Opinion ID: 2720490
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Karen Flowers

Text: Karen Flowers testified that she had been romantically involved with Armstrong. The prosecution wanted to show she called him using a telephone number belonging to defendant Smith. The prosecution‘s theory was that Smith was friendly with Armstrong, and part of Smith‘s role in the Wheeler Avenue murders was to lull the victims into a false sense of security. Flowers testified that she could not remember the telephone number she used but she had previously given the number to the police. After the court overruled Smith‘s objection, the parties stipulated that Flowers had given the police that particular number. 94 Smith now contends the court wrongly overruled his objection that the number in the report was ―double hearsay.‖ Bryant and Wheeler did not object or join in Smith‘s objection. Thus, they have forfeited the claim. As to one level of hearsay, Smith conceded that the report notation was admissible under the past recollection recorded exception. (Evid. Code, § 1237.)44 The foundational requirements of the exception were not more fully developed because Smith conceded the point. Smith additionally contends, as he did at trial, that Flowers‘s statement was double hearsay because Armstrong, or someone else, had told her this was his telephone number. Smith has mischaracterized Flowers‘s testimony. When asked if she had ―a phone number for [Armstrong] where you could contact [him],‖ she answered, ―yes,‖ but she could not recall the number. The question and testimony concerned Flowers‘s personal knowledge of the telephone number she had used to contact Armstrong. Flowers was not asked and did not testify about a telephone number that someone gave her to contact Armstrong. The ruling was proper.