Opinion ID: 1433877
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Admission into Evidence of Audio Recordings of 911 Calls

Text: Defendant Guthrie also claims that the district court erred by permitting the introduction of audio recordings of conversations between Williams (the victim) and 911 operators. Guthrie argues that the recordings should not have been admitted because statements made in the recordings were hearsay not falling within an exception. Further, the Defendant says the recordings were unduly prejudicial. This Court reviews evidentiary rulings by the district court for abuse of discretion. United States v. Moon, 513 F.3d 527, 544 (6th Cir.2008); United States v. Arnold, 486 F.3d 177, 184 (6th Cir.2007) (applying abuse of discretion review to a district court's application of Federal Rule of Evidence 803(d) to 911 calls). In Arnold, this Court considered the introduction of 911 calls despite hearsay challenges. We noted that three elements must be shown to satisfy the excited utterance exception: First, there must be an event startling enough to cause nervous excitement. Second, the statement must be made before there is time to contrive or misrepresent. And, third, the statement must be made while the person is under the stress of the excitement caused by the event. Arnold, 486 F.3d at 184 (quoting Haggins v. Warden, Fort Pillow State Farm, 715 F.2d 1050, 1057 (6th Cir.1983)). At Guthrie's trial, audio recordings of two separate 911 calls were played. The first call (chronologically as it occurred on the night of the offense) started when a 911 dispatcher called Williams' cell phone inquiring about her safety. Williams calmly told the 911 operator that she was not in any danger. She stated that she had not been abducted at gunpoint, that her cell phone battery was dying, and that she was on the expressway. The district court found that this call did not fall within the excited utterance hearsay exception because the victim sounded calm and because she not only had time to contrive, but did in fact contrive, as all of her responses were lies. Nonetheless, because the United States did not object, Guthrie played this recording at trial and questioned the victim about it on cross-examination. The second audio recording played at the trial was a clip of one of several calls made by Williams to the police during the police pursuit of the vehicle. In these later calls, Williams told police to back off in their pursuit or else she would be killed. The district court allowed the introduction of the recording of the later call based on the exited utterance hearsay exception. Assuming that the statements made during the latter 911 call were hearsay, [3] the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the statements qualified for admission under the excited utterance exception. In ruling on the issue, the district court addressed the three elements of the test applied in Arnold. At the conclusion of proof, the district court explained that it was not considering the abduction at the apartment to be the startling event. Although that event would have been sufficient to trigger the excited utterance exception, the court acknowledged that during the first 911 call, the victim exhibited a calm demeanor as she lied to the police. Thus, the statements made during subsequent 911 calls could not have been the result of the stress of being initially abducted at gunpointanother intervening startling event must have occurred. The court therefore clarified that ... [A]nother traumatic event occurred before the second call. And that was that the police had come on the scene... So I find that the other traumatic event that occurred was the police chase. The district court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the police chase acted as an exciting catalyst. Just because the victim was calm after being abducted at gunpoint does not mean she necessarily preserved her calm. The district court could reasonably have found that when the situation turned into a police chase, the victim reacted accordingly. Based on this theory, the initiation of the police chase could have served as a new and independent startling event, sufficient to effectuate the excited utterance hearsay exception. Moreover, the district court found that admission of the recordings of the 911 calls did not violate Federal Rule of Evidence 403 because the probative value of th[e] victim's call[s] from the car outweighs any prejudicial ... effect. Within the context of Rule 403, `[u]nfair prejudice does not mean the damage to a defendant's case that results from the legitimate probative force of the evidence; rather it refers to evidence which tends to suggest [a] decision on an improper basis.' United States v. Lawson, 535 F.3d 434, 442 (6th Cir.2008) (quoting United States v. Newsom, 452 F.3d 593, 603 (6th Cir.2006)). The 911 calls were highly probative of the charged carjacking offense and the evidence did not suggest a decision on an improper basis. Therefore, the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the introduction of the 911 calls.