State v. Tony M.

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crimes of murder and risk of injury to a child in connection with the death of his seven month old baby, the defendant appealed, claiming that the trial court improperly denied his motion to suppress certain evidence arising from statements that he had made to the police and improperly excluded a letter to the state in which he offered to plead guilty to the charge of manslaughter. The defendant's conviction stemmed from an incident in which he threw the baby off a bridge and into a river. On his way to the bridge, the defendant had a text message exchange with the baby's mother, with whom he had a troubled relationship and shared custody of the baby, stating, inter alia, ''[y]ou won't talk to me tomorrow or any other day,'' ''[t]here [are] no more days,'' ''[e]njoy your new life without us,'' and that he would not be delivering the baby to her on her next scheduled day of custody. After the defendant arrived at the bridge, he called his own mother and told her to ''tell everyone I'm sorry.'' A few minutes later, the defendant wrote and deleted a message on his phone stating ''[t]o everyone, I'm sorry.'' The defendant then sent additional text mes- sages to the baby's mother stating, inter alia, ''[e]njoy your life without us now,'' ''[you're] not a parent anymore,'' and ''[the baby is] dead . . . .'' The police arrived at the bridge and discovered the defendant there alone. When the police approached the defendant, he jumped from the bridge into the river. After the defendant was rescued, he was trans- ported to a hospital, where the police subsequently interviewed him for approximately thirty-five minutes. Seven minutes of that interview were video recorded, and, during that time, the defendant responded to ques- tions with only silence, brief verbal answers, shrugs, nods, or shakes of his head. A police officer, using a basketball analogy, asked the defendant whether the baby's trajectory off the bridge was more like a half-c