Jenkins

Defendant Nicholas C. Jenkins was convicted by a jury of first degree murder and attempted murder and sentenced to prison for a term of 25 years to life. On appeal, he contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress statements he made to the police on two occasions. He also contends the prosecutor impermissibly exercised peremptory challenges to remove six African-Americans from the jury, and that the trial court erred by failing to give a unanimity instruction. We conclude that the first statements defendant made to the police, while voluntary under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, nonetheless were the product of an illegal detention and should have been suppressed under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The connection, however, between the illegal detention and defendant’s second statements, made voluntarily after being out of custody for three days, was sufficiently attenuated to dissipate the taint of the illegal detention. Because defendant’s second statements, in which he confessed to the crimes, were admissible, the error with regard to the admission of the first statements was not prejudicial. We reject…