Opinion ID: 1160457
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: In Limine Motion to Bar Testimony by Leslie Colyer

Text: At the guilt phase, Charles Robinson testified on behalf of the People that, while in jail in Mississippi, defendant told him that he had killed a police officer in California. Allen Birkman was not a police officer, but rather a civilian identification technician for a police department. At defendant's request, the superior court admonished the jury to the effect that Birkman was not a police officer, and that his homicide was the only one at issue. In advance of the People calling Leslie Colyer to the witness stand, defendant moved the superior court, in limine, to preclude them from eliciting certain testimony as inadmissible hearsay  viz., that, in the course of a telephone conversation soon after the Birkman homicide, she told him that the victim was a police officer. Expressly determining that the testimony was not hearsay, it denied the motion. Later, Colyer testified in substance that, in the course of a telephone conversation soon after the Birkman homicide, she told defendant that the victim was a police officer. In line with his motion to bar such testimony, defendant objected on the basis of hearsay; in line with its denial of that motion, the superior court overruled the objection. Colyer also testified that, earlier, the police had inquired of her as to his whereabouts. She then testified that they advised her they were seeking him in connection with a homicide. Defendant objected on the basis of hearsay; impliedly determining that the testimony was not hearsay, the superior court overruled the objection. (16) Defendant contends that the superior court erred by denying his motion to preclude, as inadmissible hearsay, Colyer's testimony that she told him the victim of the homicide was a police officer and also by overruling his hearsay objection to her testimony that the police advised her they were seeking him in connection with a homicide. As stated, an appellate court reviews any ruling by a trial court as to the admissibility of evidence for abuse of discretion. Specifically, it scrutinizes a decision on a motion to bar the introduction of evidence as inadmissible hearsay for such abuse: it does so because it so examines the underlying determination whether the evidence was indeed hearsay. ( People v. Rowland, supra, 4 Cal.4th at pp. 262-264.) It follows that it gives the same level of scrutiny for the same reason to the passing on a hearsay objection. We believe that the superior court did not abuse its discretion by denying defendant's motion to preclude, as inadmissible hearsay, Colyer's testimony that she told him the victim of the homicide was a police officer. Hearsay is evidence of an out-of-court statement that is offered by its proponent to prove what it states. Colyer's testimony was not such. Manifestly, it was not offered by the People to prove that Birkman was a police officer: he was not. Rather, it was offered by them to prove that, in admitting that he had killed a police officer, defendant effectively admitted he had killed Birkman, who he had been told was a police officer. The superior court was not unreasonable in expressly determining that the testimony was not hearsay. Indeed, it would have been unreasonable had it determined otherwise. We also believe that the superior court did not abuse its discretion by overruling defendant's hearsay objection to Colyer's testimony that the police advised her they were seeking him in connection with a homicide. This testimony too was not hearsay. It was not offered by the People to prove the existence of a police investigation into his whereabouts. Rather, it was offered by them to prove the source of the information she obtained and then communicated to him  in order to prove that, in admitting he had killed a police officer, he effectively admitted he had killed Birkman. The superior court was not unreasonable in impliedly determining that the testimony was not hearsay. [14]