Confession in Slaying Challenged

Suspect, 19, Not Told Of Rights, Motion Says

By Bill Brubaker (Contact)

Sunday, June 15, 2008

First came the middle-of-the-night confession -- prompted, the Leesburg man said, by his fear that he could be electrocuted by a polygraph if he didn't tell Loudoun County detectives what they wanted to hear: that he was the killer.

Then came the pre-dawn ride in a Loudoun Sheriff's Office cruiser, arranged so the 19-year-old Mexican immigrant could show detectives where he bought the weapon and where he stashed it after a Jan. 16 shooting in Leesburg.

And show them he did, according to a recent court filing. Handcuffed in the back of a squad car, with an interpreter on board, Narciso Landero-Pons also guided a detective to the dumpster where he ditched the clothes he wore on the night of the slaying.

Nifty police work?

Not to a Loudoun public defender, who asserted in the filing that the confession and evidence gathered that evening should be thrown out because Landero-Pons was not told of his rights during more than five hours of questioning, even after he was arrested.

"Each individual in the United States is given rights, guaranteed by the Constitution," Assistant Public Defender Wayne L. Kim said in an interview last week. "We believe that a fundamental right of an individual in the United States was violated and therefore a motion to suppress [the evidence] is warranted."

Prosecutors have not filed a response to Kim's motion. Loudoun Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Plowman said in an interview last week that detectives did not deny Landero-Pons his constitutional rights.

"You know what our position is. It's not what theirs is," Plowman said, referring to the public defenders.

The lead prosecutor, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Sean P. Morgan, declined to discuss the specific allegations.

"Our position is that the statements are admissible and that the evidence is not subject to suppression," Morgan said. "We are drafting a response."

Under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as Miranda, suspects in custody must be advised before interrogation that they have the right to remain silent and that anything they say can be used against them in court. Suspects also must be told they have a right to have a lawyer with them when they are being questioned by authorities.

Plowman and Kim agree that the central question at a Circuit Court hearing July 28 will be whether Landero-Pons was in custody when he made the statement about the killing of Jose Eduardo Santos-Machado, 27.

Kim says he was, though the definition of custody can be murky. The shooting was prompted by a relationship both men had with a woman who lived in the same Leesburg apartment as Landero-Pons, according to authorities and court testimony. Landero-Pons came the United States illegally from Mexico three years ago, court records show.

Kim's legal filing asserts that Landero-Pons wasn't read his Miranda rights until about 40 hours after he made a statement about the killing and 36 hours after he was booked into the Loudoun Adult Detention Center.

After being advised of his right to remain silent in the jail, Landero-Pons was again interviewed by sheriff's detectives, and he again said he killed Santos-Machado, according to court papers. Kim says the statements Landero-Pons made that evening should be thrown out as well, partly because detectives used his earlier statement to elicit the one at the jailhouse. Authorities also failed to inform Landero-Pons of his right under international law to contact the Mexican Embassy or consulate, Kim wrote.

The details in the 28-page memorandum appear to have been gleaned from Kim's interviews with Landero-Pons, reports by law enforcement officers and auto and video recordings of interviews detectives conducted with the defendant.

Plowman suggested that the document be read with caution.

"I can't tell you how many times I have seen facts asserted in a defense motion that just aren't fact," he said. "You know, they are assertions that they usually get from their client, which a lot of times are either, A, untrue, or, B, self-serving."

Sheriff's Office spokesman Kraig Troxell declined to comment about the allegations. "As the status of this case is currently in the hands of the court, we are going to refrain from commenting on this matter," he wrote in an e-mail.

According to the memorandum, Landero-Pons was first questioned by Leesburg Police detectives at 3 a.m. Jan. 17, about six hours after the slaying.

Police officers returned with sheriff's detectives around 9 that night, stopping Landero-Pons as he left his apartment and ordering him to raise his hands so he could be patted down, the court filing said.

Landero-Pons was driven to the police office, where during 2 1/2 hours of questioning he repeatedly denied that he killed Santos-Machado, an immigrant from El Salvador who worked at Wal-Mart and IHOP in Leesburg.

Although Landero-Pons was not under arrest, "at no time was Narciso left alone," the memorandum said. "At no point in this interrogation was Narciso told he was free to leave and at no point was he advised of his Miranda rights."

Later, Landero-Pons was driven in a police cruiser to the Sheriff's Office, where he was again questioned and where he again denied involvement in any crime.

But when he was advised that he would be hooked up to a polygraph, Landero-Pons said he shot Santos-Machado.

"Without a proper understanding of how the polygraph worked, Narciso did not know what would happen to him when connected to the machine by the wires," the memorandum said. "Narciso believed that if he did not give an answer that the police believed was true that he would be shocked or electrocuted."

Landero-Pons was not given a Miranda warning during the interview that followed the statement, the memorandum said. At the end of the interview, he was arrested, put in the back of a sheriff's cruiser and instructed to show a detective where the evidence was. Then he was taken to jail, booked on first-degree murder and felony gun charges.

The trial begins Aug. 18.

Tagged: crime

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