State v. Mulcahey
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The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the superior court convicting Defendant of first-degree sexual assault, holding that the trial justice did not abuse its discretion in admitting certain text messages because the evidence was properly authenticated under R.I. R. Evid. 901.
The text messages at issue were allegedly sent by Defendant to the complainant. Defendant argued on appeal that because the State did not produce either direct evidence or evidence of distinctive characteristics of the text messages, it did not establish that the text messages were written by Defendant and therefore did not properly authenticate the evidence in accordance with Rule 901. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the State produced sufficient circumstantial evidence to establish that Defendant authored the text messages, and therefore, the evidence was properly authenticated under Rule 901.
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