Opinion ID: 1277687
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission of Accomplice's Hearsay Statement

Text: As recounted, defendant and Lewis sought refuge at the house of Beverly Jermany. Jermany testified that Lewis had told her as they were helping defendant inside the house that she had accidentally shot him. Trial counsel objected that her testimony was inadmissible hearsay. The prosecutor claimed the statement was admissible as that of a coconspirator. The objection was overruled. Jermany also testified that, after she told Lewis she could not bring drugs into the house, Lewis said that a pillowcase she was carrying into the house did not contain drugs. An objection to the admissibility of this statement on grounds of hearsay was also overruled.' Defendant now claims that the trial court committed error, violating the state law prohibition against hearsay as well as the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment to United States Constitution. Whether or not properly admissible, however, neither Lewis's statement that she had shot defendant nor her statement that the pillowcase did not contain drugs was remotely prejudicial to defendant's case. There was independent and uncontradicted evidence that the pillowcase contained the murder weapons, and indeed that defendant had committed the six murders. The admission of these statements was therefore not prejudicial error.