Opinion ID: 2264062
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Cooper's Statement

Text: The defendant next identifies as error his inability to introduce the out-of-court statement by Cooper, the victim's husband, concerning whether Cooper had told the police that he found $5,000 in cash in the Jacques' Tiverton home. In the course of cross-examining Cpl. Tella, the trial justice prevented defendant from asking him what Cooper had told him about the $5,000. The defendant argues on appeal that the trial justice erred in not admitting the statement under Rule 804(b)(5) of the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence because the declarant of the hearsay statement was unavailable. Under Rule 804(b)(5)(B), an out-of-court statement made by an unavailable witness can be admitted to prove the truth of the matter asserted, if, among other requirements, the statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts. (Emphasis added.) See also Estate of Sweeney v. Charpentier, 675 A.2d 824, 827 (R.I.1996). Although it is true that the parties agreed at trial that Cooper was unavailable to testify, defendant already had succeeded in introducing that same evidence during the cross-examination of another witness. Since identical evidence already had been introduced, albeit through an alternate source, the trial justice did not commit reversible error in refusing to admit the statement. 3