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Appellate panel hears dispute over admission of victim’s letter in Christopher Falls case
Summary
At oral argument, defense counsel urged reversal, saying a victim’s letter and related testimony were offered as hearsay to prove defendant’s conduct; the state argued the material was admissible as instructions or under the state-of-mind exception and that circumstantial evidence made any error harmless. The court took the arguments and has not announced a decision.
An appellate panel heard argument on whether the trial court erred in admitting statements attributed to the victim in the conviction of Christopher Falls, and whether any error was harmless.
Defense counsel told the court that Falls’s conviction should be reversed chiefly because the trial court allowed inadmissible hearsay into evidence. Counsel (identified in the record as Mister Hedrick) pointed to a letter admitted at trial as Exhibit 4 and quoted passages the state later used in closing to describe the defendant as “a dangerous person.” He said the letter and other statements — including a neighbor’s testimony that the victim warned a helper that the defendant “will beat me” — were offered for the truth of their content rather than solely to show the victim’s state of mind, meaning they were hearsay not covered by the state-of-mind exception (Evidence Rule 803(3)), and therefore…
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