The Fourth Department, over a two-justice dissent, determined defendant’s statement should have been suppressed because he was in custody, not warned of his Miranda rights, and was asked questions designed to elicit an incriminating response. However, although the statement he had a firearm should have been suppressed, the firearm would have been discovered even if the statement had not been made (inevitable discovery doctrine). Therefore the firearm need not be suppressed. Even though the conviction was by guilty plea, the court determined the suppression error could not have affected the defendant’s decision to plead guilty and the conviction was affirmed:
Here, defendant’s statement admitting his possession of the handgun was the tainted primary evidence arising from the unlawful pre-Miranda custodial interrogation and must be suppressed … ; however, the inevitable discovery doctrine applies to the handgun as secondary evidence arising therefrom … . We conclude that there was a ” very high degree of probability’ ” that the officers would have discovered the firearm, which was found inside the right leg of defendant’s pants during a lawful and routine search of defendant’s person prior to his attempted flight … .
Although defendant’s statement admitting to the possession of the firearm should have been suppressed, we conclude that the particular circumstances of this case permit the rare application of the harmless error rule to defendant’s guilty plea … . “[W]hen a conviction is based on a plea of guilty an appellate court will rarely, if ever, be able to determine whether an erroneous denial of a motion to suppress contributed to the defendant’s decision, unless at the time of the plea he states or reveals his reason for pleading guilty” … . “The … doctrine is not absolute, however, and [the Court of Appeals has] recognized that a guilty plea entered after an improper court ruling may be upheld if there is no reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the plea’ ” … . In our view, because the firearm was not suppressed and would have been admissible at trial, there is no reasonable possibility that the court’s error in failing to suppress defendant’s statement admitting possession of the firearm contributed to his decision to plead guilty … . People v Clanton, 2017 NY Slip Op 04579, 4th Dept 6-9-17
CRIMINAL LAW (DEFENDANT’S STATEMENT THAT HE HAD A HANDGUN SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED, HOWEVER THE HANDGUN WOULD HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED ABSENT THE STATEMENT AND WAS ADMISSIBLE, THE SUPPRESSION ERROR THEREFORE COULD NOT HAVE AFFECTED DEFENDANT’S DECISION TO PLEAD GUILTY)/EVIDENCE (SUPPRESSION, INEVITABLE DISCOVERY, (DEFENDANT’S STATEMENT THAT HE HAD A HANDGUN SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED, HOWEVER THE HANDGUN WOULD HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED ABSENT THE STATEMENT AND WAS ADMISSIBLE, THE SUPPRESSION ERROR THEREFORE COULD NOT HAVE AFFECTED DEFENDANT’S DECISION TO PLEAD GUILTY)/SUPPRESS, MOTION TO (DEFENDANT’S STATEMENT THAT HE HAD A HANDGUN SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED, HOWEVER THE HANDGUN WOULD HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED ABSENT THE STATEMENT AND WAS ADMISSIBLE, THE SUPPRESSION ERROR THEREFORE COULD NOT HAVE AFFECTED DEFENDANT’S DECISION TO PLEAD GUILTY)/SEARCH AND SEIZURE (INEVITABLE DISCOVERY, DEFENDANT’S STATEMENT THAT HE HAD A HANDGUN SHOULD HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED, HOWEVER THE HANDGUN WOULD HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED ABSENT THE STATEMENT AND WAS ADMISSIBLE, THE SUPPRESSION ERROR THEREFORE COULD NOT HAVE AFFECTED DEFENDANT’S DECISION TO PLEAD GUILTY)/GUILTY PLEA (SUPPRESSION ERROR COULD NOT HAVE AFFECTED DECISION TO PLEAD GUILTY, CONVICTION AFFIRMED)/HARMLESS ERROR (GUILTY PLEA, SUPPRESSION ERROR COULD NOT HAVE AFFECTED DECISION TO PLEAD GUILTY, CONVICTION AFFIRMED)