Opinion ID: 2575468
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Issue 3: Did the district court err in admitting into evidence certain photographs?

Text: Pham objected to the admission of photographs taken from the surveillance video tape at the Kwik Shop. At trial, and now on appeal, he argues a lack of foundation because the store clerk, who was present at the time of Pham's appearance recorded on the tape, did not testify. As a result, he alleges no one could testify that the resultant photographs were accurate depictions of what had occurred in the store. He does not dispute their relevance, our threshold determination on admissibility of evidence. See State v. Meeks, 277 Kan. 609, 618, 88 P.3d 789 (2004). The State argued that a general foundation for the photographs had been met, and the district court agreed. In attempting to lay foundation for the photographs, the State offered testimony from Dawn Walker, the assistant manager at the Kwik Shop. Walker testified that she came to work at 6 a.m. on November 11, 2002. At 6:30 a.m., a police officer came in and asked for videotape from the store's security cameras. According to Walker, the Kwik Shop has surveillance cameras that record onto a tape, the recording equipment is locked away in the back room, and only employees have access to the area. Walker unlocked the back room, stopped the tape, pulled it out, and gave it to the officer without reviewing it. She testified that the date appearing on the tape is accurate, but the time is an hour off due to daylight savings time. As a further foundation effort, Officer Brian Ruder testified that he watched portions of the surveillance tape frame by frame and took still photographs of three Asian males whom he saw on the tape. He testified to the process by which he took the still photographs and that they accurately depicted what he saw on the videotape. Although no Kansas case is directly on point, State v. Suing, 210 Kan. 363, 502 P.2d 718 (1972), provides some guidance. There, this court considered photographs of a getaway car, which were admitted even though no one testified that the photographs were `true and accurate reproductions' of the car, i.e., the `magic words' were lacking. 210 Kan. at 364. We held that the real issue as to the photographs was not whether they accurately portrayed the automobile, but whether the automobile portrayed was the one used in the robbery. Although none of the several witnesses who identified the pictures was specifically asked if they were fair representations of the car, it was apparent that they were. 210 Kan. at 365. The court summarized various witnesses' testimony in which they stated that the car in the photographs was the same car they had observed that night during and after the robbery and when stopped by police. The clear implication is that the likenesses were good enough for the witnesses to identify the car. We think that was all that was required, considering the limited purpose for which the pictures were offered. 210 Kan. at 365. Similarly, in the instant case, the Kwik Shop photographs were used to identify Pham as the person accompanying Giang and Nam Nguyen, both of whom had been identified by several of the victims as two of the gunmen. Pham was never identified by the victims. As in Suing, the real issue was not whether the photographs  or the videotape from which they came  accurately portray Pham, but whether he was the one in the company of the Nguyens. Pham admitted to Falletti that he was and pointed out himself, and the Nguyen brothers, in the photograph to Falletti. Officer Ruder identified Pham in the photograph as well. Under these circumstances, we conclude that Ruder's testimony was sufficient foundation to show that the photographs were accurate reproductions of the video stills. We also conclude that Walker's testimony, including the routineness of the surveillance recordings, was sufficient foundation to show that the videotape accurately depicted a certain place (the Kwik Shop), on a certain date (November 11), at a certain time (an hour different from the time stamp). Walker further testified that the recording equipment was accessible only to employees, negating any serious inference that the tape had been subjected to tampering. Lastly, by our rejection of Pham's argument that his statement to Falletti should have been suppressed, his admission contained in the statement that he was present in the store with the Nguyen brothers early in the morning of November 11, 2001, greatly dilutes the consequences of the photographs' admissibility. In short, they merely confirm his own voluntary and already damaging statement. Their admission, if erroneous, was harmless. See K.S.A. 60-261.