A combination Huntley and Dunaway hearing was held in this case over several days in August and September 2005. Both sides called witnesses, and essentially, their testimony can be summarized as follows:

Detective James Mihalik of the Suffolk County Homicide Squad indicated he began investigating [*2]the death of Frank Howell on November 21, 2004. On Thanksgiving Day, November 25th, he was in an unmarked Chevy Malibu, northbound on Belmont Avenue in North Babylon, when he observed defendant, in a GMC Jimmy, stopped at a light in front of him. Mihalik noticed one of his colleagues, Detective Gerard McAlvin approaching defendant's vehicle holding his shield in his left hand. He saw defendant put his vehicle in reverse, striking McAlvin's vehicle, and then forward, striking a vehicle driven by Detective Edward Fandry.

Defendant pulled away, with Mihalik, McAlvin and other police vehicles in pursuit. There came a point where Belmont Avenue ended in a T intersection with August Road. The police were able to surround or box defendant in, and then, with guns drawn, and despite his resistance, pull him from his car. Two of the police cars sustained damage.

Defendant was taken into custody at about 11:50 PM and charged with reckless endangerment and resisting arrest. He was transported to police headquarters in Yaphank and, at about 12:15 AM, placed in an interview room. He was searched and among his property was a cell phone. Detective Fandry entered the room at about 12:25 AM to begin the prisoner activity log. Defendant appeared calm and stable.

When Fandry left, Mihalik introduced himself and Detective Portello to defendant (they told him they were from the Homicide squad), and read defendant his rights from a card. Defendant signed, dated and timed the card (12:30 AM), and wrote in his answers to the waivers: yes, no and yes. Mihalik noted the central complaint number for the homicide on the card. He began by asking pedigree questions, with Portello taking notes. Mihalik asked about the accident with the police cars, and defendant apologized. He said he was scared. Mihalik asked about the Howell homicide, and defendant indicated he had heard about it it occurred in his girlfriend's neighborhood. At first, defendant indicated he had not heard about the homicide, but then said he heard somebody got killed.

They spoke about defendant's girlfriend and her family. Mihalik asked where defendant had been the previous Friday night and defendant indicated he was with his girlfriend and her two cousins at a bar. He asked defendant what he had heard about the murder, and defendant replied nothing, although he initially said he heard about it from his girlfriend. He was asked whether he knew the victim, and defendant indicated no. Mihalik told defendant they had cell phone records showing that defendant was the person the victim had called just before the murder and they were in the same general location at the time. Finally, defendant indicated he and the victim were good friends, having met ten months ago. Defendant indicated he in fact met the victim the night he was shot, and he felt bad about it. When asked why, defendant said because he (defendant) had "set him up." When asked who shot him, defendant indicated he could not tell because the shooter was a gang member.

It was at this time, i.e., at 2:10 AM, that defendant was placed under arrest for the murder. However, according to Mihalik, defendant remained uncuffed. [*3]

After a break in the interview, Mihalik and Portello took up the questioning again at 3:00 AM. Defendant repeated that he set the victim up, that he got him to the place where he was killed, but he couldn't say who it was who killed him because the killer was a gang member and the gang knew where defendant's girlfriend lived. Defendant did say that the killer's first name was Joe.

These conversations between the two detectives and defendant went on for two or three hours there was a bathroom break at 5:00 AM and the interview resumed at 5:30 AM. Defendant was given cookies and water. They spoke about this fellow "Joe," and defendant described the shooting. They took another break at 7:30 AM. Between 5:30 and 7:30 AM, Mihalik described defendant as being calm and cooperative. Between 7:30 and 8:30 AM, defendant remained in the interview room uncuffed. When detectives reentered at about 8:30 AM, defendant was resting his head on the table. Mihalik read him his rights from a form. Defendant appeared to read along. Defendant initialed the warnings on the form and wrote yes, no and yes to the waivers and initialed each answer. Over the next three and one-half hours, Mihalik wrote out a five page statement which defendant signed. He also initialed the bottom of each page and one or more corrections. They completed the statement at about 12:00 noon.

In the statement, defendant gave a version of the shooting wherein he and a friend named Joe (his last name turned out to be Dingwerth), who he described as a white dude, almost 6'1" tall, and 250 to 260 pounds, and from whom defendant bought his heroin, got together on Saturday morning (the morning of the shooting) at about 2:00 AM to "do dope." Joe had complained earlier in the week that Frank Howell was stealing customers from him and directing them to another dealer. In addition, defendant had sold Joe a 40 caliber black handgun just before Halloween. In any event, defendant and Joe were parked near defendant's girlfriend's house at about 3:30 AM when defendant received a call from Frank saying he was coming by on his way from work. Defendant told Frank to meet them on Montgomery Street which was around the block. When Frank arrived, defendant went up to the car, and Joe was walking behind him. Joe started calling Frank names and accused him of stealing his customers. Joe pulled out a gun it looked like the one defendant had sold him and shot Frank. Defendant heard between three and five shots. Defendant ran back to his girlfriend's house, got his keys, and went home. He did not know what happened to Joe.

While defendant was giving the statement, the police made one or more attempts to contact Joe. They used defendant's cell phone, with defendant dialing the number. Shortly before 1:00 PM, they spoke to Joe and, shortly thereafter, Joe was brought to police headquarters where he was questioned. At about 2:00 PM, defendant was brought to the bathroom and then, briefly, to the room where Joe was being questioned. He was brought back to his own interview room at about 2:15 PM and Mihalik told defendant that "we have a problem." The police had concluded that Joe had nothing to do with the shooting.

Mihalik read defendant his rights again, from a card. Defendant remained uncuffed. Defendant again answered "yes," "no" and "yes" to the waivers, initialed them, and signed the card at about 2:15 PM. Mihalik indicated that Joe told them he bought his drugs from defendant, but [*4]defendant insisted it was Joe who shot Frank, not him. They went over this again and again. The police asking why he killed Frank, and defendant saying he did not, (because) Frank never did anything to me. The police asked defendant whether Frank did something to defendant's girlfriend, or to defendant's baby daughter. Finally, sobbing, defendant said he did do it, he shot Frank. When asked why, defendant said he had gone to Frank's place a couple of days before, and left the baby with him while he went to cop some drugs. When he returned, he looked into the window and saw the baby on the bed, with Frank standing next to her, with his penis near her mouth. Defendant went inside, and took the child home without saying anything.

This conversation started at about 2:15 PM, and finished at about 2:40 PM, at which time, Mihalik read defendant his rights again from a statement form. Defendant initialed each of the rights, and wrote yes, no and yes in answer to the waivers and initialed his answers as well. The defendant's account of how, a few days after finding Frank undressed with his daughter, he arranged to meet him around the block from his (defendant's) girlfriend's house, at 4:00 AM, to "hang out," and how, as Frank pulled up in his car, defendant approached with a handgun in his right hand under his jacket and shot him, was reduced to writing in a three page statement. Defendant signed his name on the bottom of each page, initialed the one or more corrections, and swore to the truth of the contents.

At about 4:30 PM, defendant was given a sandwich, and, about ten minutes later drew a map and diagrams of the murder scene. He then wrote on some photographs, finishing at about 5 :00 PM. The police asked defendant whether he would give a video statement, but defendant declined. He signed a refusal form. At one point, Mihalik indicated to defendant that his supervisor, Detective Sergeant Fandry, did not believe his story concerning Frank and his daughter. Defendant became visibly upset. He curled his fist and got up from his chair "in an aggressive manner," saying "I just want out of here." The two detectives had to physically restrain him and push him back down into the chair. In doing so, the defendant's right shoulder hit the wall behind him, and left an indentation in the sheetrock.

About 6:42 PM, they left the precinct and defendant accompanied them to a residence in Wyandanch where the owner consented to a search of the premises. They recovered certain items, including a computer, a 45 caliber gun, a spent casing, and 148 packets of heroin. They then went to a second residence in, Brentwood, where they recovered another handgun. They arrived back at headquarters at 8:55 PM. A few minutes later, they took defendant to the bathroom and then back to the homicide squad.

Detective Mihalik acknowledged that they interviewed defendant over seventeen hours, although there were a "couple of hours" of "breaks." He admitted it was a "ruse" when he told defendant that they had proof that defendant's cell phone and the victim's cell phone had been right next to one another at about the time of the murder. He admitted that when questioning suspects, he expected "people to lie." He knew defendant had a prior arrest on drug charges, but was not aware of the outcome of that case. [*5]

The defendant called Joseph Dingwerth, and he testified that when he saw defendant at police headquarters for thirty to forty seconds on the night in question (November 25th), defendant's hands were tied behind his back above his head, and his neck and face were red. He looked like he was being beat up. Nothing was said between them.

Leticia Ramirez, defendant's mother, testified that she was admitted to the Bar and working as a Court Attorney to a Civil Court Judge in New York County. At 9:30 AM on November 26th, she learned that her son was "missing." She claimed she called police headquarters in Yaphank at about 11:40 AM to inquire about him, and then at about 11:58 AM, she placed a call to a friend of hers, Wanda LaVista, who was a detective in Suffolk County. Detective LaVista supposedly called her back around 12:20 to advise that her son was not under arrest, and then, shortly after 2:00 PM, to indicate he had been involved in a car accident. She called the First Precinct. She also called Good Samaritan Hospital, but was unable to locate her son. Finally, around 7:00 PM, she learned he was under arrest, and charged with murder.

Defendant Michael Tineo testified that on November 26, 2004, he dropped off his daughter and was on his way to his father's house when the car in front of him stopped, and the driver got out with a gun in his hand. He put his car in reverse, hit the car behind him, and then threw his car into drive and drove away. Eventually, he was boxed in and stopped. He was pulled from his vehicle, punched in the head, cuffed and put in an unmarked car. While being transported, Detective Portello hit him on his head and face with his fist and an open hand. Detective Mihalik began questioning him. At headquarters, he was told to strip naked and after being "searched" he was allowed to get dressed and was handcuffed to a chain that was bolted to the floor. When he told them he wanted to speak to his attorney, Portello smacked him and repeated it each time he gave a "wrong" answer. There came a point on the first night (Friday) when two detectives (other than Mihalik and Portello) pushed his right shoulder through the wall and, throughout, detectives were punching, pulling, slapping, stepping on his neck and kicking him. And all the time, he was chained to the floor, from his arrival at headquarters shortly before midnight on November 25th, until 8:00 AM the next day.

On November 27th (Saturday) he saw a nurse at the jail in Riverhead but did not complain to her of any "physical injury," or any police beatings. The reason was because his mother knew someone at the jail who told him not to complain - he would have more problems in the jail if he did.

Only after all the questioning was over was he given any food and/or allowed to make a telephone call. He did not place any initials on the first statement until after the second statement was completed. All the rights cards were signed at the same time, i.e., at the end of the night. In addition, the rights were never read to him. He never read the first statement (the one implicating Joe) until after he appeared in Court. He was given the second statement but never read it. He was crying, and he remembered his tears hitting the paper. He simply put it back on the table. When talk of a video came up, the police insinuated that he should not make one - "you don't [*6]want to give a video do you?" As for his writings on the photos, the police told him what to write and where. When he was finally allowed to make a phone call, he called his father because he had borrowed his truck on the night before Thanksgiving.

Detective Wanda LaVista (who was called by defendant) acknowledged that defendant's mother had called her on November 26, 2004, to ask for help in locating her son. The two of them were close friends for many years. She called the Third Precinct and Fifth Precinct and was told by someone in each that defendant was not being held there. It was not until the next day that she learned defendant had been arrested. In placing the calls, Detective LaVista inquired about a "Michael Ramirez" (his mother's name), not Michael Tineo.