Court Opinion

ID: 9595747
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:43:09.414828+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:02:38.539172
License: Public Domain

BRETT, Judge,
special concurrence.
I agree that appellant’s convictions should be affirmed, however, I feel it necessary to discuss one aspect of the hearsay problem. The testimony of Robert Downs, the young man who traveled to New Jersey with Morrow the day after the shootings, that was objected to at trial by defense counsel was as follows:
Q. Tell us what he said.
A. He said, he said that um he jumped over a fence and hid under a truck and waited and there was supposed to be one woman and another one showed up so he shot the two women.
Q. Did he tell you anything about who he was doing this for?
A. Yes.
Q. Tell us.
A. A guy named Huck.
Q. That the word he used, Huck?
A. Yes.
(Tr. 339-40). The majority states that this was admissible as it was not hearsay under 12 O.S.1981, § 2801(4)(a)(2) “because it was consistent with Morrow’s prior testimony and rebutted defendant’s innuendos of recent fabrication and improper influence.” (Majority at p. 7) In order for a statement to qualify under 12 O.S.1981, § 2801(4)(a)(2) as a prior consistent statement, two foundational requirements must be met. First, there must have been a suggestion that the witness has either fabricated his trial testimony or has been unduly influenced. Second, it must be established that the consistent statement was made prior to the time when there was a motive for the witness to lie or there was an exercise of improper influence. 1 L. Whinery, Guide to the Oklahoma Evidence Code 263 (1985). See also Plotner v. State, 762 P.2d 936, 943 (Okl.Cr.1988).
In the case at bar, during the cross-examination of William Frank Morrow (the triggerman), defense counsel insinuated that the witness was lying to protect his own life. Morrow pled guilty to the charges in exchange for his testimony against appellant for which he received two life sentences rather than the possibility of getting the death penalty. Therefore, the suggestion was made that Morrow’s testimony was influenced or fabricated. And obviously, the statements made to Robert *454Downs were made before the Bill of Particulars was filed against Morrow. Therefore, even though the record does not reflect the precise grounds upon which the trial court allowed in the statement, it was probably admitted as a prior consistent statement of Morrow.
The Court has held in a case similar to the one at bar, that such a statement was inadmissible hearsay. Kelly v. State, 692 P.2d 563 (Okl.Cr.1984). In that case, the trial court allowed a witness to testify about a conversation between him and an accomplice to the murder. This conversation occurred two days after the crime was committed and included details such as that the defendant hired the accomplice to kill the victim. However, in Kelly the court did not find that the statement was a prior consistent statement as in the case at bar and the State could not demonstrate that the statement fell within any other exception to the hearsay rule. Therefore, the statement was properly admitted at trial.