State v. Williams, 209 N.C. App. 441 (2011)

The trial court did not err by denying the 17-year-old juvenile defendant’s motion to suppress his confession based on an alleged violation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel because the Sixth Amendment right to counsel “attaches only at or after the initiation of adversary judicial criminal proceedings – whether by way of formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information or arraignment.” In this case, the defendant conceded that he had not been formally charged with the robbery and murder at the time detectives questioned him about those crimes and that he was in police custody on charges unrelated to this case. Thus, the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel had not yet attached.