In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel said because Christopher Pence wasn't in custody when he confessed to hiring someone to kill Francesco and Christina Cordero, his statements were admissible.
The panel said it didn't matter that Pence was in an FBI vehicle when he admitted to his crimes or that he had been confronted for six minutes with evidence of his misdeeds before making his admission.
"Pence entered the FBI vehicle where the interrogation took place under his own will," wrote the panel, noting that the car was parked outside his home as his family was nearby.
"He was never handcuffed. The agents never pointed their firearms at Pence, and their firearms were holstered during the questioning. The agents never yelled at or threatened him. Pence was told that he was not under arrest and did not have to speak with the agents. And he never asked to leave or for the questioning to stop," the court said.
The government did not deny that Pence was not given the Miranda warning informing him of his right to remain silent for more than two hours. However, the court said this was not relevant to the initial encounter, since Pence was only given the warning once he was in custody.
After Pence was given the Miranda warning, he also continued speaking with agents, the panel said.
"For a Miranda warning to be required, the defendant must be subject to an interrogation, and the interrogation must have occurred while the defendant was in custody," the appeals court explained.
Pence argued that he was in custody from the time he got into the FBI vehicle, but the court disagreed.
According to the panel, Pence and his wife were raising 11 children in 2018 when they decided to start caring for the Corderos' five children.
The Pences initially lived in Washington state and the Corderos in Massachusetts. When the Pences formally adopted the Corderos' children in December 2019, the families had an ongoing relationship allowing the Corderos occasional visitation.
Both families relocated to Texas, but the Pences then moved to Utah and the Corderos moved to Hoosick Falls, New York, according to the court.
As the relationship between the families "deteriorated," the Pences tried to limit the Corderos' contact with the children, but the Corderos apparently asked the children if they wanted to live with them, which angered the Pences, the panel said.
It was at this point that Pence went searching for a hitman on the dark web, asking for the Corderos to be murdered and for "it to look like an accident," the panel recounted.
"Pence provided the purported hitman with the Corderos' names, images, and address. Pence eventually transferred $16,486.06 worth of Bitcoin to the purported hitman in furtherance of the murder-for-hire scheme," the panel said.
In 2021, the FBI learned that an IP address registered to Pence's Utah home was linked to the murder negotiations and also traced the account used to transfer Bitcoin to the would-be assassin to Pence, the panel said.
However, because there were multiple adults living in Pence's house at the time, the FBI needed more evidence, so it conducted a raid on Pence's home in October 2021, when Pence gave his confession, the appeals court said.
Pence's attorney Susan C. Wolfe told Law360 that the court took so long to make its decision in this case that she was surprised at the result.
She said that the court didn't consider the entirety of the circumstances surrounding Pence's confession — that a raid was taking place in his home and that he was in the back of an FBI vehicle.
"It means to me that there really is no Miranda violation anymore," she said, lamenting the court's decision.
Representatives for the government did not immediately respond to requests for comments on Friday.
U.S. Circuit Judges José A. Cabranes, Denny Chin and Beth Robinson sat on the panel for the Second Circuit.
The government is represented by Michael F. Perry of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York.
Pence is represented by Susan C. Wolfe of the Law Office of Susan C. Wolfe.
The case is United States of America v. Christopher Pence, case number 24-1025, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
--Editing by Dave Trumbore.
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