Opinion ID: 888630
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Aleasha’s statement to her neighbor

Text: ¶20 Pamela Ehrlich testified that Aleasha told her that, during an argument, Sanchez stated, “[m]e love you, [Aleasha]. Me not love you that much. You cross me, I kill you.” The District Court again overruled Sanchez’s hearsay objection without stating a specific rationale. Sanchez argues that no hearsay exception applies to this statement and that the District Court erred in admitting the statement. The State apparently combines its arguments relating to the statements of Aleasha’s neighbor and Aleasha’s sister and responds that Aleasha’s statements could be admissible as excited utterances, present sense impressions, or statements made under a belief of impending death. Alternatively, the State argues that if the District Court erred its error was harmless. ¶21 Our review of the record convinces us that the hearsay exceptions proposed by the State are inapplicable to this statement. The “present sense impression” hearsay exception applies to statements made “while the declarant was perceiving the event or condition, or immediately thereafter.” M. R. Evid. 803(1). Ehrlich’s testimony reveals that Aleasha’s statement recounted a threat Sanchez made the prior evening. Thus, Aleasha’s statement described an event that she “perceived” the prior evening, rather than a “present sense impression.” The “excited utterance” hearsay exception applies to statements “relating to a startling event or condition made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by the event or condition.” M. R. Evid. 803(2). Ehrlich testified that Aleasha seemed unconcerned by Sanchez’s threat and that Aleasha 7 remarked, “[Sanchez] was nothing more than a dumb little Mexican. He ain’t got the balls to do nothing.” Aleasha’s comments indicate that she lacked the “stress of excitement” necessary to implicate the excited utterance exception. Similarly, we conclude that the “statement under belief of impending death” hearsay exception is inapplicable because Aleasha’s comments indicate that she did not make the statement “while believing that [her] death was imminent,” and her statement did not concern “the cause or circumstance of what [she] believed to be impending death.” M. R. Evid. 804(b)(2). ¶22 Though no exceptions apply to Aleasha’s hearsay statement, we agree with the State that the District Court committed harmless error because the State presented other admissible evidence that proved the same facts as the hearsay evidence. We apply the “cumulative evidence” test to determine whether a district court’s trial error is harmless. State v. Van Kirk, 2001 MT 184, ¶ 43, 306 Mont. 215, ¶ 43, 32 P.3d 735, ¶ 43. Under the “cumulative evidence” test, we consider a trial error harmless if the State demonstrates that the “fact-finder was presented with admissible evidence that proved the same facts as the tainted evidence and, qualitatively, by comparison, the tainted evidence would not have contributed to the conviction.” Van Kirk, ¶ 47. In Van Kirk, we abandoned the “overwhelming evidence” test, which emphasized the quantity of admissible evidence proving guilt, in favor of the “cumulative evidence” test, which focuses on the qualitative impact the inadmissible evidence may have on the fact-finder. Van Kirk, ¶ 43. ¶23 Sanchez testified that his suspicions of Aleasha’s infidelity were confirmed on Monday morning, July 19, 2004, when Angel, a co-worker, admitted sleeping with 8 Aleasha. Sanchez testified that he then arranged for his daughters to sleep at a friend’s house so that he and Aleasha could talk without his children present. He testified that he bagged up Aleasha’s clothes and dropped them off at her house. He knocked on the door, but no one answered, and Sanchez returned to work. Sanchez testified that he recognized a vehicle outside Aleasha’s house as he drove home from work and that he knew that Angel was at Aleasha’s house. Sanchez testified that he retrieved his pistol from his home, went to a store and bought ammunition, and then returned to Aleasha’s house. Again, no one answered the door, and Sanchez went home. When Aleasha called him that evening and asked him to come to her house, he returned to Aleasha’s and parked outside her house, with the gun on the seat next to him. He testified that she came outside, they argued, and he grabbed his gun and shot her when she threatened to have his children removed from his care. ¶24 Jason Sheehan, one of Sanchez’s co-workers, testified that Sanchez mentioned during the lunch break that Sanchez was upset because Aleasha had cheated on him. Sheehan testified that Sanchez stated that he was going to go to Aleasha’s house, drop off her clothes, and “maybe slap her around a little bit.” Sheehan also testified that Sanchez stated that “maybe he would get out his 9 [millimeter pistol] and go shoot her.” At no point did Sanchez object to Sheehan’s testimony. ¶25 In light of the damaging testimony from Sheehan and Sanchez, we conclude that the District Court committed harmless error in admitting Aleasha’s hearsay statement. The testimony of Sanchez and Sheehan presented the jury with cumulative evidence that proved the same facts as Aleasha’s statement. Moreover, given the character of 9 Sanchez’s and Sheehan’s in-court testimony, the jury was presented with evidence of deliberate homicide that qualitatively outweighed any impact that Aleasha’s statement may have had on the jury. The jury heard from Aleasha’s killer himself, that, after learning of Aleasha’s infidelity, he made arrangements for the care of his children, he went to the store and purchased ammunition, he took the loaded gun to Aleasha’s house, he waited for her to come outside, and he shot her after a brief argument. We conclude that the qualitative nature of Sanchez’s testimony outweighs any qualitative impact that Aleasha’s hearsay statement may have had on the jury and that no reasonable possibility exists that the hearsay statement contributed to the conviction, and thus, any error is harmless. Van Kirk, ¶ 47.