choose where in the parking lot he would do the field sobriety tests. The testing began at 1:02 a.m., approximately 10 minutes after Newell first saw defendant looking at him from room No. 239. For the next several minutes, defendant tried to complete the field sobriety tests under Newell's supervision, while Rath and other officers stood nearby talking. Newell tried administering four different tests. Defendant attempted the tests, but he could not do them because, he said, his legs were shaking, and he was too nervous. During the testing he said multiple times he was going to jail. After approximately 13 minutes of testing, defendant gave up, turned around, put his arms behind his back, and said, "Come on dude, are you going to take me to jail, let's go to jail, man. Now, I don't want to." Newell handcuffed defendant as Cullison, who had since arrived on the scene, talked with defendant about his attempt to stop the van. Newell transported defendant to the police station. He eventually read defendant his Miranda rights (seeMiranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966)) at 2:23 a.m.

¶ 12 Later in October 2021, the State charged defendant with multiple counts in two cases, Rock Island County case Nos. 21-DT-366 and 21-TR-10559, including DUI (625 ILCS 5/11-501(a)(1) (West 2020) (case No. 21-DT-366) and aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a peace officer (625 ILCS 5/11-204(a) (West 2020) (case No. 21-TR-10559). Based on these charges, the State eventually filed a petition to revoke probation in Rock Island County case No. 20-CM-754.

¶ 13 B. The Motion to Suppress

¶ 14 On January 26, 2023, defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence. Defendant sought to exclude from evidence "the direct and indirect products of his arrest." The motion outlined defendant's encounter with Newell and noted, "Newell did not read Miranda warnings to either [Rath] or [defendant]" before he spoke with them at the QC Stay Inn. Defendant argued Newell subjected him to custodial interrogation without Mirandizing him, so his statements must be suppressed.

¶ 15 The circuit court held a hearing on defendant's motion on April 18, 2023. Defense counsel clarified the motion sought to suppress defendant's confession pursuant to section 114-11 of the Criminal Code of 1963 (725 ILCS 5/114-11 (West 2022)), so the State bore the burden of showing the confession was voluntary. The State called as its lone witness Newell, who...