United States v. Graves, No. 13-2356 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction for assault with a dangerous weapon and domestic assault by an habitual offender. Defendant argued that the district court abused its discretion in admitting statements from the victim as an excited utterance because the alleged victim was not under the stress of the incident at the time she made the statements. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the statements as an excited utterance considering the 30 minute lapse of time between the incident and the statements, the victim was shaking and appeared to have been crying, and the statements were offered in response to the officer's general inquiry into what had happened. Further, while defendant may offer alternative explanations for the victim's appearance and behavior, those explanations did not undermine the district court's exercise of its discretion in determining that the victim's statements bore a "guarantee of trustworthiness" and were not subject to reflection and deliberation. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law. District court did not err in admitting, as an excited utterance under Rule 803(2), statements the victim gave police thirty minutes after the incident; the lapse of time between the incident and the statements was not so long as to render them inadmissible, and the other factors - the victim's state of distress, the fact that the statements were made in response to a general inquiry and the nature of the incident - all established that the statements bore a guarantee of trustworthiness and were not subject to reflection and deliberation.
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