Judge denies confession suppression in burned-body murder case

New Madrid County Judge Fred Copeland recently denied a motion to suppress a confession from a Scott County defendant in a first-degree murder case in which the victim’s body was burned in her car.

Neil Howland Jr., 28, of Scott City faces charges of first-degree murder, abandonment of a corpse, felony tampering with physical evidence and knowingly burning evidence in connection with the Aug. 7, 2013, death of his mother, Cynthia B. Canoy.

Howland confessed to strangling his mother with a dog leash, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed by Capt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff’s Department.

Howland then placed Canoy’s body inside her car, along with her two pet dogs — which still were alive — drove into a cornfield south of Scott City and set the car afire, Bledsoe wrote.

Howland’s attorney, assistant public defender Amy Metzinger Commean, filed a motion Feb. 18 to suppress statements made by Howland. Howland had asked to speak with Scott County sheriff’s investigators Bledsoe and Jeff Johnson on Aug. 10, 2013, when he was in custody, according to a memorandum in support filed by Commean.

Sheriff’s deputies identified Howland as a suspect after an autopsy revealed Canoy was slain before the fire, Bledsoe wrote. Bledsoe and Johnson read Howland the Miranda-rights warnings that he could remain silent, and Howland answered their questions, according to the memorandum.

He then asked to see his infant son and girlfriend, Tiffany Warner, 27, of Scott City, Commean wrote.

They told Howland they would not be able to fulfill his request, and he responded he no longer would speak with them, Commean wrote.

Two hours later, Bledsoe and Johnson told Howland they would be able to put Warner on the telephone, but the couple would not be able to meet, according to the memorandum. Bledsoe and Johnson restarted the interrogation without rereading Howland a second Miranda-rights warning, Commean wrote.

Johnson asked whether Howland recalled the previous warning, according to the memorandum.

“That question does not qualify as a fresh Miranda warning,” Commean wrote.

Commean argued Howland invoked his right to silence when the first interrogation was terminated, according to the memorandum.

She cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 1971, Michigan vs. Mosley.

Copeland ruled Howland was properly “Mirandized” and he freely, voluntarily and intelligently waived his Miranda rights. He wrote Howland did not invoke his right against self-incrimination when Johnson and Bledsoe left the room the first time.

Howland’s attorney’s argument is similar to another local case. In Cape Girardeau County, Kenneth Bell, 25, of Cape Girardeau was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences in the Missouri Department of Corrections on two counts of second-degree murder and armed criminal action by Judge Benjamin Lewis on June 29 for shooting Shannon Dwayne James and Misty Dawn Cole to death in February 2013.

Missouri Eastern District Court of Appeals Judge Kurt Odenwald ruled May 3 that Bell’s confession to police was inadmissible when his rights were infringed.

In that case, Cape Girardeau detectives Don Perry and Darren Estes initiated a second interrogation of Bell after Bell originally invoked his right to an attorney, according to Odenwald’s opinion.

Perry and Estes read Bell a Miranda warning a second time before he confessed, Odenwald wrote.

The judge ruled the officers should not have initiated the second interrogation after Bell had asked for an attorney. As a result, Bell’s charges were reduced from first-degree murder to second-degree murder.

Howland’s case has not gone to trial and has not been scheduled for any upcoming hearings.

Lewis denied a motion to suppress Bell’s confession filed by his attorneys before Bell’s first trial.

Warner was charged in 2013 with tampering with physical evidence for burning the dog leash, but that case was dismissed in July 2014.

bkleine@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address: 919 Oak St., Scott City, MO