Lawyer wants Craig Wood's arrest statements suppressed

Craig Michael Wood, the Springfield man charged with abducting and murdering a 10-year-old girl, was suffering from "intoxication, emotional turmoil and psychological instability" when he was arrested, his attorney said in court documents asking that Wood's statements to police be thrown out.

Wood's attorney, Patrick Berrigan of Kansas City, asked that all statements Wood made to police, both written and oral, be suppressed.

A preliminary hearing for Wood, 46, is scheduled for Thursday. Wood is charged with murder, armed criminal action and child kidnapping in the death of 10-year-old Hailey Owens, who was abducted from her neighborhood on Feb. 18 and found dead hours later.

Berrigan said in his motion that the officers who took Wood to the Springfield police department "effectively placed Mr. Wood under arrest, having neither probable cause nor an arrest warrant justifying their actions."

Dan Patterson, the prosecuting attorney for Greene County, declined to comment.

"Motions to suppress are a routine part of criminal practice," he said. "It would not be proper for me to discuss this particular motion in the press and outside of the court proceedings."

Police also declined to comment.

Berrigan, an assistant public defender from the state's capital defense division, wrote that statements Wood made to police were coerced. Berrigan wrote that Wood wasn't properly advised of his Miranda rights, meaning that he didn't waive his rights to remain silent and to an attorney.

"Mr. Wood repeatedly told police that he wanted to cease answering questions, terminate police interrogation, and consult an attorney," Berrigan wrote. "Despite claiming that Wood was not under arrest, officers ignored Wood's repeated requests to halt the interrogation, making a mockery of their obligation under Miranda to terminate questioning."

Police give Miranda warnings to suspects they have in custody before they question them, telling suspects they have the right to remain silent and anything they say can be used against them in court.

Hailey's body was found in two garbage bags inside a plastic storage tote in Wood's basement, which smelled of bleach. No autopsy results have yet been made public. Child welfare records say Wood also sexually abused Hailey, but he has not been charged with any sex crimes.

Berrigan called Wood's arrest an "illegal arrest" and cited a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Wong Sun v. United States, in which the high court found that police illegally entered a laundry in a narcotics investigation. The Supreme Court found that some of the statements in that case were "fruit of the poisonous tree" because the search was done without a warrant.

Berrigan used that phrase, arguing that, "Any and all subsequent statements arising out of Mr. Wood's illegal arrest should be suppressed as 'fruit of the poisonous tree."