Opinion ID: 1412175
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Repetition of Victim's Statements as Impermissible Hearsay

Text: Next Appellant maintains that the trial court incorrectly allowed the state's witnesses to repeat the victim's statement resulting in bias and prejudice. Our standard of review regarding a circuit court's decision to admit or exclude evidence was summarized in State v. Guthrie, 194 W.Va. 657, 461 S.E.2d 163 (1995), in the following way: [M]ost rulings of a trial court regarding the admission of evidence are reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard.... [A]n appellate court reviews de novo the legal analysis underlying a trial court's decision. Id. at 680, 461 S.E.2d at 186. As to the hearsay concerns Appellant raises, we held in syllabus point one of State v. Maynard, 183 W.Va. 1, 393 S.E.2d 221 (1990): Generally, out-of-court statements made by someone other than the declarant while testifying are not admissible unless: 1) the statement is not being offered for the truth of the matter asserted, but for some other purpose such as motive, intent, state-of-mind, identification or reasonableness of the party's action; 2) the statement is not hearsay under the rules; or 3) the statement is hearsay but falls within an exception provided for in the rules. Before applying these standards, we initially observe that Appellant's claim involves the testimony of seven of the state's witnesses. We further note that Appellant failed to object when three of the witnesses testified. Errors assigned for the first time on appeal will not be regarded in any matter of which the trial court had jurisdiction or which might have been remedied in the trial court had objection been raised there. Syl. Pt. 17, State v. Thomas, 157 W.Va. 640, 203 S.E.2d 445 (1974). The questioned testimony of one of the law enforcement witnesses did not involve the statement of the victim but rather that of the victim's grandmother when she called the Wheeling Police Department to report the kidnapping. As the officer simply testified to what he heard during that conversation and what he did as a result of what he heard, we find no hearsay let alone error. The record also shows that the trial court allowed the victim's statement to be read into the record by the detective who took the statement but only after Appellant during cross-examination had the detective read from the statement. Whether or not testimony involves impermissible hearsay, a party will not be permitted to complain of error in the admission of evidence which he offered or elicited[.] Syl. pt. 2, in part, State v. Bowman, 155 W.Va. 562, 184 S.E.2d 314 (1971). As a result, the hearsay challenge boils down to two state witnesses: the gas station mechanic in Marietta, Ohio, who called the police, and one detective with the Wheeling Police Department. The lower court allowed the admission of the hearsay testimony of the gas station mechanic under the excited utterance exception to the rule against the admission of hearsay, [34] and allowed the testimony of the Wheeling detective to be admitted because the victim's out-of-court statement was not offered for the truth of the matter asserted, but rather to explain the actions taken by the officer after the statement was made to him. We find no abuse of discretion as to admission of this evidence. The gas station mechanic's testimony, prior to relating any hearsay statements, described the victim when she entered the gas station as hysterical, screaming. She was crying. Sweat was running off her where you could just tell she was upset, and she just  like I said, hysterical. This was a sufficient foundation from which the trial court could conclude that the out-of-court statement of the victim which the mechanic thereafter related was an excited utterance. As to the officer's testimony, the victim's statements involving her rape helped explain why the detective went to Barkcamp and collected evidence there. Moreover, the record shows that the jury was instructed as to the limited purpose of the recitation of the out-of-court statements.