Criminal Procedure – Miranda warnings – custody

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Criminal Procedure – Miranda warnings – custody

Where a suspect was placed in a locked interview room while handcuffed, he was in custody.

“We think no reasonable person in these circumstances—taken from home to the police department in handcuffs in a squad car, escorted into the booking area in handcuffs, placed in a locked interview room with little information about the reasons for the interview or when it might start, having a police escort in and out of the locked room to get water or use the toilet—would have felt free to end the questioning and leave the interview. See Martin, 343 Wis. 2d 278, ¶¶33, 35; compare Mosher, 221 Wis. 2d at 206-07, 211-12, 219 (holding that a suspect was not in ‘custody’ when he rode to the police station with an officer voluntarily, sat in the front seat of the squad car, exited the squad car on his own, walked into the station voluntarily, and was interviewed in an unlocked room). So, Uhlenberg was in ‘custody’ during the interrogation. And when he said, ‘I am not going to say another word, and I want an attorney,’ the detective had to stop the questioning.”

Reversed and Remanded.

Recommended for publication in the official reports.

2012AP827-CR State v. Uhlenberg

Dist. II, Washington County, Martens, J., Brown, J.

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