People v. Burroughs
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed a jury verdict adjudicating him a sexually violent predator (SVP) under the Sexually Violent Predators Act (SVPA), Welf. & Inst. Code, 6600 et seq., and ordering his indeterminate commitment to Coalinga State Hospital. The court rejected defendant's competency claim, but agreed with many of defendant's evidentiary arguments. The California Supreme Court held in People v. Sanchez that an expert witness cannot in conformity with the Evidence Code “relate as true case-specific facts asserted in hearsay statements, unless they are independently proven by competent evidence or are covered by a hearsay exception.” In this case, the People's experts did just that by relying on inadmissible hearsay to support extensive testimony about defendant's unrelated convictions and unproven allegations that he committed other acts of sexual violence. The court explained that this inflammatory documentary and testimonial hearsay was prejudicial even under People v. Watson. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded for further proceedings.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.