Opinion ID: 2570390
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lausell's Testimony

Text: {18} The trial court has discretion regarding the admission or exclusion of evidence, and a trial court's evidentiary ruling will not be disturbed on appeal absent an abuse of that discretion. See State v. Stampley, 1999-NMSC-027, ¶ 37, 127 N.M. 426, 982 P.2d 477; State v. Brown, 1998-NMSC-037, ¶ 32, 126 N.M. 338, 969 P.2d 313. In order to find an abuse of discretion, this Court must conclude that the trial court's decision to admit testimony was obviously erroneous, arbitrary, or unwarranted. Brown, 1998-NMSC-037, ¶ 39, 126 N.M. 338, 969 P.2d 313. {19} Defendant argues that the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted the testimony of Lausell regarding statements made by Beckley to Lausell which implicated Defendant in the murders. Defendant's trial counsel objected on hearsay grounds to Lausell's testimony regarding Beckley's statements to him. The court found that Lausell's testimony was admissible based on Rule 11-801 NMRA 2000. A statement is not hearsay if: (1) Prior statement by witness. The declarant testifies at the trial or hearing and is subject to cross-examination concerning the statement, and the statement is ... (b) consistent with the declarant's testimony and is offered to rebut an express or implied charge against the declarant of recent fabrication or improper influence or motive.... Rule 11-801(D). {20} Defendant argues that Beckley admitted that at least some of her statements to Lausell were lies in an attempt to impress him and keep him from leaving her, and Defendant asserts that this motive to lie to Lausell arose before she made her statements to him. Defendant argues that the trial court should not have admitted Lausell's testimony as a prior consistent statement offered to rebut an express or implied charge of recent fabrication because the prior statement, to be admissible, must have been made before the alleged motive arose, relying on State v. Casaus, 1996-NMCA-031, ¶¶ 17-20, 121 N.M. 481, 913 P.2d 669, and Tome v. United States, 513 U.S. 150, 156, 115 S.Ct. 696, 130 L.Ed.2d 574 (1995). In his brief in chief, Defendant asserts that Beckley had two motives to continue reiterating the same story: First, she was still devoted to Lausell, in spite of the fact that he gave information to the police; and second, her plea agreement with the State prevented variation from her original statements because of the threat of the death penalty. Defendant contends that Lausell's testimony improperly bolstered Beckley's credibility.
{21} Defendant failed to properly preserve the claim he now argues on appeal. The State, without further analysis, notes Defendant raises this argument for the first time on appeal. Defendant's only response is that he believes his objections speak for themselves. Defendant argues that his objection to the testimony as hearsay was enough to be sufficiently clear to the trial court. We disagree. {22} Defense counsel objected to Lausell's testimony merely as hearsay. The trial court stated that it did not understand Defendant's objection and asked defense counsel if he was contesting what Esther Beckley said was the truth. Defense counsel replied that he was contesting Beckley's truthfulness, but he argued that it did not give the State the right to come in and utilize hearsay, and that he was objecting on that basis. The State responded that the testimony was admissible as either prior inconsistent or prior consistent statements, and the trial court ruled that the testimony was clearly admissible under [Rule] 11-801. Thus, the State properly countered Defendant's hearsay objection with a reference to Rule 11-801, which the court clearly understood; the State was arguing, and the trial court accepted, that the testimony was not hearsay because it was consistent with the declarant's testimony and [was] offered to rebut an express or implied charge against the declarant of recent fabrication or improper influence or motive. See Rule 11-801(D)(1)(b). [1] {23} At this point, in order to preserve the argument, Defendant had to alert the trial court that he believed that the declarant had an improper motive that predated the time she made the statement to Lausell. Defense counsel did not argue to the trial court at that time that Beckley had a motive to lie which predated her statements to Lausell. During Lausell's testimony regarding the statements Beckley made to him concerning the robberies and murders, defense counsel did not object or request the trial court to exclude that portion of Lausell's testimony based on this theory of Beckley's motive to lie to Lausell. {24} Thus, Defendant did not alert the trial court to the specific nature of his general hearsay objection, even after the State and the trial court clearly believed the testimony was admissible under Rule 11-801. In order to properly preserve this claim on appeal, Defendant had to argue that he believed that Beckley had a motive to lie before she made the statements to Lausell. {25} The question of when a motive to lie arises is a question the trial court answers, reviewable by an appellate court under the abuse of discretion standard. Brown, 1998-NMSC-037, ¶ 32, 126 N.M. 338, 969 P.2d 313. In Brown, this Court recounted that Defendants objected to the introduction of [a prior consistent statement] arguing that [the declarant] had a motive to fabricate, which arose before he told the witness his story. Id. ¶ 34. Because the defendants made the proper argument at trial, the trial court in Brown was then able to consider and rule on the argument, rejecting the defendants' claims that the motive to lie predated the time the declarant made the statement to the witness. Id. {26} The Court of Appeals, in Casaus, 1996-NMCA-031, ¶ 19, 121 N.M. 481, 913 P.2d 669 recognized that Rule 11-801(D)(1)(b) requires trial courts to determine not only whether `improper influence or motive' exists but also when the motive originated. In Casaus, the Court of Appeals concluded that the testimony was inadmissible because the prior consistent statement did not pre-date the improper influence or motive, and determined that the defendant raised the motive to lie in his opening statements, showing that the motive arose two weeks before the statements were made. Id. ¶ 20. In contrast, defense counsel did not mention in opening statements that Beckley's motive to lie was to convince Lausell not to leave her; rather, defense counsel implied that she was lying to police in order to protect Lausell, and that after Lausell turned her into the police, she was coerced by the threat of the death penalty to continue telling the same story. Because Defendant did not alert the trial court to his specific theory that Beckley was lying when she made the statements to Lausell, the trial court never had the opportunity to determine when the motive to lie would have arisen. {27} While it may be proper for a defendant to have multiple theories of the crime, Defendant, in order to preserve an argument for appeal, must alert the trial court as to which theory is at issue in order to allow the trial court to rule on the objection. On appeal, Defendant argues that Beckley's motive to lie to Lausell arose from an initial motive to keep him from leaving her, and Lausell's testimony was therefore inadmissible under the premotive requirement discussed in Tome and Casaus. Defendant did not present this argument to the trial court when defense counsel objected to Lausell's testimony, and because of the multiple motives alleged by defense counsel, the trial court could not have assumed which motive to lie defense counsel was referring to when he objected to Lausell's testimony merely as hearsay. Defense counsel maintained throughout the trial that Lausell was actually the murderer in this case; it is paradoxical for Beckley to lie to Lausell in order to keep him by telling him she committed these crimes with Defendant if, in fact, she committed the crimes with Lausell. She would not reasonably tell her accomplice that she committed these very crimes with another person. Thus, if Defendant wanted to assert a new motive and theory of Beckley's statements to Lausell, that Lausell was not involved with the crimes and therefore knew nothing about them and that Beckley was lying to Lausell in order to impress him, he had to inform the trial court of this theory in order to fairly invoke a ruling by the court. As discussed further below, the trial court had instead been repeatedly presented with Defendant's theory that Lausell himself committed the crimes. {28} A trial is first and foremost to resolve a complaint in controversy, and the rule [of preservation] recognizes that a trial court can be expected to decide only the case presented under issues fairly invoked. State v. Gomez, 1997-NMSC-006, ¶ 14, 122 N.M. 777, 932 P.2d 1; accord Rule 12-216(A) NMRA 2000 (establishing that in order for an appealing party to preserve a question for review it must appear that a ruling or decision by the district court was fairly invoked). We require parties to assert the legal principle upon which their claims are based and to develop the facts in the trial court primarily for two reasons: (1) to alert the trial court to a claim of error so that it has an opportunity to correct any mistake, and (2) to give the opposing party a fair opportunity to respond and show why the court should rule against the objector. Gomez, 1997-NMSC-006, ¶ 29, 122 N.M. 777, 932 P.2d 1. [I]t is the responsibility of counsel at trial to elicit a definitive ruling on an objection from the court. It is also trial counsel's duty to state the objections so that the trial court may rule intelligently on them and so that an appellate court does not have to guess at what was and what was not an issue at trial. State v. Lucero, 116 N.M. 450, 453, 863 P.2d 1071, 1074 (1993). {29} Because Defendant failed to properly preserve this issue and instead is introducing a new argument on appeal, we review this claim for fundamental error. Cf. State v. Chamberlain, 112 N.M. 723, 730, 819 P.2d 673, 680 (1991) (Failure to make a timely objection to alleged improper argument bars review on appeal, unless the impropriety constitutes fundamental error.). We first determine whether the trial court erred in admitting Lausell's testimony under the arguments Defendant made at trial.
{30} We conclude that the trial court did not err by admitting Lausell's testimony. As noted above, Defendant made a general hearsay objection to Lausell's testimony, and the trial court elicited from defense counsel that he was arguing that Lausell's testimony was inadmissible and that Beckley was lying. The prosecutor countered the hearsay objection with a reference to Rule 11-801, with which the trial court agreed. Because defense counsel did not argue that Beckley's alleged lie referred to a motive to prevent Lausell from leaving her and because his theory of the case was that Lausell himself was an accomplice, the trial court could reasonably presume that if Beckley had a motive to lie which could result in exclusion of the testimony under Rule 11-801, the motive would be consistent with defense counsel's assertions at the time of trial. {31} At issue before the trial court was Beckley's alleged motive to lie in order to avoid the death penalty and the alleged motive to lie to protect Lausell. These motives occurred after she made the statements to Lausell. In the context of the defense counsel's strategy, the trial court properly concluded that Beckley's alleged motive to lie did not predate her statements to Lausell. During opening arguments, defense counsel stated, Another one made a deal for her life. And part of that deal is that she's to testify here today.... Oh, they use fancy words like, She's supposed to tell the truth. Well, no, folks. What she's supposed to tell you is the same story she told them the first time around, truth be damned. .... ... [S]he is supposed to tell the same story she told the first time she talked to the police ... to save part of her liberty; another one to save his liberty; others for the glory of being involved in the case. (Emphasis added.) Defense counsel was thus arguing that Beckley lied to the authorities when she spoke with them and would lie during her testimony in order to avoid the death penalty. Defense counsel was implying that she was lying to the police in order to protect Lausell because Lausell was the murderer. Defense counsel stated. The evidence is going to show that she's in love with John Lausell.... And at the time that she gave these statements to the police, didn't know that John Lausell was fixing to do her in.... That's very important to know, because she tries to direct all the attention away from John Lausell. She tries to act as if John Lausell had nothing to do with this. She tries to keep him as far out of this as much as she can. {32} Defendant's theories in the trial court regarding Beckley's motives to lie were her desire to protect Lausell and her desire to avoid the death penalty. Thus, under Tome and Casaus, the trial court did not err in admitting Lausell's testimony regarding Beckley's statements because Beckley's alleged motive to lie arose at the time she spoke to the police, after she made the statements to Lausell.
{33} The rule of fundamental error applies only if there has been a miscarriage of justice, if the question of guilt is so doubtful that it would shock the conscience to permit the conviction to stand, or if substantial justice has not been done. State v. Orosco, 113 N.M. 780, 784, 833 P.2d 1146, 1150 (1992). Initially, we determine whether the trial court erred under Defendant's unpreserved appellate argument. {34} The trial court's admission of Lausell's testimony is consistent with this Court's discussion in Brown, 1998-NMSC-037, ¶ 43, 126 N.M. 338, 969 P.2d 313: At common law, prior consistent statements were admissible for rehabilitation on several theories: (1) to place a supposed inconsistent statement in context to refute the alleged inconsistency; (2) to support the denial of making an inconsistent statement; (3) to refute the suggestion that the witness's memory is flawed due to the passage of time; and (4) to refute an allegation of recent fabrication, improper influence, or motive. Under this Court's analysis in Brown, this case involves the first two theories: Beckley's prior consistent statements to Lausell were admissible for rehabilitation to place a supposed inconsistent statement in context to refute the alleged inconsistency and to support the denial of making an inconsistent statement. Prior consistent statements, to place an inconsistent statement in context to refute the inconsistency and to support the denial of making an inconsistent statement, are admissible for purposes of rehabilitation, because the rehabilitative use of the statements does not purport to offer the words for the truth of the matter asserted but, instead, to refute a specific attack against the witness's credibility. Brown, 1998-NMSC-037, ¶ 45, 126 N.M. 338, 969 P.2d 313. This Court, in Brown, concluded that the first three common law theories of admissibility for rehabilitation are not dependent on motive and are therefore not subject to the premotive requirement of Rule 11-801(D)(1)(b). Id. ¶¶ 38-46. Rule 11-801(D)(1)(b) deals only with the fourth theory on which prior consistent statements may be offered. Brown, 1998-NMSC-037, ¶ 43, 126 N.M. 338, 969 P.2d 313. Thus, similar to our holding in Brown, 1998-NMSC-037, ¶ 46, 126 N.M. 338, 969 P.2d 313, we believe the trial court's decision to admit Lausell's testimony was proper independent of Rule 11-801(D)(1)(b). As a result, the trial court's ruling was proper irrespective of the motive to lie asserted by Defendant for the first time on appeal. {35} The State asserts that Defendant, while cross-examining Beckley, suggested that the State had attempted to get her to fabricate testimony that she gave certain information to Mr. Lausell. We agree. Defense counsel questioned Beckley: Q. Ms. Beckley, you understand and know now that your lover has, at least according to all of these reports and everything else, information that nobody else seems to have about this case. You know that, don't you? A. Yes. Q. And you know that yesterday afternoon in particular, the District Attorney's office was trying to get you to say that you gave that information to him? Thus, the State argues that, in order to rebut Defendant's suggestion that Beckley's testimony at trial was inconsistent with her statements to Lausell, the trial court properly allowed the State to introduce Lausell's testimony for rehabilitative purposes, to place a supposed inconsistent statement in context in order to refute the alleged inconsistency and in order to bolster her denial of making an inconsistent statement. Although Defendant argues that defense counsel merely asked one question regarding Beckley's account of events differing from Lausell's version, [2] defense counsel repeatedly referred to this theory at trial, implying that Lausell's account contained more detail than she provided to him. {36} During opening statements, defense counsel suggested that Lausell knew information that he could not have obtained from Beckley: John Lausell knows lots of intimate information, detailed, about what went on at Hollywood Video, and especially up in the mountains, that Esther Beckley never told him. So one of two things happened: Either the police told him about that information, or he was there. And if he was there, the state made a deal with the devil. Defense counsel continued with several remarks regarding the theory of what Lausell knew independently, and he questioned Beckley extensively regarding what she told Lausell. Throughout the trial, defense counsel's strategy was to implicate Lausell in the robbery and murders and to imply that Lausell framed Defendant by stating during closing that only Lausell knew how they were shot and that they bought [Lausell's] frame-up. {37} Following a careful review of the trial transcripts, including the closing arguments, we conclude that the prosecutors used Lausell's testimony as rehabilitation to show that Beckley's statements at trial were not inconsistent with her statements to Lausell. In other words, the State used Lausell's testimony to support Beckley's denial of making an inconsistent statement rather than for the truth of the matter asserted, that Defendant committed the murders and robbery. During closing argument, the State contended, The eyewitness to the homicides, Esther Beckley, in prison for the rest of her life. She says Shane Harrison did it. She said that Shane Harrison did it when she talked to John Lausell. She said Shane Harrison did it when she talked to the police. She said Shane Harrison did it when she talked to Mr. Mitch LeMay. She said it here. She's been completely consistent every single day. She described everything. (Emphasis added.). The prosecutor's argument supports the State's theory that the prosecutors were using Lausell's testimony to rebut defense counsel's claim that Beckley's testimony at trial was inconsistent and to bolster her denial of making inconsistent statements at trial. {38} During closing arguments, the prosecutors' discussion of Lausell was not for the substantive use of Beckley's statements regarding the Defendant; instead, the discussion of Lausell was an attempt to counter defense counsel's claims that Lausell was actually the murderer. The prosecutor stated that Lausell was a tipster that pointed the police in the right direction and that he was telling the truth, stating that [h]e told you the truth. And John Lausell had an alibi. The prosecutor also noted that Lausell had taken a polygraph test, emphasizing that he claimed he was not involved in the robberies and murders. The prosecutor argued that John Lausell was the fall guy. He was a good fall guy because she loved him, and he became a great fall guy when he got a hundred grand [as a reward for providing information to the police]. So `John Lausell did it.' The prosecutors were attempting to counter Defendant's trial strategy that Lausell actually committed the crimes and that Beckley lied to the police in order to protect Lausell and avoid the death penalty. Because the trial court properly admitted Lausell's testimony under Defendant's appellate theory and thus did not err, Defendant clearly did not suffer fundamental error. Cf. State v. Coffin, 1999-NMSC-038, ¶ 29, 128 N.M. 192, 991 P.2d 477 (concluding that the trial court's actions did not constitute error and, therefore, did not rise to the level of fundamental error warranting reversal of Coffin's conviction.). {39} We conclude, with respect to Defendant's preserved error, that the trial court did not err in admitting Lausell's testimony because Beckley's alleged motives to lie, protection of Lausell and avoidance of the death penalty, did not predate her statements to Lausell. We conclude that Defendant raises the argument that the trial court erred in admitting Lausell's testimony because Beckley had a motive to lie predating her statements to Lausell for the first time on appeal. Defendant failed to alert the trial court to this theory, and thus, failed to properly preserve this issue for appeal. Reviewing Defendant's unpreserved appellate argument for fundamental error, we hold that the trial court's admission of Lausell's testimony was also proper under Brown as a prior consistent statement for purposes of rehabilitation to place an inconsistent statement in context and to support the denial of making an inconsistent statement. The trial court did not err; therefore, the rule of fundamental error does not apply.