Varner v. State

OPINION

Convicted of slot machine cheating, appellants contend on appeal that a communication by the district court to the jury *487during deliberations was error. We agree, but we affirm the judgments of conviction.

Just prior to being booked at the police station and not in response to any police interrogation, appellant Duane Milton Varner, Jr., told the police that his wife and another man taken into custody should be released because Varner “was responsible for it all.” Because the statement was presented to the jury without any showing of voluntariness, a motion for mistrial was made by…