Opinion ID: 1331807
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Confrontation Elmo Florence

Text: Mooney next urges that the trial court erred in permitting the witness Reinhold to testify under Code Ann. § 38-306 to the substance of statements made by Elmo Florence implicating himself and Mooney in the Harty killing. Reinhold testified that while he and Florence were drinking beer at a bar one night, Florence told him details of the killing, saying he had been paid by Mooney to do it, and appeared to be seeking further employment as a paid killer by bragging of his success. In part, this was the testimony: A. .... Elmo started making implications that he was in another type of business other than Florence Electric. And he went on to tell me that if I ever needed anything, I shouldn't call New Jersey; I'm from New Jersey. He said you're from New Jersey and you know what goes on in New Jersey. If you ever have any trouble, don't call New Jersey; call me. I do a good clean job. Q. And did he tell you what he was talking about? A. He said: I'm a hit man. I'm a hit man, baby, and I ain't bullshitting you....[Florence then said he was the person who had killed Harty. He provided details which seemed convincing to Reinhold.] ...A. I asked him  you know  why did you kill him? and he goes: because I'll tell you, baby, I'm a hit man. I was hired to do it. And I said: Who hired you? And he said John Mooney... John Mooney from Somebody's Pizza... T. K. was going to throw this young kid out of the station. John Mooney was going to lose his whole livelihood because T. K. was going to throw him out. I asked him how much he got paid. Elmo stated he got paid $5,000 to $10,000... After that he stated... I don't worry about telling you because you know what goes on. And if anything should happen to me, my partner John knows who I'm talking to and why I'm talking to you. If anything should happen to me, my partner John knows who to come take care of. Mooney argues that the admission of this testimony containing the out-of-court statements of Florence, who was not a trial witness, incriminating him, (Mooney) violated his confrontation rights under the Sixth Amendment and Code Ann. § 38-414 which states that the confession of one joint offender or conspirator, made after the enterprise is ended, shall be admissible only against himself. We find that Code Ann. § 38-414 is not involved here, because Florence was making no confession within the meaning of that section, nor had the enterprise ended. Instead, this testimony is permitted by Code Ann. § 38-306, sometimes referred to as the co-conspirator exception to the hearsay rule, which states that after the fact of conspiracy shall be proved, the declarations by any one of the conspirators during the pendency of the criminal project shall be admissible against all. It is well established that the duration of the conspiracy includes its concealment phase, and that this application of the statute is not subject to objection as a denial of confrontation. Dutton v. Evans, 400 U. S. 74 (1970). Mooney urges that Dutton v. Evans is distinguishable because there the statements were not crucial or devastating, 400 U. S. at 87, whereas Florence's statements were clearly harmful. We conclude that this is not the thrust of the Dutton v. Evans ruling. Instead, that Court enumerated certain indicia of reliability, including the spontaneity of the statement and the fact that it was against the speaker's penal interest to make it. The Court furthered this analysis in Mancusi v. Stubbs, 408 U. S. 204, 213 (1972): The focus of the Court's concern has been to insure that there `are indicia of reliability which have been widely viewed as determinative of whether a statement may be placed before the jury though there is no confrontation of the declarant,' Dutton v. Evans, supra, at 89, and to `afford the trier of fact a satisfactory basis for evaluating the truth of the prior statement,' California v. Green, supra, at 161. It is clear from these statements, and from numerous prior decisions of this Court, that even though the witness be unavailable his prior testimony must bear some of these `indicia of reliability' referred to in Dutton. (Emphasis supplied.) Those indicia were that the statement was non-narrative (this is not true of Florence's statement); that the declarant (Florence) is shown by the evidence to know whereof he speaks; that the witness (Reinhold) is not apt to be proceeding on faulty recollection; and that the circumstances show that declarant had no apparent reason to lie to the witness. See Dutton v. Evans, supra. The final three indicia are present here. The concealment phase of this conspiracy between Florence and Mooney was plainly still continuing. Florence's further statements to Reinhold thanked him because you let me in on some stuff concerning what the feeling was in the town about the killing, and you also gave me a place to leave something. And now I've picked it back up. It was a wad of money. Additionally, Florence threatened Reinhold with dire consequences if he revealed what he was told. This is not a confession which will end the concealment phase of a conspiracy, and several indicia of reliability are present. There is absolutely no chance here for the kind of corruption of justice that could flow from the use of statements made to police officers incriminating oneself and others. See, e.g., Price v. State, 239 Ga. 439 (238 SE2d 24) (1977); Crowder v. State, 237 Ga. 141 (227 SE2d 230) (1976). Finally, this is the kind of out-of-court statement which is apt to throw great light upon the question of guilt. As a concurring justice wrote in Dutton v. Evans, Judging the Georgia statute here challenged by the standards of due process, I conclude that it must be sustained. Accomplishment of the main object of a conspiracy will seldom terminate the community of interest of the conspirators. Declarations against that interest evince some likelihood of trustworthiness. The jury, with the guidance of defense counsel, should be alert to the obvious dangers of crediting such testimony. As a practical matter, unless the out-of-court declaration can be proved by hearsay evidence, the facts it reveals are likely to remain hidden from the jury by the declarant's invocation of the privilege against self-incrimination. In light of such considerations, a person weighing the necessity for hearsay evidence of the type here involved against the danger that a jury will give it undue credit might reasonably conclude that admission of the evidence would increase the likelihood of just determinations of truth. 400 U. S. at 99 (Harlan, J., concurring). The admission of Reinhold's testimony was authorized by Code Ann. § 38-306, and did not violate Mooney's confrontation rights under the state and federal constitutions. See Moore v. State, 240 Ga. 807, 817-818 (243 SE2d 1) (1978); Knight v. State, 239 Ga. 594 (238 SE2d 390) (1977) and cits.