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BRITTANY PILKINGTON |
Ruling: Police questioning was coercive, but did not cross the line
Bellefontaine Police officers toed the line in their questioning of a 23-year-old capital murder suspect but did not cross it, Logan County Common Pleas Judge Mark S. O’Connor wrote in a ruling released Friday.
Therefore, Brittany Pilkington’s confession to smothering her three sons can be used against her at trial, the judge wrote.
The now 24-year-old defendant has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder with each carrying the possibility of a death sentence and the case relies solely on her recorded confession.
She is accused of smothering her sons, starting with Niall, three months old, on July 22, 2014, continuing with Gavin, 4, on April 6, 2015, and ending with Noah, three months old, on Aug. 18, 2015.
She was taken on the early morning of Noah’s death by Detective Dwight Salyer to the Bellefontaine Police Department for questioning. She rode in the front seat of the unmarked sedan without handcuffs.
She was read her Miranda rights twice and both times said she would continue without a lawyer present. Judge O’Connor ruled that these signed waivers were valid and although Ms. Pilkington may be of slightly lower than average intelligence she understood the forms she was signing.
The judge then discussed the nature of the interviews and said that the first interview conducted by Det. Salyer was fair as was a polygraph examination given by Rob Beightler.
He then said the length of the questioning, the fact that food and water were not provided and a final interview conducted by the Police Chief Brandon Standley and Detective Scott Sebring were coercive tactics but did not rise to the level to grant the motion to suppress.
“In this instance, the court finds that the interrogations were objectively coercive police activity,” the judge wrote. “This is due to their length, the fact that five officers over the course of time participated in the interrogation or the polygraph examination, that the interrogation and most damning admissions were made at the end of this lengthy interrogation and after the defendant was yelled at by one officer with the chief of police conducting the confrontational examination …
“Regarding whether there were any deprivations and mistreatment, the court finds that by omission there were …”
But despite the mistreatment, Judge O’Connor said the defendant remained composed throughout and stopped short of suppressing the confession.
“Finally,” he wrote, “there were no overt threats or inducements. A significant factor based on the audio and video evidence adduced at the hearing was the defendant’s relatively composed demeanor. The court concludes and finds, based on the preponderance of the evidence, Brittany Pilkington’s will was not overborn nor was her capacity for self-discrimination critically impaired during the conduct of these interviews.”
Her trial is currently scheduled for Feb. 27 through March 24.