Opinion ID: 1287369
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: field observation card

Text: [16] Poe claims the trial court erred when the State was allowed to present, over objection, evidence of information contained in a field observation card that purportedly documented personal connections between Poe and Lockett. Poe argues that the field observation card was used to corroborate Harper's theory concerning Poe's involvement in the crime. Brief for appellant at 37. The police department used field observation cards to maintain a databank linking individuals who associate with each other. During direct examination, Bogdanoff stated that police began to investigate Poe after a search of Barnes' residence revealed a map labeled Operation Rush, which identified an area of townhomes. Bogdanoff then looked for any field observation cards related to Poe, and a card was located which indicated that Poe and Lockett had a connection. Further investigation found that DNA evidence from a shoe left at the scene of the homicide matched Lockett's DNA. Poe asserts that the reference to the field observation card was hearsay because the information came from an unknown declarant at an unknown time and place and under unknown circumstances. At trial, Bogdanoff was asked whether Lockett was arrested in connection with this case. He responded, Yes. No further references were made to any field observation card. Although Bogdanoff did not explain how the field observation card made the connection between Poe and Lockett, we conclude that the allowance of this testimony, if error, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The police had obviously made a connection between Poe and Lockett because Lockett was arrested for the same crime. There was other evidence at trial that connected Poe with Lockett, including Harper's testimony that Poe had implicated Lockett in the robbery and murder. [17] In a harmless error review, an appellate court looks at the evidence upon which the jury rested its verdict; the inquiry is not whether in a trial that occurred without the error a guilty verdict would surely have been rendered, but, rather, whether the guilty verdict rendered in the trial was surely unattributable to the error. State v. Morrow, 273 Neb. 592, 731 N.W.2d 558 (2007), disapproved on other grounds, State v. McCulloch, 274 Neb. 636, 742 N.W.2d 727 (2007). We conclude that the jury would have reached the same verdict regardless of whether the information concerning the field observation card was received into evidence.