Murder suspect's bizarre behavior captured on police video
"You have the right to remain silent." It's a phrase that many are familiar with from television crime dramas, usually spoken by a police officer as he or she is cuffing a suspect. Law enforcement officers are required to inform those taken into custody of their "Miranda" rights -known as such for a landmark 1966 U.S. Supreme Court ruling - which include the right to a lawyer and the right not to make any self-incriminating statements, afforded under the Fifth Amendment.
In 2012, a young Kentucky woman, Shayna Hubers, was informed of those rights when she was taken into police custody after fatally shooting her boyfriend. The then 21-year-old Hubers, whose story was featured on Saturday's episode of "48 Hours," claimed she shot 29-year-old lawyer Ryan Poston in self-defense after a violent struggle at his Highland Heights home.
Hubers indeed had the right to remain silent - but she couldn't stop talking. Though she had asked for a lawyer and police were legally bound not to question her, she talked anyway - speaking for nearly three hours in a bizarre monologue. She asked strange questions, like, "If I had to go to jail, can you shower there?" She sang, danced, and twirled, and at one point declared, "Yes, I did it!" all while police cameras captured her odd behavior.
But her statements weren't just unusual- they were also extremely self-incriminating. Hubers described her version of the shooting in oftentimes disturbing detail. That evening, she said, Poston had thrown her around the room and yelled insults. He was across a table from her - half-standing, and half-sitting in a chair and screaming at her, she said - when she grabbed his loaded gun from the table and fired.
She told police that Poston slumped over on the table and began twitching. Shockingly, she said she then approached the injured man and fired more shots.
"And I walked around the table. And I think that's when I shot him...in the head. I shot him probably six times, shot him in the head," Hubers said. "He fell onto the ground. He was like, laying like this. His glasses were still on. He was twitching some more. I shot him a couple of more times just to make sure he was dead 'cause I didn't want to watch him die."
It's not uncommon for a suspect to talk while in police custody, according to Kentucky criminal defense lawyer Andrew Coiner, who is not involved in the case. But it's extremely unusual, he said, for one to continue talking even after asking for a lawyer.
"The ones that are savvy enough to do that then usually don't make voluntary statements describing what happened during the crime," Coiner said.
Hubers was ultimately charged with murder. Her defense, who argued that the young recent college graduate was a victim of domestic abuse and scared for her life when she fired at Poston, fought to keep the video out of the trial.
The statements Hubers made in the video would have been extremely damaging for any defense case, Coiner said. But he said many Kentucky judges would have considered them admissible evidence, because police weren't asking her questions or trying to solicit information from her when she voluntarily spoke.
Ultimately, a judge allowed the jury to see it.
When police read Miranda rights, they let the suspect know that anything they say can and will be used against them in a court of law. That's exactly what prosecutors in Hubers' 2015 murder trial did. Prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass zeroed in on her behavior on the police video in front of a jury, calling Hubers an "actress" and saying she never showed remorse.
On Saturday's episode, Snodgrass told "48 Hours" Hubers was "putting on a show."
"I have never seen someone who was so desperate to tell her story to anyone who would listen," Snodgrass told "48 Hours."
Ultimately, a jury agreed with the prosecution that Hubers wasn't acting in self-defense. It's not clear what, if any role the police video played in the jury's decision, but Hubers was found guilty of murder. A judge called the killing "as cold-blooded an act as I've seen in more than three decades in the criminal justice system."
She's currently serving out a 40-year sentence. Hubers is appealing her conviction.
