Opinion ID: 2252960
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Admissibility of Evidence Concerning Dugan's Other Crimes

Text: Defendant argues that the trial court erred in excluding evidence concerning Dugan's other crimes and that his accepted confessions to those crimes were contemporaneous to his Nicarico statements. According to defendant, the other-crimes evidence provided by Dugan's confessions as well as the circumstances of those confessions lent credence to Dugan's Nicarico statements that he alone killed Nicarico. The State initially argues that the trial court should not have admitted Dugan's Nicarico statements in the first instance. Had the trial court properly ruled that Dugan's Nicarico statements were inadmissible, argues the State, there would have been no need for the court to consider any evidence corroborating those statements. According to the State, Dugan's Nicarico statements constituted inadmissible hearsay because they were not statements against his penal interest. We preliminarily note that the State has not cross-appealed from the trial court's ruling which admitted Dugan's Nicarico statements. Thus, we consider any factor relating to the admissibility of Dugan's Nicarico statements only to the extent that it is raised by the State's counterargument of this issue.