Opinion ID: 1242050
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Heading: the res gestae exception

Text: The defendant claims that the res gestae exception was improperly invoked in this case for three reasons: (1) the declarant's age of 2 years, 10 months, rendered her incompetent as a witness under section 13-90-106, C.R.S.1973; (2) the one-half-hour interval between the act and the hearsay assertion defeated the spontaneity requirement of the exception; and (3) the application of the exception in this case violated the defendant's constitutional right of confrontation, U.S.Const. Amend. VI; Colo. Const. Art. II, Sec. 16.
The res gestae or excited utterance exception applies to statements relating to a startling act or event made spontaneously and without reflection while the declarant was under the stress of excitement, and offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. [1] E. g., Dolan v. People, 168 Colo. 19, 449 P.2d 828 (1969); Fitzpatrick v. People, 159 Colo. 485, 412 P.2d 893 (1966); Abeyta v. Denver, 132 Colo. 472, 289 P.2d 918 (1955); Martinez v. People, 55 Colo. 51, 132 P. 64 (1913); Denver City Tramway Co. v. Brumley, 51 Colo. 251, 116 P. 1051 (1911); Graves v. People, 18 Colo. 170, 32 P. 63 (1893); see also VI J. Wigmore, Evidence § 1750 at 202 (Chadbourn rev. ed. 1976); C. McCormick, Evidence, § 297 at 704 (2d ed. E. Cleary 1972). Wigmore points up the basis in trustworthiness for the exception: Since this utterance is made under the immediate and uncontrolled domination of the senses, and during the brief period when considerations of self-interest could not have been brought fully to bear by reasoned reflection, the utterance may be taken as particularly trustworthy (or at least as lacking the usual grounds of untrustworthiness), and thus as expressing the real tenor of the speaker's belief as to the facts just observed by him; and may therefore be received as testimony of those facts. VI J. Wigmore, supra, § 1747, at 195. Although there is no Colorado case called to our attention which specifically addresses the question whether a declarant's testimonial incapacity due to age vitiates the admission of that declarant's assertion under the res gestae exception, there is an abundance of authority from other jurisdictions extending the exception to assertions by children of tender years. E. g., State v. Evans, 104 Ariz. 434, 454 P.2d 976 (1969) (five-year-old declarant); State v. Boodry, 96 Ariz. 259, 394 P.2d 196 (1964), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 949, 85 S.Ct. 448, 13 L.Ed.2d 546 (1964) (five-year-old declarant); Soto v. Territory, 12 Ariz. 36, 94 P. 1104 (1908) (four-year-old declarant); Territory v. Kinoshita, 38 Haw. 335 (1949) (four-and-one-half-year-old declarant); Logsdon v. Commonwealth, 215 Ky. 707, 286 S.W. 1067 (1926) (three-year-old declarant); State v. Gorman, 229 Minn. 524, 40 N.W.2d 347 (1949) (four-year-old declarant); Ball v. Gessner, 185 Minn. 105, 240 N.W. 100 (1931) (three-year-old declarant); State v. Simmons, 52 N.J. 538, 247 A.2d 313 (1968), cert. denied, 395 U.S. 924, 89 S.Ct. 1779, 23 L.Ed.2d 241 (1969) (sixteen-year-old deaf-mute declarant with intellectual age of less than seven years); State v. Godwin, 51 N.M. 65, 178 P.2d 584 (1947) (three-year-old declarant); New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Co. v. Kovatch, 120 Ohio St. 532, 166 N.E. 682 (1929) (declarant was an unidentified little girl at a railroad accident); State v. Hutchison, 222 Or. 533, 353 P.2d 1047 (1960) (five-year-old declarant); Powell v. Gallivan, 44 R.I. 453, 118 A. 769 (1922) (two-year-old declarant); Kenney v. State, 79 S.W. 817 (Tex.Cr.App.1903) (three-and-one-half-year-old declarant); Watkins v. State, 78 Tex.Cr.R. 65, 180 S.W. 116 (1915) (four-year-old declarant). We find these cases persuasive and reject the defendant's claim that the testimonial incapacity of the declarant due to her age renders her hearsay assertion inadmissible. The requirement of spontaneity and excitement subsumed by the res gestae exception furnishes a sufficient guarantee of trustworthiness implicit in the rationale of hearsay exceptions. See generally, Annot., 83 A.L.R.2d 1368 (1962) (declarant's age as affecting admissibility under res gestae ); Annot, 157 A.L.R. 1359 (1945) (admissibility of hearsay declaration as affected by declarant's incompetency because of age or other reason); VI J. Wigmore, supra at § 1751(c); C. McCormick, supra at § 297; 2 C. Torcia, Wharton's Criminal Evidence, § 297 (13th ed. 1972).
Similarly, the fact that the hearsay assertion by the young girl was made neither contemporaneously with the event nor immediately thereafter does not preclude its admissibility. While we have alluded to the importance of the temporal proximity of the statement to the event in a number of cases, e. g., Gushurst v. Benham, 160 Colo. 428, 417 P.2d 777 (1966); Balltrip v. People, 157 Colo. 108, 401 P.2d 259 (1965), we also have noted that contemporaneity of the act and the assertion is not required. E. g., Abeyta v. Denver, 132 Colo. 472, 289 P.2d 918 (1955); Denver City Tramway v. Brumley, 51 Colo. 251, 116 P. 1051 (1911); New York and Colorado M. S. & Co. v. Rogers, 11 Colo. 6, 16 P. 719 (1887). What is of critical significance to res gestae is the spontaneous character of the statement and its natural effusion from a state of excitement. [T]his state of excitement may well continue to exist after the exciting fact has ended. The declaration, therefore, may be admissible even though subsequent to the occurrence, provided it is near enough in time to allow the assumption that the exciting influence continued. VI J. Wigmore, supra, § 1756 at 231. Considerable latitude in temporal proximity is particularly evident in cases involving assertions by very young children after a stressful experience. E. g., State v. Boodry, supra (one-half-hour interval); Soto v. Territory, supra (one-and-one-half-hour interval); Territory v. Kinoshita, supra (two-and-one-half-hour interval); Logsdon v. Commonwealth, supra (statement by child upon returning home); State v. Godwin, supra (one-half-hour interval); Watkins v. State, supra (one-half-hour interval). This latitude is a recognition of the fact that children of tender years are generally not adept at reasoned reflection and at concoction of false stories under such circumstances. Contrary to defendant's assertion, the time interval of one-half-hour between the alleged assault and the hearsay declaration does not constitute an impediment to the admissibility of the statement. [2]
The defendant asserts that the application of the res gestae exception in this case violated his confrontation rights. The United States Supreme Court recently set forth the dual predicates necessary to satisfy constitutional confrontation: [W]hen a hearsay declarant is not present for cross-examination at trial, the Confrontation Clause normally requires a showing that he is unavailable. Even then, his statement is admissible only if it bears adequate `indicia of reliability.' Reliability can be inferred without more in a case where the evidence falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception. Ohio v. Roberts, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 2539, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980). The declarant in this case was unavailable as a witness due to her age. Section 13-90-106, C.R.S.1973; see generally Mancusi v. Stubbs, 408 U.S. 204, 92 S.Ct. 2308, 33 L.Ed.2d 293 (1972). And the requirement of spontaneity underlying the res gestae exception provides an adequate proxy for the truth-exacting sanction of an oath. See, e. g., Ohio v. Roberts, supra ; Mancusi v. Stubbs, supra ; Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. 74, 91 S.Ct. 210, 27 L.Ed.2d 213 (1970); California v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 90 S.Ct. 1930, 26 L.Ed.2d 489 (1970); Mattox v. United States, 146 U.S. 140, 13 S.Ct. 50, 36 L.Ed. 917 (1892). Under these circumstances we conclude that the admission of the hearsay assertion under the res gestae exception did not violate the confrontation rights of the defendant.