People v. D'AVANZO

On October 15, 1980, Patricia Lang was murdered in Kalamazoo. Police investigating the crime quickly sought out defendant, an inmate at the Ionia State Reformatory and former boyfriend of Lang. Over the next nine weeks, defendant had many conversations with law enforcement personnel and, on five occasions, made statements tying him to the killing. Learning that the prosecution intended to introduce these statements into evidence at defendant’s trial for Lang’s murder, the defendant moved for their suppression. The trial court conducted a Walker 1 hearing, and after listening to the testimony…