Opinion ID: 2625337
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Bruce Gant's statement to Nancy's father

Text: At a hearing outside the jury's presence (Evid.Code, § 402), the trial court ruled admissible the proposed testimony of Jake Wilhelmi, Nancy's father, regarding a statement Bruce Gant made to him about the location of Nancy's body. Wilhelmi then testified before the jury that on May 9, 1984, he telephoned Gant and asked him for the location of his daughter's body so he could give her a decent burial. At the end of the conversation Gant told him that he might as well forget about trying to find Nancy, that he couldn't get within a hundred yards of her, and that the U.S. Government didn't have enough money to excavate her. Defense counsel objected that the testimony was hearsay and that the risk of undue prejudice outweighed its probative value. The prosecutor argued the statement was admissible under the state of mind exception to the hearsay rule (Evid.Code, § 1250) and as a declaration against interest ( id., § 1230). We need not determine if the statement was hearsay because any error in admitting the statement was harmless. The jury was quite aware that Nancy's body was never found. As the jury already knew that the body was never found, the testimony that Gant said it was useless for Nancy's father to look for her body did not unduly prejudice defendant.