Opinion ID: 1952083
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Nicole Brown Section 3507 Statement

Text: Demby's next argument on appeal is that the Superior Court erred, as a matter of law, in allowing the State to put in evidence, under 11 Del.C. § 3507 (Section 3507), Nicole Brown's out-of-court statement to Detective Spell. At trial, Flowers was called as a witness by the State. He was asked on direct examination whether he told Nicole Brown that he had tried to talk Demby out of hurting Brown. Flowers was also asked whether he told Nicole Brown that he saw Demby shoot Brown. Flowers denied that he made those statements to Nicole Brown. The State then indicated that it had completed its direct examination of Flowers. The State next called Nicole Brown to testify about her out-of-court conversations with Flowers. The State also indicated that it planned to call Detective Spell to testify about an out-of-court statement that he obtained from Nicole Brown concerning her out-of-court conversation with Flowers. The State contended that the out-of-court conversations between Flowers and Nicole Brown, as well as the out-of-court statement taken by Detective Spell from Nicole Brown, were both admissible under Section 3507. Demby's objection at trial, that both statements were inadmissible under Section 3507, was overruled by the Superior Court. The Superior Court held that Section 3507 was not limited to situations where the out-of-court statement concerned something that the declarant personally saw or observed, i.e. actual knowledge, but could also encompass what another person told the declarant about what that person had seen or observed. Alternatively, the Superior Court held that Nicole Brown's out-of-court statement to Detective Spell was admissible under D.R.E. 801(d)(1), as a prior inconsistent statement by a witness. Nicole Brown was called by the State to testify before the jury. She testified that the only thing Flowers told her was that Demby and Brown were arguing and he told Demby to let it go. She also testified that Flowers did not tell her who shot Brown. The State then was permitted to play a tape-recording of Nicole Brown's out-of-court statement to Detective Spell. In that statement, she told Detective Spell that Flowers told her that he saw Demby shoot Brown.