The appeal turned on whether the prosecution introduced evidence of, and commented on, the defendant's post-arrest silence at trial. Here's what happened:
the prosecution played a video clip of Garcia’s post-arrest interrogation. In the video, Border Patrol Agent Kahl asked Garcia to identify his alien smuggling co-conspirators. Although Garcia had already answered a number of questions up to this point in the videorecorded interrogation, he refused to discuss his coconspirators, stating “I ain’t feeling cool with that camera.” Agent Kahl pressed harder, asking “why don’t you just give me a name?” Garcia shook his head nervously, sighed heavily, and started to say “I don’t . . . .” Agent Kahl interrupted Garcia to remind him that if he did not name his co-conspirators, he alone would take the fall for the crime of alien smuggling. Garcia shook his head timidly, bit his nails, and once again stated: “I don’t feel cool with the camera . . . .” Agent Kahl again cut him off, this time stating: “Okay, if you want, alright, well, later on we’ll turn off the camera and you can tell me.” Garcia sheepishly nodded his head in agreement.
Despite suggesting that he might talk about his coconspirators off camera, Garcia later refused to name his coconspirators during subsequent off-camera discussions with Border Patrol agents.
During trial, the prosecution elicited direct testimony from Agent Kahl in its case-in-chief about Garcia’s refusal to identify his co-conspirators. Later, the prosecution argued in its closing statement that Garcia must be guilty because he was “evasive about other people who are involved,” asking “Why does he want the recording turned off? . . . It wasn’t because he had a plan the entire time to turn these people over.”The majority concluded: "Garcia was not silent in response to Agent Kahl’s questioning on the topic of his co-conspirators. This conclusion is driven by the fact that the exchange between Agent Kahl and Garcia began with Garcia voicing discomfort with video recording and concluded with Garcia agreeing to speak about his coconspirators. At most, the exchange demonstrated that Garcia did not want to discuss his co-conspirators on video tape but was willing to continue talking about the subject later."
The dissent, however, explained: "It makes no difference that Garcia intimated that he might be willing to answer questions about his coconspirators at another time (which ultimately never happened), because such an 'explanatory refusal' to answer is treated the same as silence for Fifth Amendment purposes." The dissent continued: "The prosecution’s reference to Garcia’s silence as evidence of his guilt in this context was a Doyle violation, plain and simple."
