APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A murder suspect’s request that “I need to call my mom to talk to my lawyer” wasn’t a clear enough request to invoke her Miranda rights, a judge ruled Friday, allowing her subsequent statements to the police, until an unambiguous invocation was made later on, to be used at her trial.
Tanya Stammer is charged along with Dontae Payne with first-degree intentional homicide and armed robbery for the death of Brian Porsche at a home on Kaukauna’s W. Division Street on March 30, 2021.
Stammer is scheduled to stand trial July 24. No trial date has been set for Payne, who returns to court Aug. 23 for a motions hearing.
Stammer’s attorney, Mindy Nolan, filed a motion asking for the statements made to be police to be suppressed. In court Friday, she argued Stammer’s request was an unambiguous request for her attorney. Stammer didn’t have the ability to call an attorney herself while in custody, and was explaining how she needed her mother’s help to get to her lawyer, Nolan said.
Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis argued it wasn’t a clear statement. Also, shortly thereafter, Stammer signed a form noting she understood her Miranda rights, talked to police and later did make a definitive statement asking for an attorney about 90 minutes later. Therefore, the statements in between should be allowed, Tempelis said.
Given the totality of the circumstances, Stammer’s request could have meant several things, and therefore the officers did not violate her Miranda rights, Judge Mark McGinnis ruled Friday.
Depending on what evidence is presented at court, Stammer may offer the affirmative defense that she should be acquitted because she was a victim of sex trafficking the time of the murder.
This case is believed to be the first use of this argument in the region since a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in July. The court ruled that a 2008 state law that absolves trafficking victims of criminal liability for any offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked extends to first-degree intentional homicide. However, but defendants have to offer evidence the crime — in this case, murder — was connected to being a victim of trafficking. Prosecutors have opposed its use.
According to the criminal complaint, Payne and Stammer targeted Porsche. The two then tried to make the scene look like a robbery, and tossed his phone and keys into Lake Winnebago.
