Opinion ID: 1997525
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Statement To Louis Hurt

Text: After his arrest, Wright was incarcerated in the county detention center. His cell-mate for part of that time was one Louis Hurt, who was facing carjacking and robbery charges. According to Hurt, although Wright was initially reluctant to discuss the charges against him, he eventually told Hurt a story that was largely consistent with Queen's version of what had occurred. It was, in every respect, a full confession. Although Hurt was listed as a witness by the State, he did not testify, and was not even mentioned, in the State's case-in-chief. The State's case consisted of the testimony of Queen, her mother, and the doctor who examined Queen at the hospital. Queen's account was thus corroborated principally by the testimony of the doctor that she was not a virgin and that the tear to her hymen indicated only one penetration. In cross-examination, the suggestion was planted that Queen may have had intercourse with a boyfriend which, if true, could also explain her vaginal condition. That defense was pursued in Wright's case, in large part through the testimony of one of Queen's girlfriends, Crystal Hill, who said that, in June, 1995, Queen had told her that Queen and her boyfriend, Damian, had had intercourse on one occasion. [2] Queen also told her that she (Queen) and Wright had had sex, although Queen said nothing about being raped. Wright was the last defense witness. On direct examination, he denied having had sexual intercourse with Queen; he denied pushing her on the bed and removing her clothing; he denied having oral sex with her; and he denied removing his own clothes in Queen's presence. He was not asked about Louis Hurt or whether he had made any statements to Hurt. He acknowledged having spoken with a police detective when he was arrested on July 10, identified the written statement given to the detective, and was questioned about some aspects of it, although the statement itself was never offered into evidence. On cross-examination, he was asked, for the first time, whether he knew Hurt, and he acknowledged that he did. He also acknowledged having talked to Hurt about this case, although not about what his testimony would be. When asked whether he trusted Hurt sufficiently to tell him about what happened, Wright objected, and, at the bench, the prosecutor made a proffer: First, he told him, I am in on these charges, they charged me with this. Then he talked to him later and the defendant said, it is her mother, the mother is behind this. He talked to him a month later and he said, I will tell you what happened, and he told him the entire thing that happened, him and Shirley were having problems, she was out of the house that day. He wanted to get a nut so he had sex with Queen. The court overruled the objection, declaring that the State could ask about any admissions he may have made. Upon further questioning, Wright again admitted having talked to Hurt about the charges and even about Queen's mother, but he denied telling him that what happened was that you and Shirley were having some problems, and you just wanted to get a nut so Queen was there and you had sex with Queen. On redirect examination, he said that he knew Hurt and did not trust him. He said that Hurt was aware of the charges against himWright had a copy of the charges with him in jail and Hurt had seen thembut that, when Hurt questioned him about the charges, he just told him to mind his business. Immediately upon the conclusion of Wright's testimony, which ended the defense case, the State called Hurt as a rebuttal witness. Over objection, Hurt was permitted to testify essentially as the prosecutor had proffered. Omitting intervening questions, he said: [Wright] told me that him and his girlfriend were having problems between each other. She left ... to go to the health department, took one of the children with her. He was left in the house with him and his other daughter and ... Shirley's sister ... Shirley was gone. She left. He was in the living room playing with his daughter and Shirley's sister asked him could he fix the antenna in the bedroom. He went to fix the antenna and he started to think to himself the girl looks pretty good. He went behind her and said he pushed her on the bed and started to have oral sex with her and she started screaming, saying stop. He said he just want to get a nut. Hurt continued that, in addition to having oral sex, Wright admitted having vaginal intercourse with Queen and stopped only when Shirley's car pulled up. Wright also said that he threatened Queen if she said anything. There are a number of nuances and distinctions that need to be considered in this case, but the ultimate question is whether it is permissible for the State to withhold from its case-in-chief an inculpatory statement by the defendant bearing directly and substantively on the defendant's guilt, set the stage for using the statement in rebuttal by asking the defendant on cross-examination whether the defendant ever made such a statement, and then using the statement in rebuttal if the defendant denies having made it. The answer depends on the nature of the statement, what it is intended to rebut, whether it is being offered as substantive or impeachment evidence, and whether it really could have been used in the State's case-in-chief. The general rule, of long standing in Maryland, is that the plaintiff [which in a criminal case is the State] must put in the whole of his evidence upon every point or issue which he opens, before the defendant proceeds with the evidence on his part. Maurice v. Worden, 54 Md. 233, 251 (1880). It may not go into half of its case and reserve the remainder, but is obliged to develop the whole. Cumb. & Penn. R.R. Co. v. Slack, 45 Md. 161, 176 (1876) (quoting from 1 Greenl. Ev. § 74). More recently, we noted, with particular reference to criminal cases, that [o]rdinarily, an orderly conducted criminal trial anticipates the State adducing all of its evidence in chief and resting its case. The defense follows by producing its evidence tending to establish the accused's non-culpability.... Mayson v. State, 238 Md. 283, 288, 208 A.2d 599, 602 (1965). A contrary practice, this Court has observed, would not only greatly prolong trials, but would frequently lead to surprise and injustice. Bannon v. Warfield, 42 Md. 22, 39 (1875); Cumb. & Penn. R.R. Co., supra, 45 Md. at 176; State v. Booze, 334 Md. 64, 67, 637 A.2d 1214, 1216 (1994). See also 6 J. WIGMORE, EVIDENCE IN TRIALS AT COMMON LAW § 1873 (Chadbourn ed. 1976). There are two caveats to the general rule, both described in some detail in State v. Hepple, 279 Md. 265, 368 A.2d 445 (1977). The first arises from the discretion that a trial court has to permit a party to reopen its case-in-chief, even after the opposing party has concluded. In State v. Booze, supra, 334 Md. 64, 637 A.2d 1214, we synthesized holdings and pronouncements from earlier cases, including State v. Hepple and Dyson v. State, 328 Md. 490, 615 A.2d 1182 (1992), and, quoting from some of those Opinions, confirmed (1) that the trial court has discretion to permit the moving party to reopen its case to introduce evidence adducible in chief, but (2) that, in exercising that discretion, the judge must consider a number of factors, including whether the State deliberately withheld the evidence proffered in order to have it presented at such time as to obtain an unfair advantage by its impact on the trier of facts, and [w]hether good cause is shown; whether the new evidence is significant; whether the jury would be likely to give undue emphasis, prejudicing the party against whom it is offered; whether the evidence is controversial in nature; and whether the reopening is at the request of the jury or a party. 334 Md. at 69, 637 A.2d at 1217. The judge must consider whether the proposed evidence is merely cumulative to, or corroborative of, that already offered in chief or whether it is important or essential to a conviction. Id. at 69, 637 A.2d at 1216-17. The discretion, in other words, though broad, is not unbounded; it cannot be used to permit the plaintiff/State unfairly to prejudice the defendant. We made clear in both Hepple, 279 Md. at 270, 368 A.2d at 449, and Booze, 334 Md. at 69, 637 A.2d at 1216, that the court's allowance of such a reopening will not constitute an abuse of discretion so long as [it] does not impair the ability of the defendant to answer and otherwise receive a fair trial. [3] The second caveat deals with rebuttal evidence. In Mayson v. State, supra, 238 Md. at 289, 208 A.2d at 602, and State v. Hepple, supra, 279 Md. at 270, 368 A.2d at 449, we defined rebuttal evidence as any competent evidence which explains, or is a direct reply to, or a contradiction of any new matter that has been brought into the case by the defense. (Emphasis added.) See also Lane v. State, 226 Md. 81, 90, 172 A.2d 400, 404 (1961), where we defined it as competent evidence which explains, or is a direct reply to, or a contradiction of, material evidence introduced by the accused .... (Emphasis added.) The articulation that we used in Lane was repeated in Booze, supra, 334 Md. at 70, 637 A.2d at 1217. There is an important distinction between rebuttal evidence and evidence sought to be admitted pursuant to a reopening of the case-in-chief. In the latter situation, the evidence ordinarily would have been admissible during that party's case-in-chief; its proponent merely seeks to have the evidence admitted out of order. A party bearing the burden of proof on an issue ordinarily has no right to have evidence admitted out of order after the party has closed its case. Varying the order of proof is, however, clearly within the court's discretion, which is why a decision to permit a party to reopen its case-in-chief for that purpose also is discretionary. Because rebuttal evidence, in contrast, is designed solely to address new matters or facts introduced by the defendant during the defendant's case, that evidence ordinarily would have been inadmissible, as irrelevant, in the plaintiff/State's case-in-chief, for, at that stage, there would have been nothing to rebut. Thus, although there is discretion in the trial court to determine whether evidence offered in rebuttal actually qualifies, under the test we have established, as proper rebuttal evidence, Hepple, supra, 279 Md. at 270, 368 A.2d at 449, if the evidence does qualify as rebuttal, the party ordinarily has a right to have it admitted. Wigmore explains the distinction: For matters properly not evidential until the rebuttal, the proponent has a right to put them in at that time, and they are therefore not subject to the discretionary exclusion of the trial court. Matters that should have been put in at first may by that discretion be refused later, because this is but the denial of a second opportunity. But matters of true rebuttal could not have been put in before, and to exclude them now would be to deny them their sole opportunity for admission. Hence, while the trial court's determination of what is properly rebutting evidence should be respected, yet, if its nature as such is clear, the proponent does not need the trial court's express consent to admit it as involving a departure from the customary rule. This will always be the case for evidence offered to impeach the opponent'switnesses by way of moral character, bias, self-contradiction, or the like. 6 WIGMORE, supra, § 1873 at 678-79 (footnotes omitted). Hurt's testimony was offered solely as rebuttal evidence. The State did not seek to reopen its case-in-chief in order to allow Hurt to testify, and the testimony was not allowed as part of the case-in-chief. The issue, then, is whether the court abused its discretion in determining that the testimony was proper rebuttal evidence. As we have indicated, Hurt's testimony constituted nothing more or less than a full confession of guilt by Wrighta classic party admission. On this record, there is no reason to suppose that Hurt's testimony would not have been admissible, as substantive evidence, in the State's case-in-chief. There is nothing to indicate that Wright's alleged admissions were not voluntary; nor is there anything in the record to indicate that Hurt was, in any way, a State agent, thereby implicating the procedural protections of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Wright, indeed, makes no claim to the contrary. [4] It is clear from the State's proffer during its cross-examination of Wright that it intended to offer Hurt's testimony of Wright's confession as rebuttal evidence. But what was it intended to rebut? In its brief (State's Brief at 6-7), the State tells us its theory: Hurt's testimony can be classified as a contradiction of a new matter brought into the case by the defense. Although the denial of guilt does not constitute new matter presented by the defendant, see State v. Booze, 334 Md. at 75 n. 4, 637 A.2d 1214; State v. Hepple, 279 Md. at 273, 368 A.2d 445, Wright's testimony here was not merely a denial of guilt; he was stating additionally that he never admitted his guilt to his cellmate. Thus, Wright's testimony clearly injected a new matter into the case. And Hurt's testimony was clearly a contradiction of Wright's denial that he admitted to Hurt that he had sex with Queen. (Emphasis added.) In laying out its position, the State acknowledges a number of things: (1) that Hurt's testimony was inadmissible to rebut Wright's testimony on direct examination that he did not engage in the alleged conduct; [5] (2) that the sole function of Hurt's testimony was, instead, to rebut Wright's denial that he confessed to Hurt; (3) that, under our holding in Bruce v. State, 318 Md. 706, 569 A.2d 1254 (1990), Hurt's rebuttal testimony was not admissible as substantive evidence but only to impeach Wright's denial that he made the admission; and (4) that the denial sought to be impeached was elicited by the State on cross-examination and was not, therefore, injected affirmatively into the case by Wright. When viewed in this manner, which is the manner presented to us by the State, the problem emerges: the State has a confession that is admissible in its case-in-chief as substantive evidence of the defendant's guilt; instead of offering it at that stage, the State waits to see if the defendant testifies; if the defendant testifies and denies guilt, the State asks on cross-examination whether the defendant ever made the confession; if the defendant answers affirmatively, the State continues its cross-examination and brings out the entire confession as a prior inconsistent statement; if the defendant denies the confession, the State springs it, in full blossom, in rebuttal, supposedly for the limited purpose of contradicting the defendant's denial that he or she ever made the confession. The State gambles that, upon request, the court may instruct the jury (or instruct itself, in a bench trial) that the confession may be used only to impeach the defendant's statement that he never made the confession and not as substantive evidence of guilt, but with or without such an instruction, the trier of fact hears the substance of the confession at or near the end of the caseafter the defense is concluded. In State v. Kidd, 281 Md. 32, 375 A.2d 1105 (1977), and State v. Franklin, 281 Md. 51, 375 A.2d 1116 (1977), we addressed the circumstances under which the State could properly use, in rebuttal, a confession rendered inadmissible in its case-in-chief because of Miranda violations. Following a line of cases from other jurisdictions, we construed Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222, 91 S.Ct. 643, 28 L.Ed.2d 1 (1971) and Oregon v. Hass, 420 U.S. 714, 95 S.Ct. 1215, 43 L.Ed.2d 570 (1975) as requiring that the issues sought to be impeached by the challenged extrajudicial statement of the accused be initiated by the accused on direct examination and held that [t]he prosecution is not permitted to use tainted evidence to impeach an issue which it first solicited on cross-examination. Kidd, supra, 281 Md. at 49, 375 A.2d at 1114. We did not directly address in Kidd or Franklin whether such a confession could be used to rebut a mere denial of guilt asserted by a defendant on direct examination, for that situation was not presented in those cases. There is language in Harris suggesting that a tainted confession might be usable for that purpose, although language in Walder v. United States, 347 U.S. 62, 74 S.Ct. 354, 98 L.Ed. 503 (1954), relied upon in Harris, suggests the contrary. [6] See also People v. Taylor, 8 Cal.3d 174, 104 Cal.Rptr. 350, 501 P.2d 918 (1972) and United States v. Trejo, 501 F.2d 138 (9th Cir.1974), cited favorably by us in State v. Kidd , following the view suggested in Walder. The Harris/Kidd line of cases is mentioned principally for the sake of contrast, for they present a quite different situation. The stark contrast, of course, is that, in those situations, the State has a confession that it cannot use in its case-in-chief. The concern expressed in Harris was that Miranda not be perverted into a license to use perjury by way of a defense, free from the risk of confrontation with prior inconsistent utterances. Harris v. New York, supra, 401 U.S. at 226, 91 S.Ct. at 645, 28 L.Ed.2d at 5. The Court reached a pragmatic balance between two competing public policiesthe exclusionary rule precluding the use of confessions obtained in violation of Miranda, on the one hand, and not giving defendants a free ride to commit perjury, on the otherand concluded that the deterrent value of the exclusionary rule was sufficiently achieved by making the confession unusable in the prosecution's case-in-chief. The competing interests here are quite different and nowhere near as equivalent. Precisely because the confession was admissible in the State's case-in-chief, there was no prospect of the defendant getting a free ride to commit perjury. Had Hurt testified in the State's case-in-chief, Wright could have been confronted and vigorously cross-examined with respect to that testimony. The State would have had the advantage of Hurt's testimony as both substantive evidence and a prior inconsistent statement by Wright, but Wright would have had the advantage, in presenting his own case, of contradicting and denying Hurt's account. The advantage to the State in withholding the admissible confession for rebuttal was purely a tactical one designed for maximum prejudicial effect: either (1) to discourage the defendant from testifying, even to deny the guilt that the State is obliged to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, or (2), if, as occurred here, the defendant chose to testify, to have the confession dramatically admitted afterwardjust prior to jury deliberation. [7] Unlike the Harris/Kidd situation, that constitutes an offensive, not a defensive use of the confession, but it is an offensive use that is fundamentally unfair and rests, for its purported validity, on a transparent fiction. It simply defies logic to suggest that, when it really has a choice, the State would prefer to use a confession to impeach a defendant's credibility on what is essentially a collateral pointwhether he or she, in fact, made such a statementthan to use it as substantive evidence of guilt. The State's true goal in this case was not to suggest to the jury that Wright was not telling the truth when he denied making the confession to Hurt, but rather to sandwich its case around that of the defense and put its most damaging piece of evidence after the defense has concluded its presentation. That kind of offensive use is wholly inconsistent with the long-standing rule in Maryland that the State put on its case first. It is also inconsistent with our long-standing definition of rebuttal evidence. It is unnecessary, and it is unfair. Although some courts, without much analysis, have allowed the practice, many have not, for the very reasons we find persuasive. In People v. Bennett, 393 Mich. 445, 224 N.W.2d 840 (1975), the defendant was charged with murder. His defense was alibi, and he took the stand and denied the shooting. On cross-examination, he was asked whether he had ever told a fellow inmate at the detention center that when he got out, there was going to be some more murders, and he denied having made such a statement. After the defense rested, the prosecutor called the other inmate who, over objection, testified that the defendant had made the statement. Reversing, the Supreme Court of Michigan held that the State's ploy misconceives the office of rebuttal, that [r]ebuttal is limited to the refutation of relevant and material evidence hence evidence bearing on an issue properly raised in a case, that where the prosecutor did not offer this evidence in his case in chief, which he would have had to do if this were to be regarded as an admission or part of a scheme, it did not bear on an issue raised by the People, and that [t]he device of eliciting a denial of some statement not properly in the case at the time of denial will not serve to inject an issue. (Emphasis added.) Id. 224 N.W.2d at 842. See also People v. McGee, 68 Mich.App. 519, 243 N.W.2d 663 (1976); People v. Bean, 89 Mich.App. 626, 280 N.W.2d 614 (1979). The Arkansas Supreme Court took the same position in Birchett v. State, 289 Ark. 16, 708 S.W.2d 625 (1986). The defendant was charged with robbery, and the State's case consisted essentially of eye-witness identifications by the two victims. The defendant testified in his defense and, on cross-examination, was asked whether he had discussed the robbery with his girlfriend and had shown her some jewelry taken in the robbery. He denied having done so. Over objection, the State then produced the girlfriend in rebuttal to testify that the defendant had discussed the robbery with her and had shown her some of the jewelry. The issue on appeal was whether the girlfriend was a proper rebuttal witness, as her name had not been disclosed in discovery. Reversing, the Arkansas court held, at 626-27: It is evident [that the girlfriend] was not a true rebuttal witness. Her testimony was not merely in response to evidence presented by the defense.... Rather, this appears to be an instance of a witness who could have been presented in the state's case in chief being withheld until rebuttal. Her testimony impeached responses drawn from the appellant during his cross-examination. The questions asked of appellant during cross seem clearly designed to manufacture a rebuttal situation for a presentation of the state's evidence that belonged in its case in chief evidence that was not genuinely in response to anything presented by appellant in his defense. Under these circumstances, the witness should not have been granted rebuttal status. A similar result was reached in Lucas v. Commonwealth, 302 Ky. 512, 195 S.W.2d 90 (1946). The defendant, charged with murder, denied having robbed and killed the victim. On cross-examination, he was asked whether he had made certain inculpatory statements, amounting to a confession, to two people while confined in the county jail, and he denied making those statements. The State then called the two people in rebuttal to testify as to the statements. Reversing, the court held that the introduction of the confession in rebuttal was prejudicially erroneous. Id. 195 S.W.2d at 92. The confession, it held, was not introduced for the purpose of [a]ffecting appellant's credibility as a witness, but was substantive evidence and should have been introduced in chief. Id. Noting the discretion generally allowed a trial court to permit rebuttal evidence, the court nonetheless concluded that the Commonwealth should not be permitted to take undue advantage of the defendant and withhold important evidence until near the close of trial, and then introduce it in the guise of rebuttal evidence. Id. (emphasis added). The Lucas court further noted: In the case before us, it is obvious that the Commonwealth deliberately held the witness back in order to get an advantage. The evidence introduced in rebuttal was purely substantive in nature, and should have been introduced in chief. It was the most damaging evidence offered by the Commonwealth, and its introduction during the final stages of the trial was, under the circumstances, prejudicial to appellant's rights. Id. at 93 (emphasis added). See also Robinson v. Commonwealth, 459 S.W.2d 147 (Ky. 1970). For other expositions of this approach, see Hosford v. State, 525 So.2d 789, 791 (Miss. 1988) (Manifestly, no party should be permitted as a deliberate trial tactic to decide in advance of trial to withhold a part of his case in chief, but instead attempt to suggest such evidence in cross-examination of the witnesses for the opposing side, and then offer the evidence in rebuttal); State v. Manus, 93 N.M. 95, 597 P.2d 280, 288 (1979) (declaring that [t]his type of gamesmanship in the conduct of a criminal trial is not to be commended); State v. Turner, 337 So.2d 455 (La.1976); State v. Smith, 120 La. 530, 45 So. 415 (1908). In People v. Rodriguez, 58 Cal. App.2d 415, 136 P.2d 626 (1943), the court, though reversing a judgment on other grounds, commented as to this issue, at 628-29: The People have no right to withhold a material part of their evidence which could as well be used in their case in chief, for the sole purpose of using it in rebuttal.... The alleged confession was offered to establish facts constituting guilt; the impeachment feature was incidental and comparatively unimportant. It was no more proper for the District Attorney to offer the evidence as rebuttal after defendant's denial of the alleged statements, under the pretense that it was offered to impeach the defendant, than it would have been to offer it in rebuttal if the defendant had not been questioned about it at all. It makes no difference here that the testimony as to the confession, aside from being evidence of the fact of guilt, also tended to impeach the defendant. Compare Wallace v. State, 84 Nev. 603, 447 P.2d 30 (1968); Walker v. State, 89 Nev. 281, 510 P.2d 1365 (1973); Cowart v. State, 579 So.2d 1 (Ala.Crim.App.1990); and Mitchem v. State, 503 N.E.2d 889 (Ind.1987). The State contends that we reached a different conclusion in Bruce v. State, supra, 318 Md. 706, 569 A.2d 1254. The defendant there was charged with five counts of murder, arising from a massacre that occurred at an apartment in Landover. The State produced evidence that Bruce did, indeed, participate in the shootings, that, after the shootings, Bruce, two other men who also allegedly participated, and Bruce's girlfriend, Michelle Nelson, drove to Virginia together, that a week later they went to Florida where they split up, and that Bruce eventually went to New York, where he was arrested. Bruce testified in his own defense. He acknowledged being in the apartment but stated that he was not involved in the shootings and left the apartment as soon as the shooting began. He admitted that he and Ms. Nelson drove to Virginia and then flew to Florida but claimed that the trip to Florida had been pre-planned. He said that, after spending four days in Florida, he went to New York. On cross-examination, Bruce admitted knowing one Kenneth Clee from New York, but he denied telling Clee that he was on the run from the F.B.I. because of some killings in Maryland. After the defense rested, the State was allowed to call Clee as a rebuttal witness to testify that Bruce had, indeed, made the statement denied by Bruce. In addressing that issue, this Court stated: Appellant's admissions to Clee that he was fleeing from the F.B.I. and had killed a couple of people in Maryland could have been introduced as substantive evidence in the State's case in chief. They constitute admissions of flight and admissions of criminal agency. Instead of offering these statements as part of its case, the State waited, and when Appellant took the witness stand and denied participation in any killings and testified that the trip to Florida was pre-planned, the State attempted to impeach this testimony through the prior inconsistent statements made to Clee. When Appellant denied making the statements to Clee, the State quite properly, in rebuttal, offered the prior inconsistent statement through Clee. We note that Appellant's statement when offered in rebuttal was not admissible at that stage as an admission, but was admissible at that stage as a prior inconsistent statement. The situation before us in Bruce was much more focused than what is before us here. Bruce testified on direct examination that his trip to Florida was pre-planned, thereby implying that it did not constitute a consciousness of guilt through flight. He was asked on cross-examination whether he had made a statement inconsistent with that assertion and, when he denied doing so, rebuttal evidence on that limited point was legitimately allowed, to establish the prior inconsistent statement and to suggest to the jury that he was not telling the truth when he asserted that the trip was pre-planned. Admission of Clee's testimony as rebuttal in that setting did not raise the same kinds of issues that are presented when, as here, the State deliberately holds back a full and detailed confession to rebut not the defendant's substantive testimony on direct examination but a statement elicited by the State on cross-examination. To stretch the holding in Bruce beyond what was before us there is unnecessary and inappropriate. Had we intended a broader scope, we would at least have cited some authority and discussed the concerns that are addressed here. In conformance with the long-standing Maryland practice of requiring the plaintiff/State to put on its case first, and for the reasons enunciated in the out-of-State cases cited above, we conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in allowing Hurt's testimony as rebuttal evidence. It was predominantly substantive evidence of guilt that should have been presented by the State during its case-in-chief, and its admission as rebuttal, purportedly to impeach Wright's statement, elicited on cross-examination, that he never made the statement was manifestly wrong and substantially injurious. [8]