Opinion ID: 2639110
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Did the Trial Court Err in Admitting a Codefendant's Statement Because It Was Inadmissible as to Mays and Violated his Right to Confront Witnesses?

Text: Mays' final pro se argument encompasses several issues. First, Mays argues the trial court erred in admitting certain hearsay testimony regarding the codefendants' conspiracy. Alberta Bailey, a former roommate of Michael White's, testified that White told Bailey and her fiance to watch the news because we smoked that nigger Antwan. No contemporaneous objection was made. White's counsel then sought to cross-examine Bailey about the statement because there was no victim named Antwan involved in the case. When White's counsel asked Bailey to repeat White's statement, Mays' counsel objected on the grounds of prejudice to Mays and asked that the witness be instructed to use the pronoun I rather than we in order to cure the Bruton problem. The trial court overruled Mays' objection, finding there was no confrontation problem. The witness then repeated White's statement. Mays also argues there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The evidence regarding the conspiracy count consisted of the testimony of Bailey described above, as well as the testimony of two other people who lived in the same crack house as Bailey. Anthony Dantzler testified that White and several other young men, including Mays, came in and out of the house with guns in their hands near the end of January 2000. Dantzler testified that at one point when the young men came back to the house they were happy and jumping around. Dantzler heard something mentioned about a white truck. Union and Brooks were driving a white truck when they were shot. Another housemate, Gary Hahn, also testified observing White and his buddies with guns at the house around the time of the shootings. Hahn heard the group talk about going to do a hit before they left the house. When they returned, they were jumping up and down and laughing. Mays contends that all of the evidence mentioned above was hearsay and it was inadmissible under the coconspirator exception to the hearsay rule. See K.S.A. 2003 Supp. 60-460(i)(2). In fact, only those portions of the testimony where the witnesses described the young men's statements or conversations were hearsay. The rest of the testimony involved the witnesses' visual observations of the young men and was not hearsay. In any event, Mays did not object to any of the evidence on hearsay grounds. A defendant's failure to timely object at trial to alleged hearsay statements precludes the defendant from raising the issue on appeal. State v. Carr, 265 Kan. 608, 620, 963 P.2d 421 (1998). This is true even where the defendant alleges a violation of the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. State v. Bryant, 272 Kan. 1204, 1207-08, 38 P.3d 661 (2002). Finally, as part of this argument, Mays asserts there was insufficient evidence of a conspiracy. As to the sufficiency of the evidence, this court must review all of the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, to determine whether a rational factfinder could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Beach, 275 Kan. 603, Syl. ¶ 2, 67 P.3d 121 (2003). Based upon the evidence, a rational jury could have found that Mays agreed with the other codefendants to kill members of the Quinn family and their associates and that he committed the overt acts of obtaining a weapon and driving around looking for victims. See State v. Davis, 277 Kan. 231, 243, 83 P.3d 182, 190 (2004).