Lawyers for murder suspect wants interviews tossed

Lawyers for a deaf woman charged in the 2011 murder of a homeless man want to suppress interviews they say were illegally obtained.

Sadie Gwendolyn Red Bear’s lawyer filed two separate motions earlier this month to have a 2011 interrogation and an interview following her arrest.

Red Bear faces alternative counts of first-degree manslaughter and nine counts of aggravated assault in the death of Daniel Eastman.

About 7 a.m. on Aug. 19, Eastman was found with multiple stab wounds in an alley on the 600 block of South Main Avenue, according to police.

Eastman succumbed to his injuries following a 90-day stay in hospice. Detectives spent the next few months interviewing members of the homeless population who were acquaintances of Eastman.

Red Bear was interviewed by detectives the day after the stabbing.

According to the motion to suppress, an intoxicated Red Bear was picked up by an officer and taken to the law enforcement center to be interviewed.

The detective knew Red Bear was intoxicated and had to shake her awake after she had fallen asleep while waiting for the interview to begin, the motions say.

Even so, Red Bear was questioned about the incident.

The interview was eventually terminated because of Red Bear’s strong odor of alcohol and slurred speech, the motion says.

During a second interview, the motion says Red Bear, who is deaf, was interviewed without an interpreter.

Red Bear’s lawyers say that both interviews were illegally obtained and violated her Fifth and Fourteenth constitutional rights.

They are asking a judge to keep both interviews from being used as evidence in the case.