Defense wants accused killer dad's statements suppressed (Pueblo County, Colorado)

We've posted before on accused killer dad JOHN WESLEY FRENCH. Past newspaper articles have strong hinted that this father was custodial, though Daddy's custodial status has never confirmed one way or another so far as I know. At any rate, this murdered little girl's mother is never mentioned in any of the press accounts; it's as if she never existed. Is she alive, dead? Who knows. When a child is "allegedly" shot dead by her apparently custodial father, it SHOULD raise a red flag. Just how did this violent individual get possession of this child? If the mother is deceased, do we know for a fact that she died of natural causes? Did she "disappear" (i.e. Daddy hid the body well)? Was she forced out of the home by violence, or was she stripped of custody through the courts by a calculating abuser/control freak? As usual, lot of unanswered questions....

INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT

http://www.chieftain.com/news/region/defense-wants-suspect-s-statements-suppressed/article_426f90f6-69ac-11e1-a819-0019bb2963f4.html

Defense wants suspect's statements suppressed
Posted: Friday, March 9, 2012 12:00 am

By JEFF TUCKER The Pueblo Chieftain

Lawyers for murder suspect John Wesley French are trying to disqualify statements French made to Pueblo County sheriff's detectives the day he allegedly shot and killed his 8-year-old daughter.

Deputy reports said French made a number of statements to deputies while he was being prepared for surgery after attempting suicide April 10.

Deputies were called to the home in the Oakwood Estates (formerly Meadowbrook) trailer park, 33550 Colorado 96 East, after French's father found Desirea French dead on the living room floor and his son John French Jr. face down in his bed, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head.

French, 33, is facing charges of first-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death.

French told detectives he tried to kill himself that morning using his father's handgun. He said the attempt came in the morning and that his daughter was in the home's living room at the time.

Deputy Melissa Rohrich told the court Wednesday that French said, "I can't believe I did that to her."

But attorneys were trying to settle the question of whether French was technically in custody at the time of his statements and whether he was properly advised of his Miranda rights and waived them.

Deputy District Attorney Karl Kuenhold told the court he was prepared to argue that French was never in custody when he volunteered the statements recorded by officers.

But under questioning by Public Defender Suzanne Reynolds, deputies said when they first arrived they cuffed French and left him facedown on his bed, despite obvious head wounds and a lack of response to questioning.

While officers weren't in the ambulance when French was transported to Parkview Medical Center, Rohrich did follow the ambulance and she and another deputy were allowed in the emergency room as doctors prepared French for surgery.

Rohrich also confirmed for Reynolds that at some point that night a deputy asked if French had been read his Miranda rights and that deputies were told he had "invoked" his rights, yet questions kept coming.

Rohrich also collected French's clothes once they were removed and Lt. Todd Perry collected samples from his hands and face for gunshot residue.

Perry testified that he and Detective J.C. Williams interviewed French the next day and that during that conversation, French was given his Miranda rights and he waived them.

Perry said it also was during that conversation when French, in response to a question about who shot his daughter said, "I had to have. I was the only one there."

The hearing was not finished Wednesday and was continued to May.