Opinion ID: 891652
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Admission of the Calls

Text: {20} Having determined that the recording of the phone calls should not be suppressed for violating the Act or the United States or New Mexico Constitutions, we turn to whether the calls were admitted for a proper purpose. Defendant argues that the calls were improperly admitted and that an expert was necessary to explain the colloquial language used in the calls. The State argues that the calls were properly admitted as the non-hearsay admissions of a party opponent or for purposes other than the truth, such as evidence of other bad acts for proving motive or intent. {21} The district court did not err in admitting the calls. The statements of Defendant were admitted as non-hearsay statements of a party opponent. Rule 11-801(D)(2)(a) NMRA. The statements of the other party to the phone conversations were admitted as adoptive statements of a co-conspirator in furtherance of the conspiracy, Rule 11-801(D)(2)(e), and, in one case, as an adoptive admission of Defendant. Rule 11-801(D)(2)(b). Cf. State v. Macias, 2009-NMSC-028, ¶ 36, 146 N.M. 378, 210 P.3d 804 (holding that the district court abused its discretion in admitting recorded phone calls placed from a jail phone to which no exception or exemption to the hearsay rule applied). Defendant need not have been charged with conspiracy to intimidate a witness in order for this exception to the hearsay rule to be invoked to admit evidence. See State v. Farris, 81 N.M. 589, 589-90, 470 P.2d 561, 561-62 (Ct.App.1970). We hold that these statements were properly admitted under the aforementioned hearsay exceptions.