Opinion ID: 1396215
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Heading: Necessity exception.

Text: Statements by an unavailable declarant may be admitted if necessary, if the testimony displays particularized guarantees of trustworthiness. Chapel v. State, 270 Ga. 151, 155(4), 510 S.E.2d 802 (1998). The burden is on the party seeking to introduce the evidence to establish that the statement is relevant to a material fact and is more probative of that fact than other available evidence. Clark v. State, 271 Ga. 6(5), 515 S.E.2d 155 (1999); Chapel, supra. It is without dispute that Newell is unavailable and the evidence is relevant and otherwise unattainable. What must be determined is whether, under the totality of the circumstances, there are particularized guarantees of trustworthiness such that the evidence should have been admitted under the necessity exception, and whether exclusion of the evidence constituted an abuse of the trial court's discretion. The following factors are probative of reliability: (1) consistency of the statements; (2) lack of a motive to fabricate; (3) the nature of the statements; (4) the relationship between the declarant and the accused; and (5) whether the statement was based upon a faulty recollection or observation. Chapel, supra at 155, 510 S.E.2d 802. Newell's letters, dated six weeks after the shooting, contradict statements he gave to the police on the day of the crime and are inconsistent with his conversation with McIntosh immediately after the shooting in which he accused McCulley and specifically denied his own guilt. Thus, his purported confession is rendered untrustworthy because of the timely and conflicting statements to others. See Carr v. State, 267 Ga. 701(3), 482 S.E.2d 314 (1997) (conflicting statements made by declarant to others render hearsay unreliable); Mallory v. State, 261 Ga. 625(2), 409 S.E.2d 839 (1991) (victim's statements to a friend lacked reliability as they contradicted victim's statements to son); Atwater v. State, 233 Ga.App. 339(3), 503 S.E.2d 919 (1998) (statements which tend to exonerate a close friend may be subject to partiality and thus lack reliability). And, as the trial court observed, Newell's letters were written after there had been discussions between himself and McCulley and substantial time for reflection. [2] Under the circumstances, it cannot be said that the declarant's truthfulness is so clear from the surrounding circumstances that the test of cross-examination would be of marginal utility. (Punctuation omitted.) Chapel, supra at 155, 510 S.E.2d 802. Thus, we hold that the hearsay evidence lacked the requisite degree of reliability and trustworthiness to authorize its admission under the necessity exception.