Opinion ID: 1382950
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: hearsay: 911 audiotape.

Text: Appellant asserts that the audiotape of Patricia Osborne's telephone call to the 911 dispatcher should have been excluded as hearsay, because Mrs. Osborne did not testify at trial and her statements to the dispatcher could not reasonably be characterized as excited utterances under KRE 803(2). [3] However, an out-of-court statement is not hearsay if it is relevant to prove only that the statement was made and not for the truth of the matter asserted. KRE 801(c). Obviously, the Commonwealth did not introduce the audiotape to prove the truth of Patricia Osborne's assertion that Appellant heard glass breaking when he drove past the Davenport residence. That was Appellant's theory of the case, not the Commonwealth's. It was the Commonwealth's theory that the statements made during the 911 call were false and, thus, proved a scheme by Appellant and his mother to divert police attention away from themselves to an unknown perpetrator. As such, the statements made during the 911 call had a relevancy existing without regard to the truth of the assertions. Perdue v. Commonwealth, Ky., 916 S.W.2d 148, 156 (1995), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 855, 117 S.Ct. 151, 136 L.Ed.2d 96 (1996); R. Lawson, The Kentucky Evidence Law Handbook § 8.05, at 367-68 (3d ed. Michie 1993). Coughing is heard in the background of the audiotape of the 911 call. The prosecutor speculated during closing argument that it was Appellant coughing smoke and soot from the fire out of his lungs. Mrs. Osborne made several aside comments during the 911 call from which it could be inferred that Appellant was present and providing her with information at the time. Though dubious and obviously speculative, the prosecutor's characterization of the background coughing was not such an unreasonable inference from the evidence as to constitute reversible error. Tamme v. Commonwealth, Ky., 973 S.W.2d 13, 39 (1998), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1153, 119 S.Ct. 1056, 143 L.Ed.2d 61 (1999); Bills v. Commonwealth, Ky., 851 S.W.2d 466, 473 (1993).