Opinion ID: 1399120
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dowdy's Statements to Sumner

Text: Dowdy spent the night before he disappeared with his cousin, Jackie Sumner, at her home in Albuquerque. On cross-examination, defense counsel asked Sumner if Dowdy had talked with her about a custody battle over his son. The trial court sustained hearsay and relevancy objections. To demonstrate relevancy, defense counsel made an offer of proof that Jack Dowdy had heard that Kim Dowdy put a contract out on his life, that there was a great deal of enmity between Jack and Kim Dowdy, and that Dowdy was concerned about a custody battle over his son. Regarding the hearsay objection, defense counsel offered the statements to impeach Kim Dowdy, who, he represented, had earlier testified that there was no problem between her and Jack and that they maintained a relationship because of their son. Finding the statements unreliable, the trial court sustained the objection on both grounds advanced by the prosecutor. (36) Defendant now contends that the statements were not hearsay, but rather went to Dowdy's state of mind shortly before he disappeared. We agree. The statements could not have been offered to prove that Kim Dowdy had in fact put a contract out on Jack, or that there was enmity between Jack and Kim, or that a custody battle was imminent; they were, however, relevant to suggest attitudes or beliefs that might have led Jack to choose to disappear without a trace. (See Evid. Code, § 1200, subd. (a).) As nonhearsay evidence relevant to a disputed issue (i.e., whether Dowdy was murdered or had voluntarily disappeared), it should have been admitted unless some other rule dictated its exclusion. (Evid. Code, § 351.) No such rule is suggested to us. Defendant's trial counsel did not, however, specifically raise this ground of admissibility. In these circumstances he is precluded from complaining on appeal. (Evid. Code, § 354, subd. (a); Lorenzana v. Superior Court, supra, 9 Cal.3d at p. 640; People v. Frye, supra, 166 Cal. App.3d at p. 950.) Defendant also suggests his trial counsel's performance was in this respect constitutionally inadequate. (See People v. Pope, supra, 23 Cal.3d at p. 425.) We need not decide whether trial counsel was deficient, however, because defendant cannot in any event establish the prejudice requisite to relief. ( People v. Stankewitz, supra, 51 Cal.3d at p. 113.) In light of the evidence that defendant in effect admitted to three witnesses his responsibility for Dowdy's death, it is not reasonably probable that a result more favorable to him would have resulted from presentation of the excluded testimony.