Opinion ID: 2329200
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Testimony of Patricia Ross

Text: We first consider the testimony of Patricia Ross. Prior to Ross' testimony, the defendant requested that the trial court instruct the state to avoid certain incidents of the defendant's bad conduct, especially where those incidents required hearsay testimony from the witness. The state responded that it did not intend to ask Ross about those incidents, but that it did intend to elicit from [Ross] statements by the victim . . . that she was afraid of the defendant and that she was afraid the defendant was going to kill her. That is relevant. It shows her state of mind. In response, the defendant argued that the testimony would be unduly prejudicial. The trial court ruled that it would permit evidence of the victim's state of mind as a recognized exception to the hearsay rule but would not permit collateral facts that supported the state of mind. On the stand, Ross testified that, upon returning home from driving the defendant to his apartment on the morning preceding the day the victim was murdered, she appeared [s]cared, upset. When the state attempted to elicit what the victim had said with respect to why she was afraid, the defendant objected to the question as calling for hearsay. After the trial court indicated that it had already ruled on the objection and would allow the testimony, Ross stated that the victim had said, `[m]om, I'm afraid he was going to kill me.' Ross further testified that she understood the victim to be referring to the defendant. The defendant argues that the trial court improperly admitted Ross' testimony under the state of mind exception to the hearsay rule for the following reasons: (1) the victim's use of was indicates that the statement did not evince a then existing state of mind; (2) the statement referred to facts or events and included the reasons for the state of mind because it referred to the incident earlier that morning between the victim and the defendant; (3) the statement was not a natural expression of the victim's condition because Ross initiated the conversation; (4) the statement was not introduced exclusively for the victim's state of mind because that state of mind did not affect her actions; (5) the victim's fear of the defendant was irrelevant to the case because it did not relate to any defense claim or provide context to any relevant action of the victim; and (6) admission was more prejudicial to the defendant than probative of any relevant issue. We disagree. It was within the trial court's discretion to conclude that the victim's statement referred to her then existing state of mind, especially in light of Ross' own observation that the victim appeared scared and upset when the statement was made. Moreover, although the state of mind exception does not encompass statements pointing to acts of another as the cause of the declarant's state of mind; State v. Dehaney, supra, 261 Conn. at 359-60, 803 A.2d 267; the victim's statement, [m]om, I'm afraid he was going to kill me, contains no reference to an act of the defendant or the cause of the victim's fear. The prohibition against the declarant's statement containing the cause of her state of mind does not preclude admissibility of that statement under the state of mind exception to the hearsay rule just because the party offering the statement previously offered evidence that would induce that state of mind. In other words, Ross' testimony concerning the victim's statement was not made inadmissible by Ross' previous testimony concerning what she witnessed in the victim's bedroom earlier that morning. Nor was the statement inadmissible because Ross initiated the conversation. Generally, to be admissible, an out-of-court statement introduced to establish the declarant's state of mind must be made in a natural manner, in apparent good faith and without reason for fabrication. . . [and] offered exclusively as evidence of the declarant's state of mind. (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Bova, 240 Conn. 210, 238, 690 A.2d 1370 (1997). Nothing in Ross' testimony suggests that the victim's statement was not made in a natural manner during a conversation between a mother and a daughter, regardless of which of the participants initiated the conversation. The state indicated that the evidence was offered to show the victim's state of mind, namely, fear of the defendant. No requirement exists that the state prove actions on the part of the victim in conformity with that state of mind as long as it is relevant to some issue in the case. As stated previously in this opinion, we have consistently held that evidence of deterioration in a marital or romantic relationship, such as a victim's fear of the defendant, is relevant to motive and intent in a homicide prosecution and may be relevant to rebut the defense's theory of the case. In the present case, the victim's expressions of fear of the defendant were relevant to show the deterioration in their romantic relationship. The defendant contends that the victim's fear was not relevant to motive because her statement was not made in the defendant's presence, nor was there obvious evidence of a deteriorated relationship. The defendant also contends that the state did not argue the deterioration in the relationship as the defendant's motive for murdering the victim; rather, the state argued that the defendant's motive was control. We conclude that the jury properly could have inferred that the defendant was aware that the relationship had deteriorated from the victim's multiple expressions of fear and other evidence that the relationship had deteriorated, namely, the argument between the two less than forty-eight hours before the homicide and the defendant's statement to Auger that he would shoot the victim in the head, and that the defendant's resulting fear that he would lose the ability to control the victim provided his motive to commit the murder. Moreover, one of the defendant's implied theories of defense was that it was Auger, not he, who had the motive to kill the victim. This made evidence of the victim's fear relevant. Considering the probative value of this evidence, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in deciding that the evidence was more probative than prejudicial. Finally, any potential prejudice was mitigated by the trial court's limiting instructions to the jury. [9] 2