Print
Email Story
KENNEWICK -- A Benton County judge said Friday that he needs time to decide if jurors at an upcoming aggravated murder trial will be able to hear statements the suspect made to officers at the hospital and the police station.
"I'm not prepared to rule from the bench," announced Superior Court Judge Robert Swisher after listening to arguments from both sides in the case of Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong.
He plans to announce his decision at a court hearing next Friday, after reviewing case law on the issue and his notes from a full day of testimony Thursday.
Benton County Prosecutor Andy Miller said everything Sisouvanh Synhavong said is admissible -- from the moment officers found her in a Kennewick parking lot with a near-dead newborn to the emergency room discovery that she wasn't the mother to her 5 1/2-hour interview with detectives after reportedly saying the real mother was in Columbia Park and likely wasn't OK.
However, defense attorney Dan Arnold thinks a majority of her statements should be withheld, saying in two separate conversations officers talked to her before reading her Miranda rights and at the police station she asked for an attorney, which should have immediately ended the interview.
"There is almost never a reason to not give Miranda rights," Arnold said.
Miller responded to that statement, saying the detectives either didn't initiate the conversation with Sisouvanh Synhavong or spoke to her with the intent to get more information, not yet realizing she allegedly committed a crime.
"There certainly is no rule that a police officer has to Mirandize everybody if he wants to have a conversation," Miller said.
Sisouvanh Synhavong, 25, is charged in Benton County Superior Court with aggravated first-degree murder for the June 2008 death of Araceli Camacho Gomez.
Her trial is set to start Sept. 27. Since Miller chose not to seek the death penalty, Sisouvanh Synhavong faces life in prison if convicted.
Camacho Gomez's body was discovered early June 28, 2008, in Columbia Park in Kennewick with multiple stab wounds to her chest. The 27-year-old woman already was the mother of two children.
Just a couple of hours earlier, Sisouvanh Synhavong had called 911 to say she had given birth in the WorkSource parking lot and her baby was having difficulty breathing. At the scene, Kennewick officers heard Sisouvanh Synhavong repeatedly ask if her baby was alive.
But while several doctors and nurses worked to save the baby boy at Kennewick General Hospital, Dr. Victor Brooks examined Sisouvanh Synhavong and ran a series of tests to determine she was not pregnant and had not just given birth.
The boy, Salvador Gomez, had been cut from his mother's womb.
On Thursday, Miller called nine witnesses including police officers and detectives who worked on the case that night, Brooks and registered nurse Debra Logan.
The defense waited until Friday to announce if it would be calling any witnesses.
Sisouvanh Synhavong opted not to testify about the statements she made to police, including whether she believed she was tricked into confessing, as she reportedly told Detective Rick Runge after her 51/2-hour interview at the police station.
"She's agreed with my decision not to call her at this hearing," Arnold told the court.
Swisher had advised Sisouvanh Synhavong that she could testify if she wished but wasn't required to do so.
After Swisher read the defendant her rights pursuant to this specific hearing, Arnold said his client couldn't answer because she either didn't understand or had not been listening.
Arnold and Sisouvanh Synhavong then went back to a holding cell in private for about five minutes so he could summarize what the judge had said, then returned to court and asked Swisher to again read the rights.
That time, Swisher focused on the defendant and said, "Ms. Sisouvanh seemed to be tracking right along." Sisouvanh Synhavong then nodded her head and answered "yes" that she agreed.
Arnold's co-counsel, Michael Iaria, told the court Friday, "We are using an insanity defense."
Upon hearing that, Swisher asked Miller if he anticipates requesting a second state evaluation of Sisouvanh Synhavong. Miller said "certainly not if I want to keep that Sept. 27 trial date," but added that he won't know for sure until he reads the synopsis from the defense psychologist who is planning to address the insanity issue.
Also Friday, the court discussed two proposed questionnaires for jurors to determine if they have any scheduling conflicts or physical or mental conditions that could prevent them from sitting on the two- to three-week trial, along with their knowledge of the case.
-- Kristin M. Kraemer: 509-582-1531; kkraemer@tricityherald.com
