Opinion ID: 1407226
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Did victim experience a startling event or condition?

Text: Defendant argues that the statement did not emerge from an event that was at the level necessary to evoke excitement. Often, the predicate event in excited utterance cases involves physical injuries. See, e.g., State v. Jones, 178 W.Va. 519, 362 S.E.2d 330 (1987) (child molestation); State v. Young, 166 W.Va. 309, 273 S.E.2d 592 (1980) (gun shot wound, ultimately fatal), modified on other grounds by State v. Julius, 185 W.Va. 422, 408 S.E.2d 1 (1991); State v. Mahramus, 157 W.Va. 175, 200 S.E.2d 357 (1973) (rape); United States v. Scarpa, 913 F.2d 993 (2d Cir.1990) (severe physical beating). However, an excited utterance can be provoked by non-physical events as well. See, e.g., United States v. Martin, 59 F.3d 767 (8th Cir.1995) (declarant's statements, precipitated by defendant's threat to burn house down and observation of defendant with a gas can preparing Molotov cocktails, came within excited utterance exception); United States v. Bailey, 834 F.2d 218 (1st Cir.1987) (declarant juror's statements regarding a neighbor's attempted bribe, a sufficiently startling event, were admissible as excited utterances); United States v. Moore, 791 F.2d 566 (7th Cir.1986) (declarant's statement that, I've found the evidence I've been waiting for for a long time, which was made upon finding of phony bid sheets in the defendant's wastebasket, was admissible as excited utterance). We believe that this is such a case. While there is no indication that the victim was physically harmed by the events that occurred in the defendant's automobile, she was clearly distraught as a result of the conversation with the defendant. Mr. Lusk testified that he observed the victim crying during the conversation with the defendant, and that she was scared, nervous, and shaking, when she repeated the statement to him. We have also found in the past that independent proof of the existence of the exciting event may be found in the statement itself. We recognized in State v. Smith, 178 W.Va. 104, 358 S.E.2d 188 (1987), that the statement itself may carry sufficient indicia of the exciting event. Id. at 110-111, 358 S.E.2d at 195 (citing Collins v. Equitable Life Ins. Co., 122 W.Va. 171, 8 S.E.2d 825 (1940)). In Smith, we held that the declarant's agitated voice and her statements in regard to the excited eventa fight between her husband and the defendantwere sufficient proof of the existence of the exciting event. Smith, 178 W.Va. 104, 358 S.E.2d 188. We conclude that the conversation between the defendant and the victim in the defendant's automobile, wherein he informed the victim that he would kill her if she left him, was a startling event or condition. 2.