Opinion ID: 2627503
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Hearsay Exception

Text: Neither party disputes that the victim's statements, offered through the paramedics, constituted hearsay evidence which would be inadmissible unless an exception listed in K.S.A.2007 Supp. 60-460 is applicable. As noted, the district court intimated that both the dying declaration exception of K.S.A.2007 Supp. 60-460(e) and the excited utterance exception of K.S.A.2007 Supp. 60-460(d)(2) applied to the facts of this case. On appeal, neither party even mentions the excited utterance exception, and we will not analyze that provision. See State v. Walker, 283 Kan. 587, 594, 153 P.3d 1257 (2007) (issue not briefed deemed waived or abandoned). K.S.A.2007 Supp. 60-460(e) specifically provides that a dying declaration is an exception to the hearsay rule if the court finds that the statement of the deceased was made (1) voluntarily and in good faith and (2) while the declarant was conscious of the declarant's impending death and believed that there was no hope of recovery. With respect to the second element of the exception, the district court found that Wright certainly had reason to believe that he was dying at the time of the statements. The evidence supports that finding. Wright had sustained multiple gunshots wounds which left him paralyzed in all four limbs. Pointedly, Wright asked one of the two paramedics who were working on him in the ambulance whether he was going to die, manifesting an awareness that he was on the brink of death. Just as pointedly, the paramedic did not give Wright assurance that he would live, but rather responded that the paramedics would do everything they could to keep him from dying. With respect to the first element, the district court did not specifically say that the statements were made voluntarily and in good faith. However, the circumstances under which the statements were obtained do not suggest that they were involuntarily made. Moreover, the district court specifically found that the statements were reliable which would by necessity encompass the good-faith element. Therefore, we find that the victim's statements to the paramedics fell within the dying declaration exception to the statutory hearsay.