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- A judge ruled that most statements by Alexander Hung Tran after the killing of three people can be used in his trial.
- Tran is charged with three counts of aggravated murder in the 2015 triple killing.
- Statements made before being read his Miranda rights were deemed voluntary and not coerced.
SALT LAKE CITY — A 3rd District judge issued a ruling on Tuesday saying certain statements from a man charged with killing three people can't be used at his jury trial in May — but most of the statements he made to police are fair game.
The judge, Elizabeth Hruby-Mills, ruled that multiple "incriminating" statements from Alexander Hung Tran, 41, were not part of the custodial interrogation before he was read his Miranda rights — rejecting a request to keep them confidential.
Tran is charged with three counts of aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, in the deaths of Heike Poike, 50; Poike's 2-month-old granddaughter, Lyrik Poike; and Dakota Smith, 28. Heike Poike rented the upstairs of Tran's home in Salt Lake City.
The three bodies were found in the home after Heike Poike did not pick up her 8-year-old grandson from school, and officers were unable to reach her. Utah's Supreme Court ruled last year that officers were right to enter the home.
Tran was arrested on Sept. 18, 2015, and was in an interview room on that day for almost six hours, speaking to various officers before he was read his Miranda rights, the ruling said.
The judge's order said while Tran was being arrested, he was not questioned in a way that would likely elicit an incriminating response, such as being asked about what happened, but he "spontaneously offered incriminating statements."
It said the officers did not ask follow-up questions, and because the statements were not the result of a police interrogation, no Miranda warning was needed, so those statements can be used.
Around five hours and 45 minutes into the interview, officers did ask a follow-up question after a statement Tran made about feeling his mother should be in police custody instead. Tran made multiple statements after that point the judge said were incriminatory, including that his mom "'made' him 'do it,'" and that he was "not saying I didn't do it."
"There's no way I would have ever done it if it wasn't for her. And she threatened to disown me if I didn't," Tran said at that point, according to police.
These statements will not be used in his trial, after Hruby-Mills' ruling.
Tran's attorneys also argued statements made after his Miranda rights were read were improperly coerced and argued they should not be used in trial either. Specifically, they argued that mental illness and fear of treatment by police as a minority make him particularly susceptible to police tactics. The attorneys also argued that being in the interview room for so long would cause him to make statements he would not have otherwise made.
Hruby-Mills did not agree, saying prosecutors proved these statements were made voluntarily. The judge said he was by himself most of the time he was in the interview room, and if officers were aware of a mental illness, they did not exploit it. Instead, she pointed out that one officer had told Tran to stop talking at one point.
She decided he made all of the statements in the rest of the interviews voluntarily.
At a hearing on Tuesday, the judge ruled that any motions in the case have to be filed by the end of February. The next hearing scheduled in Tran's case is on April 28, a few weeks before his jury trial begins.
