Opinion ID: 1160484
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Diana's statements to Doctors Brunel and Mitchell

Text: Dr. Brunel, the attending emergency room physician at St. Francis West Medical Center on September 6, 1993, testified that, when he treated Diana for her injuries, she appeared to him to be distressed and in pain. He related that Diana informed him that her husband had stabbed her in her chest. Similarly, Dr. Mitchell, who treated Diana in the St. Francis emergency room approximately an hour after the stabbing, testified that Diana was crying and terribly frightened. She was very agitated, very nervous. She presented as if she had been extremely traumatized. She was very jumpy when you approached her, afraid to let you touch her, extremely fearful from the moment she entered the department and through her course there. Just stating over and over that she was very very frightened. Under the totality of the circumstances, particularly the violent nature of the startling event and the severity of Diana's injuries (Dr. Mitchell testified that Diana's injuries were life-threatening), we hold that Diana's statements to Officer Kuaana, Dr. Brunel, and Dr. Mitchell were made while under the stress of excitement caused by the stabbing and were not the product of reflective thought. The three foundational requirements of HRE 803(b)(2) having been met, we further hold that Diana's statements to Officer Kuaana, Dr. Brunel, and Dr. Mitchell were admissible as substantive evidence of Clark's guilt under the hearsay exception for excited utterances and not subject to a limiting instruction.