Opinion ID: 2264062
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Decedent's Telephone Records

Text: The defendant argues that the trial justice erred in admitting into evidence Jacques's telephone records, because the state failed to lay the proper foundation for expert testimony. We disagree. The rules governing the trial justice's gatekeeping role in the admission of expert testimony pertain only to novel, unvalidated scientific or complex technical evidence. DiPetrillo v. Dow Chemical Co., 729 A.2d 677, 685 (R.I.1999). A telephone company's ability to record a list of phone calls made from a phone number is not a new phenomenon. In fact, phone records have been found to be inherently reliable under the business records exception of the hearsay rule. See United States v. Wills, 346 F.3d 476, 490 (4th Cir.2003). Thus, the rules governing expert testimony do not apply, and, therefore, defendant's argument is wholly without merit. C