Opinion ID: 1058243
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admission in Evidence of Thomas' Oral Statements to Police

Text: In reviewing the admissibility of evidence, we apply an abuse of discretion standard of review. Ortiz v. Commonwealth, 276 Va. 705, 712, 667 S.E.2d 751, 756 (2008). Thomas argues that the trial court erred in allowing Major Roberts to testify about unrecorded statements Thomas made to him while she was being interrogated. Thomas' main objection to the use of the unrecorded statements is that the jury was not able to see or hear all the statements she made to the police and in what context her statements were made. Accordingly, Thomas argues that allowing Major Roberts to testify about those unrecorded statements was fundamentally unfair to her trial because, in addition to the statements against her penal interest, Thomas also could have made exculpatory or mitigating statements. During Major Roberts' testimony, Thomas' attorney conceded that the Commonwealth provided Thomas with Major Roberts' notes, which contained statements Thomas made to police. When Thomas objected to Major Roberts testifying about several unrecorded statements Thomas made to him during his interrogation of her, Thomas did not proffer any testimony about any statements Thomas made to Major Roberts that were exculpatory or mitigating. Furthermore, Thomas testified on her own behalf, and did not testify about any statements she made to the police that were exculpatory or mitigating. From the arguments made by Thomas, it is difficult to discern the legal argument in support of her claim of error. In any event, we are unable to reach the question because the lack of proffers of what would have placed these statements in context or what might have been exculpatory, makes it impossible to determine if any alleged error was harmful. O'Dell v. Commonwealth, 234 Va. 672, 697, 364 S.E.2d 491, 505 (1988).