:quality(70):focal(1023x701:1033x711)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/DMW4WJ2TXJGL3LI4QUNFZV63HM.jpg)
A Greenfield man accused of murder is asking that the court suppress all evidence obtained in a police interrogation.
Attorney’s representing Yudiel Vega Blanco, 39, of Greenfield, filed a motion Sept. 23 to suppress all evidence gained in a April 19 interrogation due to allegations of police misconduct.
Vega Blanco is charged with first-degree murder and wilfull injury causing bodily injury. According to Greenfield police reports, Vega Blanco stabbed Carlos Garcia Escalona in the chest, a fatal wound, and seriously injured Jendys Escalona Mendoza during an altercation just after midnight April 19 at a Greenfield residence.
The motion to suppress evidence provides multiple issues the defense has with an interrogation conducted by law enforcement after Vega Blanco was taken into custody.
Lack of sleep was questioned because the interrogation was started at 5:40 a.m. The document states Vega Blanco was taken into custody at 12:30 a.m. and nowhere is it noted if he slept during the overnight hours.
Vega Blanco does not speak any English according to his legal team. He is from Cuba and speaks a specific, unique Cuban dialect of Spanish. A Spanish interpreter was present for the interrogation but did not speak the dialect. As a result, the interrogation included various communications through the translator, which his legal team said clearly confused Vega Blanco.
The motion also states Vega Blanco never agreed to give a statement. Before the interrogation began, Jared Kastner, who identified himself as a state police officer and conducted the interrogation, read Vega Blanco his Miranda warnings, to which he indicated he understood.
Immediately after the warnings, Kastner asked Vega Blanco four times if he was willing to give a statement. Vega Blanco responded “I don’t know,” “I don’t know how to answer that” and “At this moment, I don’t know how to respond,” the first three times he was asked. His fourth response was not repeated by the translator and was unclear. Each time, his response was accompanied with him placing his head in his hands and he also indicated “I don’t understand.”
Given the language barrier and the responses from Vega Blanco, the defense said the Miranda warnings were ineffective and the arresting officers also subjected Vega Blanco to some custodial interrogation without giving adequate Miranda warnings and obtaining a waiver to that effect, violating the fifth and sixth amendments of the U.S. Constitution and Article I of the Iowa Constitution.
In the defense’s motion, the repeated questioning of Vega Blanco, after he had indicated four times he did not agree to give a statement, is cited as constituting undue coercion and duress. If the court agrees, this would make any statement during the interrogation, as well as the interrogation itself, inadmissible.
The motion also mentions an unlawful search and seizure of Vega Blanco but does not provide specific details of the matter. The motion does request any evidence obtained as a result of such, be prohibited from use by the prosecution due to being obtained as a direct result of police misconduct.
In a Notice of Defenses, filed by the defense in June, self defense, defense of another, defense of property, escape from confinement, resisting forcible felony or compulsion were listed as potential defenses to be raised at trial.
A motion to continue previously set dates to hear the motion to suppress evidence and for a continuance of a trial date was granted by the court but no dates have been set in either matter.