Opinion ID: 2994497
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Statements of Mrs. Wesela

Text: At trial, the government used Detective Schmitz to introduce statements made by Mrs. Wesela during her interview with Detective Schmitz at 2:18 a.m. on January 26, 1999, including her description of the events of January 24 and 25. Detective Schmitz’s account of what Mrs. Wesela told her during their conversation was, of course, hearsay. The government offered three bases for admitting the hearsay testimony for its truth: Fed. R. Evid. 803(1) (present sense impression); 803(2) (excited utterance); and 807 (residual or catchall exception for statements having circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness). The district court initially admitted the testimony pursuant to the residual hearsay exception, Rule 807, and reserved the question of admissibility under Rules 803(1) and 803(2). At trial, however, the court also cited Rule 803(2) as justification for its admission. Wesela contests only the admission under Rule 803(2). We review evidentiary decisions for abuse of discretion. United States v. Singleton, 125 F.3d 1097, 1106 (7th Cir. 1997)--that is, has the district court done something so far out of line that no reasonable person could agree with its rulings. United States v. Sinclair, 74 F.3d 753, 756 (7th Cir. 1996). Rule 803(2) defines an excited utterance as [a] statement relating to a startling event or condition made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by the event or condition. Fed. R. Evid. 803(2). Hearsay statements are admissible under the excited utterance exception if (1) a startling event occurred; (2) the declarant made the statement while under the stress of excitement caused by the startling event; and (3) the declarant’s statement relates to the startling event. United States v. Sowa, 34 F.3d 447, 453 (7th Cir. 1994) (citations omitted). The basis of the exception is that such statements are given under circumstances that eliminate the possibility of fabrication, coaching, or confabulation. Id. at 452-53, quoting Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. 805, 820 (1990). The timing of the statement is important but not controlling. Gross v. Greer, 773 F.2d 116, 119-20 (7th Cir. 1985). All that the exception requires is ’that the statement be made contemporaneously with the excitement resulting from the event, not necessarily with the event itself.’ Smith v. Fairman, 862 F.2d 630, 636 (7th Cir. 1988), quoting United States v. Moore, 791 F.2d 566, 572 n.4 (7th Cir. 1986). Wesela argues that it was an abuse of discretion to allow in the statements pertaining to the events of the 24th and the morning of the 25th. He contends that at the time Mrs. Wesela made those statements, she was stressed and excited, but her stress and excitement did not stem from the events that occurred on the 24th and the morning of the 25th; instead, she was agitated because of the events of the evening of the 25th. The court disagreed and found that the events over the 24th and 25th were part of a continuing course of conduct which left Mrs. Wesela in a stressed and excited condition. The court therefore allowed in the statements regarding all of the events. The government is correct that some courts have found statements following a long lapse in time to fall within the excited utterance exception. However, these cases generally involve young children who are the victims or witnesses of crime. See, e.g., Sowa, 34 F.3d at 449, 453; Gross, 773 F.2d at 120; United States v. Iron Shell, 633 F.2d 77, 85-86 (8th Cir. 1980). In the case of an adult declarant, courts are much less likely to find any statements made to fall within the exception. See, e.g., United States v. Zizzo, 120 F.3d 1338, 1355 (7th Cir. 1997) (finding no excited utterance where startling event took place at O’Hare Airport and statement was made at the Dirksen Building in downtown Chicago). Several hours passed between the events of the morning of January 24 and 25 and the time Mrs. Wesela spoke to Detective Schmitz. Mrs. Wesela was not under a continuous threat; to the contrary, she was at work and away from Wesela for a full workday. That she was able to go to work demonstrates that she had regained at least some of her composure and emotional control. Therefore, although Wesela engaged in a pattern of threatening behavior, one cannot say that Mrs. Wesela was under continuous, uninterrupted stress and excitement. By accepting a lesser state of mental angst as enough to satisfy Rule 803(2), the district court applied the wrong legal standard. It thus abused its discretion in admitting Mrs. Wesela’s statements regarding the 24th and the morning of the 25th. The error, however, was harmless. Because the parties had stipulated that Wesela was a felon, the only contested issue at trial was whether Wesela possessed a firearm. The evidence seized from the Weselas’ apartment (e.g., the dead cat, shell casings, gun, and gun box) combined with SA Darin’s testimony regarding Wesela’s admission of why and how he shot the cat provided incontrovertible evidence that Wesela possessed the gun. Detective Schmitz’s testimony regarding Mrs. Wesela’s statements were completely unnecessary to gain Wesela’s conviction. Our finding of harmless error makes it unnecessary as well for us to decide whether Mrs. Wesela’s testimony could have been admitted under Rule 807. We note, however, that Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause problems can arise if evidence from an unavailable witness is used against a defendant. As Justice Stevens put it in Lilly v. Virginia, 527 U.S. 116 (1999), [w]hen the government seeks to offer a declarant’s out- of-court statements against the accused, and, as in this case, the declarant is unavailable, courts must decide whether the Clause permits the government to deny the accused his usual right to force the declarant to submit to cross- examination, the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth. Id. at 124, quoting from California v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 158 (1970) (footnote and internal quotations omitted). These concerns can be overcome only when the evidence falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception, or it contains particularized guarantees of truthfulness such that adversarial testing would be expected to add little to its reliability. 527 U.S. at 124-25, reiterating framework from Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 66 (1980). See also Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. at 815. Here, Mrs. Wesela was arguably unavailable, because it appeared that she might have been prepared to invoke her spousal privilege under Fed. R. Evid. 501. In addition, Rule 807 almost by definition is not a firmly rooted or longstanding exception to the hearsay rule. To the contrary, it is the residual exception--the catchall. Thus, before evidence can come in under that rule there must be equivalent circumstantial guarantees of its trustworthiness. These questions would be worth exploring but for two facts: first, Wesela never argued that his confrontation rights would be violated if Detective Schmitz’s hearsay statements about Mrs. Wesela were admitted only under Rule 807, and second, like most errors even of constitutional dimension, this one is subject to harmless error analysis. Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 684 (1986); Smith, 862 F.2d at 638; see also Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 306-07 (1991). The same reasons that persuaded us that the error under Rule 803(2) was harmless are equally compelling here.