Court Opinion

ID: 9547088
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:41:36.956241+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:18.692847
License: Public Domain

GORDON, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I write solely to clarify what I believe to be the majority’s holding in regard to the inadmissibility of the witness Hadley’s statements relating to the victim’s description of an attempted sexual assault by the defendant.1
The witness, Hadley, testified about a conversation she had with the victim approximately two years before the victim’s \ death, in which the victim claimed that the defendant had attempted to sexually assault her. This evidence raises two evidentiary questions. The first question, which the majority correctly answers, is whether Hadley’s testimony about the victim’s statements was hearsay that does not fall within any exception to the hearsay rule. The second question is whether any evidence could be admitted to prove the alleged attempted sexual assault, or whether such evidence is barred by the Arizona Rules of Evidence, Rule 404(b), which states that “[ejvidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith____”
Because I believe that the majority opinion properly concludes that we must reverse because Hadley’s testimony was hearsay and did not fit within any hearsay exception, I do not believe the opinion in fact decides, or needs to decide, whether any evidence of the act itself would be barred by application of Rule 404 of the Arizona Rules of Evidence. It is simply unnecessary for us to determine whether the alleged attempted sexual assault is a prior bad act used to show character, or whether the act could have been admitted for a permissible use, for example, to prove motive, intent, or identity. See, e.g., Ariz. R.Evid. 404(b); State v. Jeffers, 135 Ariz. 404, 418, 661 P.2d 1105, 1119 (1983).

. I agree with and do not discuss the majority’s holding relating to the victim’s statement that she feared the defendant.