Opinion ID: 2061073
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Competence of Child Witness

Text: Children younger than age ten are not competent witnesses in Indiana unless it appears that they understand the nature and obligation of an oath. Ind. Code § 34-1-14-5. The defendant urges that the trial court erred in its determination that the State's eight-year-old witness, Tony Strong, was competent to testify. The defendant concedes that the evidence established that Tony understood the difference between the truth and a lie, but argues that the State failed to establish that Tony Strong knew he was under a compulsion to tell the truth. Under Ind. Code § 34-1-14-5, a child is competent if the court finds: (1) that the child knows the difference between telling the truth and telling a lie and (2) that the child knows of the need to tell the truth. LeMaster v. State (1986), Ind., 498 N.E.2d 1185. The determination of a child's competence lies within the trial court's discretion, because it has the opportunity to observe the child's intelligence, demeanor, and maturity. Lindsey v. State (1984), Ind., 465 N.E.2d 721. This Court's deference to the trial court's conclusion has been expressed as follows: In reviewing such a determination, we recognize that our examination of the transcribed record of the questioning cannot compare with the trial court's personal presence at the hearing as a basis for resolution of the issue. We, therefore, entrust this determination to the discretion of the trial court and will reverse only where we find clear error, where there is no evidence from which the trial court could have found that the child understood the nature and obligation of an oath. LeMaster, 498 N.E.2d at 1187-88 (quoting Johnson v. State (1977), 265 Ind. 689, 692, 359 N.E.2d 525, 528). During the competency hearing, Tony Strong was questioned by the prosecutor, by defense counsel, and by the trial judge. Upon the issue of the child's compulsion to tell the truth, there was evidence that Tony knew that he was supposed to tell the truth in court, that he would get in trouble if he didn't, that it was important to tell the truth in court, and that the important things being decided required that he tell exactly what happened in the past. The trial court's competency determination was not an abuse of discretion.