Opinion ID: 888630
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Aleasha’s statement to her sister

Text: ¶18 Leann Chenowith testified that Aleasha told her that Sanchez had threatened that “if [Aleasha] ever made [Sanchez] mad . . . he had stuff in Mexico that his friend could give him, and that it would eat her stomach in a matter of days.” The District Court 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. ¶19 We conclude that the District Court correctly overruled Sanchez’s hearsay objection to Leann Chenowith’s testimony because the statement falls outside the hearsay definition. Though Aleasha made the statement outside the courtroom, the record reveals no indication that the State sought to prove that Sanchez actually could obtain poison from acquaintances in Mexico. The State may have offered the statement to show a pattern of threats or that Sanchez contemplated killing Aleasha; however, these rationales are not objectionable on hearsay grounds. The District Court correctly overruled 6 Sanchez’s hearsay objection because the State did not offer the statement to prove the truth of the matter asserted, and thus, the statement was not hearsay.