People v. Gamache

In People v. Gamache (2010) 48 Cal.4th 347, the Supreme Court concluded no Miranda violation occurred when, during booking, a police officer made an innocuous inquiry about a subject unrelated to the crime: "While fingerprinting Gamache, Ells asked whether he had been in the military and, finding he had, whether he had liked it. Gamache replied that he had enjoyed it and then said, 'The only thing I love is guns and pussy and I have the best of both.' He added: 'I fucked up. I knew better. I should have used a .45.' Ells asked what had happened; Gamache continued: 'I shot her once. I saw her eyes flutter. I shot her again in the back of the head. I know the skull is thicker back there.' Asked how he felt, Gamache said, 'I almost got an erection.' Ells asked about Lee Williams; Gamache replied: 'I knew he was dead. I shot him and the blood came out of his head like you turned on a faucet.'" (Gamache, supra, 48 Cal.4th at p. 384.) The court concluded, "Deputy Ells's subsequent '"neutral inquiries"' did not convert Gamache's volunteered admissions into the product of an interrogation." (Id. at p. 388.)