Opinion ID: 1744864
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: assignments of error eight and eighteen

Text: By these assignments of error defendants contend that the trial court erroneously allowed state witnesses to give hearsay statements. On appeal the defendant objects to certain testimony elicited from the state witness, Bobbye H. Lafitte, a state social worker who visited the home of the defendants soon after the victim, Arthur, was brought to the hospital. Specifically, the defendant complains of testimony of Ms. Lafitte regarding conversations with the three wives who resided in the house at the time of the victim's death. The record reveals that the defendants' attorney did not object on the grounds that the evidence was hearsay, but to the lack of a foundation. The defendants also contend that the trial court erred in eliciting certain testimony from the defendant's thirteen year old daughter, Monica Meadows. At the conclusion of her testimony, the trial court, in an effort to clarify her version of the events surrounding Arthur's death, questioned Monica regarding what Monica's younger brother, Vivian, Jr., had told her about Arthur declining a salad offered him on the morning of his death. The trial judge paused and expressly gave each side an opportunity to object to the question before the child answered it. However, the record shows that each lawyer declined the invitation to object to the line of questioning. Accordingly, these assignments of error lack merit.