Is a statement given to police during a 2:30 a.m.-interrogation while sleep-deprived from a week-long cocaine binge reliable?

The Yukon's chief territorial court judge was scheduled to release his decision on that question earlier this afternoon when he ruled whether 21-year-old Richard Linklater's statement to the RCMP is admissible at trial.

Judge Heino Lilles pondered the question last weekend after two days of voir dire testimony from a pair of Whitehorse RCMP officers last week at Linklater's trial for armed robbery and attempted robbery.

A voir dire is a trial within a trial to determine if a statement or testimony is admissible as evidence in a criminal trial. It's routine for statements given by an accused to police to be first examined through the voir dire process before it's admitted as evidence.

The young man's defence lawyer had also argued the officer who interviewed Linklater used language suggesting to his client the police would help him if he talked.

Linklater stands accused of holding up the Roadhouse off-sales liquor store last Sept. 15 while armed with a knife. He's also charged with an attempted robbery at Riverside Grocery the day before.

The Roadhouse off-sales clerk working when the small store was held up picked Linklater out of a photo lineup. However, Lilles noted last week to the RCMP corporal who conducted the lineup there are problems with the way it was done.

It wasn't until after midnight Sept. 17 when Cpl. Tracy Phillips, a plainclothes investigator, had the clerk's identification of Linklater in hand.

Linklater had been arrested at about 8:30 that evening when Phillips spotted him standing on a street corner after his blue and grey winter jacket, particularly its markings, drew her attention.

She'd been staring at still photographs of a man in a similar coat since she'd started work at 8 a.m. that day. Those photos came from a Roadhouse off-sales surveillance camera video.

Further preparation took the corporal a couple of more hours. Before she took him to one of the detachment interview rooms, Phillips and Const. Guy Lagmodiere, the uniformed officer who'd arrested Linklater, took the prisoner into the RCMP's secure garage for a 2:15 a.m.-smoke.

He'd asked for a cigarette several times since he'd been arrested, the court heard.

The robbery case wasn't discussed in that 10 minutes in the garage, the officers testified. Both told the court no one else spoke to Linklater, touched him nor threatened him while he was in custody, nor did the man complain about his treatment.

Lilles noted at one point when the two lawyers were making their arguments he thought there was a danger in the sort of interaction that took place in the garage. A cynic would think it was an attempt to talk to an accused without a camera or microphone recording, the judge said.

Current legal practice sees statements made to police thrown out if there is time unaccounted for, said Lilles.

Prosecutor David McWhinnie noted the entire area is constantly video-taped, but not wired to record sound.

After the smoke break, Linklater agreed to talk with Phillips upstairs.

Lagmodiere watched the interview in another room via closed-circuit television. The one hour, 20-minute-long interview was recorded.

Going into the statement, Linklater knew he was being investigated for the robberies, but didn't know until Phillips told him that he was being charged.

Though Linklater first said he had no memory of the Roadhouse robbery due to drugs and booze, he later gave details of how he got the knife and where he went after the robbery.

The young man told Phillips he'd been given the knife, but wouldn't say who gave it to him. McWhinnie argued that shows Linklater is making decisions, and showing loyalty is not an unreasonable decision in the circumstances.

Phillips testified last week she told the young man she knew he was guilty and this was his chance to tell his side of the story.

Phillips said she told Linklater talking would help his conscience and would help him because it would get his court matters moving more quickly.

'Let's get the ball rolling on these charges,' she told him.

Defence counsel Gord Coffin suggested the officer was hinting to the accused man it would a legal advantage for him to admit he'd been involved. He argued the repeated use of the word 'let's' suggested to Linklater that Phillips wanted to help the man, and could help him if he confessed.

The implication, he continued, is that not talking to the police makes a person's case drag through the courts, a negative implication that 'makes the right to silence a trap.'

While nothing specific was promised to Linklater, 'an atmosphere is built up,' Coffin said during legal arguments.

'I always appeal to someone's conscience,' Phillips had testified.

Toward the end of the statement, Linklater asked Phillips, 'What are you going to help me with? ... you told me you'd be able to help me out.'

Phillips replied that she'd never said that and she can't make deals, the court heard.

'He very much threw me for a loop,' Phillips testified last week. 'I didn't know what Mr. Linklater was talking about because no such conversation took place.

'I do not believe I led him to believe that in any way.'

She thought he understood she wasn't offering him anything, and that 'I felt he was giving himself an out.'

McWhinnie argued Linklater had been 'fishing' for a benefit to talking and that Phillips' belief she was being baited is correct.

During the interview, Linklater told Phillips he'd been using cocaine in the recent past and hadn't slept for about a week. The 21-year-old had a few hours' sleep in cells, and was sleeping up until about 2 a.m.

Phillips said she had no concerns about Linklater's level of coherence and she thought he appeared to be in good shape and lucid.

Coffin questioned why she just didn't wait until morning or even several days later for someone else to interview the man.

The corporal also testified it's 'a matter of pride' for her to finish her own investigations.

Coffin noted Phillips didn't end the interview despite Linklater saying several times he had nothing to say. He suggested continuing to talk to the sleep-deprived man created an 'atmosphere of oppression.'

It's a common reaction for people to say they don't want to talk, said Phillips. It's her job to continue to talk to the person and get them to tell the truth, she continued.

McWhinnie pointed out Linklater acknowledged during the interview he'd had some sleep, and noted the young man hadn't asked to be returned to his cell.

He told the corporal he wasn't under the influence of drugs at that time, McWhinnie noted. He also pointed to Linklater's statement he had been planning to be up that night partying anyway.