Opinion ID: 1420164
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admissibility of Hearsay Evidence and Prior Acts of Defendant

Text: {41} We review the trial court's evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. See State v. Woodward, 121 N.M. 1, 4, 908 P.2d 231, 234 (1995). `An abuse of discretion occurs when the ruling is clearly against the logic and effect of the facts and circumstances of the case. We cannot say the trial court abused its discretion by its ruling unless we can characterize it as clearly untenable or not justified by reason.' Id. (quoting State v. Apodaca, 118 N.M. 762, 770, 887 P.2d 756, 764 (1994)).
{42} The State filed pretrial motions under the residual exceptions to the hearsay rule, Rules 11-803(X), 11-804(B)(5) NMRA 1998, seeking admission of certain statements the victim made to her mother, sister, friend, and fiance. Defendant also filed a pretrial motion seeking admission of statements made by the victim to Defendant and his family. At a hearing on these motions, Defendant's trial counsel stated that whatever ruling you rule for one of us you're going to rule for both of us on this issue. The district court ruled in favor of admitting the hearsay evidence regarding the statements made by the victim that were identified in the pretrial motions. {43} At trial, the district court interrupted the testimony by the State's witnesses on more than one occasion to inquire why Defendant's trial counsel was not objecting to the admission of hearsay concerning the victim's statements, and Defendant's trial counsel explained that he was not objecting for tactical reasons. The only objection to such hearsay that appears in the portion of the trial transcripts identified in Defendant's brief concerns the testimony of Antillon, the victim's fiance. The State responded to this objection at trial by noting that the statements in question were covered by the district court's ruling on the pretrial motions, and the objection was overruled. {44} On appeal, Defendant contends that the district court erred in admitting the testimony by the decedent's mother, sister, fiance, and friend concerning the statements made by the victim. Defendant further contends that the hearsay evidence provided by these witnesses went beyond the statements identified by the State in its pretrial motions. We conclude, however, that the issue of applying the residual exceptions in Rules 803(X) and 804(B)(5) to the statements made by the victim was not preserved for appellate review because Defendant agreed to admit the statements identified in the State's pretrial motions on condition that the statements Defendant sought to introduce also were admitted, and because Defendant did not object in a timely manner to any statements that exceeded the scope of the State's pretrial motions. See Rule 12-216(A) NMRA 1998; cf. State v. Lopez, 105 N.M. 538, 544, 734 P.2d 778, 784 (Ct.App.1986) (To preserve a claim of error for appellate review involving the admissibility of evidence, a party must make a timely objection.); State v. Martin, 90 N.M. 524, 527, 565 P.2d 1041, 1044 (Ct. App.1977) (appellate courts will not search the record to see if an issue was preserved where the defendant did not provide appropriate transcript references), overruled in part on other grounds by State v. Wilson, 116 N.M. 793, 796, 867 P.2d 1175, 1178 (1994). {45} Because Defendant failed to preserve this issue, we can only review the admissibility of the hearsay evidence for plain or fundamental error. See Rule 12-216(B); State v. Contreras, 120 N.M. 486, 492, 903 P.2d 228, 234 (1995). In order to find either plain or fundamental error, however, we must be convinced that the admission of the evidence in question creates grave doubts concerning the validity of the verdict. State v. Lucero, 116 N.M. 450, 453, 863 P.2d 1071, 1074 (1993) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Given that both Defendant and the State were afforded the opportunity to introduce statements made by the victim, and to impeach one another's witnesses with respect to the trustworthiness of these statements, neither form of error is present here. On the contrary, it appears that the district court's ruling was justified in light of the victim's unavailability due to her death, and, as we explain below, the relevance of her statements to the theories presented by both the State and Defendant concerning the motive for the killing.
{46} Prior to trial, the State moved for admission of certain evidence concerning Defendant's prior violent acts toward the victim. Defendant moved to exclude such evidence. The district court ruled that the evidence was admissible under Rules 11-403 and 11-404(B) NMRA 1998, for the purpose of proving Defendant's motive for the killing. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting this evidence. {47} Under Rule 11-404(B), evidence of a defendant's prior acts is admissible to show proof of motive. See Woodward, 121 N.M. at 7-8, 908 P.2d at 237-38. At trial, the State presented the theory that Defendant had a motive for killing the victim because she rejected him and chose to marry Antillon, while Defendant presented the theory that Defendant had no motive for killing the victim because she loved him and was only seeing Antillon due to pressure from her family. Under these circumstances, evidence of the deterioration of Defendant's relationship with the victim, and the specific actions that gave her cause for rejecting him in favor of Antillon, directly addresses the motivational theories presented at trial. Thus, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting this evidence under Rule 11-404(B). See Woodward, 121 N.M. at 8, 908 P.2d at 238. {48} Under Rule 11-403, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by its prejudicial impact, the potential for confusion of the issues, or the danger of misleading the jury. [D]etermining whether the prejudicial impact of evidence outweighs its probative value is left to the discretion of the trial court. State v. Wilson, 117 N.M. 11, 17, 868 P.2d 656, 662 (Ct.App.1993). In determining whether the trial court has abused its discretion in applying Rule 11-403, the appellate court considers the probative value of the evidence, see State v. Schifani, 92 N.M. 127, 130, 584 P.2d 174, 177 (Ct.App.1978), but the fact that some jurors might find this evidence offensive or inflammatory does not necessarily require its exclusion, cf. State v. Everitt, 80 N.M. 41, 46, 450 P.2d 927, 932 (Ct.App. 1969) (holding that evidence admissible to show intent and preparation was not to be excluded even if it may have had some inflammatory effect). As we noted in our discussion of Rule 11-404(B), the evidence of Defendant's prior acts had significant probative value in assessing the theories about the motive for the killing that both sides presented at trial. Thus, it was reasonable for the district court to decide that the probative value of this evidence was not substantially outweighed by other considerations, and we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in applying Rule 11-403. See Schifani, 92 N.M. at 129-30, 584 P.2d at 176-77.