Defense Grills Detective About Teen’s Confession Judge Must Decide Confession Can Be Used Against Cousin In Murder Trial
A judge must decide whether conflicting stories and questionable interrogation techniques are enough to prohibit one cousin’s confession as evidence against the other.
Daniel Eby, 18, and his 14-year-old cousin Jeremy Schmitz, are charged with first degree murder in the death of Melvin Evenson of Post Falls.
Schmitz’s stepfather, 44-year-old Clifford A. Hicks of Wallace, is charged with accessory to murder.
Evenson’s naked body was found bound with duct tape and hidden under piles of moving boxes in the back of a Mazda pickup parked off Chilco Road in April.
At Eby’s preliminary hearing Wednesday, public defenders argued Schmitz’s confession is hearsay and shouldn’t be used against his cousin.
On the witness stand, Kootenai County sheriff’s detective Paul Middlemore said Schmitz eventually admitted he and Eby planned to rob Evenson of money and drugs by knocking him in the head at a repair shop near Rathdrum. Schmitz said he hit Evenson with a baseball bat and then Eby hit him in the head with a sledgehammer a couple of times, Middlemore said.
Public defender Brad Chapman grilled Middlemore about details of the May 16 interview he conducted with Schmitz.
Middlemore said he drove Schmitz from Kootenai Medical Center to the sheriff’s department where he began interviewing Schmitz, still in a hospital gown and without a parent or attorney present. Schmitz had been taking medication and was being treated for broken ribs, Chapman said.
Under questioning on the witness stand, Middlemore admitted lying to Schmitz several times during the interview, telling him his fingerprints were found on the truck and that others were pinning the murder on him.
Middlemore also admitted hearing another officer describe the lethal injection process of injecting a needle into a vein and dying, asking Schmitz if he planned to take the lethal injection for Eby.
At one point Middlemore said he asked Schmitz to draw a picture of the hammer he allegedly used in the crime. Schmitz attempted to do so, but Middlemore later destroyed the drawing “along with the rest of my notes.”
When asked by prosecution about lying as an interrogation technique, Middlemore said it isn’t uncommon.
“It is something that I’ve learned, I’ve watched, I’ve seen it being done, people have talked about it, it is a technique.”
Schmitz’s hearing was delayed because of on-going negotiations with the prosecution. Eby’s hearing will continue Friday.
, DataTimes