Opinion ID: 2595083
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Information about the murder of Esther Alvarado

Text: Defense counsel asked prosecution witness Ybarra on cross-examination whether the people in Grayson were talking about [Alvarado's murder] a lot on the day after it took place. The trial court sustained the prosecutor's relevancy objection. Defendant insists the question was relevant and should have been allowed. He explains that if the residents of Grayson were talking about Alvarado's murder, Ybarra could thus have learned details about the murder from them, instead of through a conversation among defendant, Padilla, and Prado, that Ybarra claimed to have overheard. Assuming for the sake of argument that defendant is correct, the error was harmless. Ybarra testified that he had heard about the killing from Esther Alvarado's brother and a friend and that he had read about it in the newspaper. Thus, the jury knew Ybarra could have learned details of the murder from these sources; whether he had also discussed it with other people in Grayson was of minimal significance.