NY3: Call about attempted suicide led to def’s girlfriend’s consent which included reading the suicide note which admitted to repeated rape and murder

Defendant’s girlfriend called the police because he’d threatened suicide in a phone call, and she consented to a search of their house. In the house the police found a notebook with a suicide note inside, and it was properly seized and read. “Upon a further search of the residence, an officer read the suicide note in its entirety, wherein defendant indicated that he had been raping and sexually abusing the victim for six years, that he had impregnated her and subsequently killed the baby.” The consent did not expire just because defendant was found in the back yard. Defendant was convicted of repeated rape of his daughter and murder in the death of a baby she had with him that was born alive and killed after he twice slammed its head on the floor immediately after birth. People v. Robinson, 2017 NY Slip Op 08906, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8986 (3d Dept. Dec. 21, 2017).

The trial court took an unreasonable time (168 days) to rule on defendant’s motion to suppress, so the speedy trial clock restarted and speedy trial was violated. State v. Morgan, 2017-Ohio-9142, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 5589 (5th Dist. Dec. 18, 2017).*