Murder case sees twist after new ruling
Teen’s statement is inadmissible
The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that statements made during an athome police interview by a teen later charged with murdering his mother can’t be used as evidence at his trial.
Muhammed Al-Tantawi, 19, was 16 years old when accused of killing Nada Huranieh, 35, who was found dead on a patio below an upper level window at the family’s home on Aug. 21, 2017. Investigators believe the scene was staged to make the death look like the result of an accidental fall, but say evidence proves otherwise — including shadows captured on a home surveillance DVR that reportedly indicate someone pushing a body out the window.
Al-Tantawi’s attorneys had argued that the teen wasn’t properly Mirandized before talking to authorities at his home who were investigating the death. In 2018, Oakland County Circuit Judge Martha Anderson ruled against suppressing the teen’s statements. The following year, the Court of Appeals agreed with her ruling.
The Supreme Court’s de
cision reverses that, and cites the prosecution’s concession that Al-Tantawi “subjected to a ‘custodial interrogation’ without being advised of his rights.”
Justice David Viviano dissented. His opinion, in part, states:”In the present case, I respectfully submit that the majority has abdicated this responsibility by simply vacating the lower court judgments and remanding without any analysis of the legal issue at stake...
I am not convinced there was any plausible error in the Court of Appeals’ judgment that defendant was not in custody.”
Viviano also stated that a reasonable person would have felt free to leave during the interview, which “took place in an open, familiar location in defendant’s home —the dining room table,” that it didn’t last long, and detectives had asked the teen’s father, Bassel Altantawi, to interview his son.
Al-Tantawi’s attorneys also had claimed that evidence turned over to police by the teen’s father, wasn’t done so voluntarily or with “unequivocal consent.” The Supreme Court denied that appeal.
Al-Tantawi was held in Oakland County’s Children’s Village from the date of his arrest, the day after the slaying, until last summer when he was transferred to the Oakland County Jail. A trial date is pending.
Conversation with police
The now-reversed appeals court opinion includes the following excerpt from the recorded conversation between Al-Tantawi and a Farmington Hills police detective.
Detective: You can understand that, right? So, what we want to do is, we want to, ah, just take that, take a look at it . . . either, ah, either have our guys take a look at it or some computer people so they can pull the information off of it and just make sure there’s nothing on tape that’s suspicious or anything like that.
Al-Tantawi: Yeah, but I mean, if we don’t go by what the people, you know, he-said-she-said . . . .
Detective: I know. And this is more . . . . Let’s, let’s make sure there’s nothing on it and then just move on with anything. Okay? No problems with that?
Al-Tantawi: I mean I don’t know. I don’t think I have a problem with that. But, like I said, the whole thing is shocking to me. Again, you know . . . . The situation is bizarre.”