Court Opinion

ID: 9673947
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:21:03.099211+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:24.895627
License: Public Domain

PAGE, Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
While I do not disagree with the court’s remand, I cannot on this record conclude that the state met its burden of showing that there were any ongoing emergencies or that the primary purpose of Officer Wilson’s questioning was to address an emergency and not to establish facts relevant to the future prosecution of Warsame. Therefore, I dissent in part.
Unlike the victims in State v. Wright, 726 N.W.2d 464 (Minn.2007), all of N.A.’s statements were made while she was under police protection and while her injuries were being attended to. In order for courts to determine whether there is an ongoing emergency and whether the officers’ questions related to that emergency, the state must demonstrate the chronology of the relevant events and statements, and the specific questions asked by the officers and the responses elicited by those questions. A one-paragraph summary of a 15-to 20-minute conversation without any evidence of the specific questions asked of the victim or any way of knowing the events occurring while the victim was providing those statements is insufficient to meet the state’s burden under Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. -, 126 S.Ct. 2266, 2273-74, 165 L.Ed.2d 224 (2006).
It is also important to point out that, in order for a statement to qualify as nontes-timonial under Davis, the state must show both that there was an ongoing emergency and that the questions asked related to that emergency and not to establishing facts necessary for future prosecution. Id. at 2273-74. In my view, N.A.’s statement that a knife was involved in the assault and that a third party was cut, without more, is not enough to show that there was such an emergency. Further, it is clear from the record that the officers did not ask any questions regarding her sister I.A. Absent such questions, I do not see how the state can make a showing that the officers’ questions were aimed at addressing I.A.’s situation and not at establishing facts to be used in a future prosecution of Warsame. Accordingly, I would conclude that the state failed to meet its burden of showing that N.A.’s statement regarding I.A. was nontestimonial.
*698Finally, I would note that, unlike Wright, a case in which the victims feared that the defendant would return to the apartment to harm them, 726 N.W.2d at 473-75, there is nothing in the record here that suggests that when N.A. made the statements at issue in response to Officer Wilson’s questions she believed Warsame was still a potential threat to her. Furthermore, once again, there is nothing in the record indicating what specific questions the officers asked with regard to Warsame and thus there is no way to conclude that the primary purpose of their questions was to resolve some ongoing emergency with respect to Warsame.
For these reasons, I concur in the remand, but, unlike the court, am unable on this record to conclude that any of the questions asked by the police had the primary purpose of addressing any ongoing emergencies.