Opinion ID: 1685116
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Foundation for Fulton's Testimony

Text: Jackson assigns, first, that the district court erred in overruling his objections at trial to Fulton's use of the names Shalamar and Dante in his testimony, because the State did not provide a sufficient foundation for the use of the names. Jackson argues that allowing Fulton to refer to Shalamar and Dante by name tied together the State's theory of the case that Cooperrider, Chillous, and Jackson acted together to kill Perry. Fulton used these names to identify people present on the night of the shooting, although he testified that he had never met Shalamar or Dante. Fulton stated that he only knew the names Shalamar and Dante because he had heard them from the police and bystanders at the apartment complex. Jackson alleges that, pursuant to Neb.Rev.Stat. §§ 27-104 and 27-602 (Reissue 1995), Fulton did not possess the foundational personal knowledge necessary to testify regarding the names of Shalamar and Dante. Section 27-602 states, in pertinent part, that a witness may not testify to a matter unless evidence is introduced sufficient to support a finding that he has personal knowledge of the matter. Evidence to prove personal knowledge may, but need not, consist of the testimony of the witness himself. Id. Section 27-104(1) states, in pertinent part, that preliminary questions concerning the qualification of a person to be a witness, or the admissibility of evidence, shall be determined by the trial judge. A witness testifying to objective facts must have had means of knowing the facts from the witness' personal knowledge. See State v. Kirksey, 254 Neb. 162, 575 N.W.2d 377 (1998). An appellate court reviews the trial court's conclusions with regard to evidentiary foundation and witness qualification for an abuse of discretion. See State v. Irish, 223 Neb. 578, 584, 391 N.W.2d 137, 141 (1986) ([t]he admission or exclusion of evidence is a matter left largely to the sound discretion of the trial court, whose ruling will be upheld absent an abuse of discretion). In this case, Fulton saw Cooperrider, Chillous, and Jackson at the scene of Perry's shooting, although he did not know their names. By the time of the preliminary hearing, Fulton had learned the names of the three men from the police and from bystanders who knew the three men. Fulton testified that seeing Cooperrider, Chillous, and Jackson at the preliminary hearing allowed him to link the names with the faces that he recognized from the night of Perry's shooting. In other words, while Fulton later learned Cooperrider's, Chillous', and Jackson's names, that did not affect his testimony, as an eyewitness, that they were present at the scene of the shooting. A judicial abuse of discretion exists only when the reasons or rulings of a trial judge are clearly untenable, unfairly depriving a litigant of a substantial right and denying a just result in matters submitted for disposition. State v. Dean, 264 Neb. 42, 645 N.W.2d 528 (2002). The facts above demonstrate that the district court had a tenable basis upon which to allow Fulton's testimony to go to the jury. Thus, the district court did not abuse its discretion in overruling Jackson's objection. This assignment of error is without merit.