Court Opinion

ID: 9614287
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:23:59.913009+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:34.806893
License: Public Domain

Six, J., concurring:
I concur in the result but write separately because of the majority’s discussion of res gestae and hearsay in the concluding portion of the opinion.
K.S.A. 60-460 defines “hearsay” as “[e]vidence of a statement which is made other than by a witness while testifying at the hearing offered to prove the truth of the matter stated . . . .”
Earlier in the majority opinion we affirmed the trial court’s reasoning that Latonya’s statements were admissible under the hearsay exception in K.S.A. 60-460(d)(3) (Latonya was dead and thus unavailable as a witness). I would end the opinion at this point, although the trial court “also opined that Latonya’s statements were admissible as part of the res gestae.”
*424My concern is that the latter portion of the majority opinion may be construed to suggest that hearsay evidence, which is not admissible under a hearsay exception, may be admitted if it also qualifies as res gestae. Such a construction would create a new exception to the hearsay rule not contained in K.S.A. 60-460(d), i.e., hearsay testimony that is res gestae but fails to satisfy the tests of 60-460(d). I am not aware of any of our cases supporting such reasoning. The only time res gestae evidence should be admitted other than under a hearsay exception is if it is non-hearsay.
The latter portion of the majority opinion references three cases: State v. Gadelkarim, 256 Kan. 671, 887 P.2d 88 (1994); State v. Peterson, 236 Kan. 821, 696 P.2d 387 (1985); and State v. Sherry, 233 Kan. 920, 667 P.2d 367 (1983). None of these cases supports the proposition that hearsay evidence which is not admissible under a hearsay exception may be admitted if it also qualifies as res gestae.
Two of these cases involved hearsay evidence which was admissible under a hearsay exception: Peterson, 236 Kan. at 830-31 (the declarant was dead and thus unavailable as a witness, K.S.A. 60-460[d][3]); and Gadelkarim, 256 Kan. at 688 (the declarant was dead and thus unavailable as a witness). Gadelkarim did not address whether the questioned statements were admissible as part of the res gestae outside the hearsay exceptions of K.S.A. 60-460(d)(3). The trial court denied a motion in limine to exclude the statements. We affirmed. 256 Kan. at 689.
The third case, Sherry, involved a res gestae declaration that was not hearsay. The statement “here’s the stuff [cocaine]” was made by Sherry to Detective Garcia, who testified to that statement at Sherry’s preliminary hearing. 233 Kan. at 932-33.