Their goal came to fruition, as Spring was successfully caught and arrested in Kansas City, Missouri, for the crime of the illegal distribution of stolen firearms.

[1] The ATF agents began the interrogation by asking Spring to elaborate on the firearms transactions that directly led to his arrest, so as not to give away that they planned on eventually questioning about the death of Walker.

In response, Spring lowered his head and simply uttered the phrase, “I shot another guy once,” [1] without specifically naming or describing the man who he fired upon.

Instead, they moved quickly to nullify the statements made by Spring on May 26 and March 30; the basis of their argument was that the interrogating agents violated his due process rights as decreed by Miranda v. Arizona.

Spring and his defending attorney emphasized that, as he was not notified prior to interrogation that he would be questioned about the killing of Donald Walker, the ATF agents pushed him to incriminate himself.

However, the court held that the May 26th statement, as it was made freely, voluntarily, and intelligently, should be admitted as evidence, thus convicting Spring of the first-degree murder of Donald Walker.

By a vote of seven to two, the Supreme Court held that the interrogating officers’ failure to notify the suspect that they would question him about the Walker murder did not impact, and thus invalidate, his waiver of his Miranda rights.