Delgado, Elias

• Court: Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
• Decided: October 6, 2004
• Docket: PD-0857-04
• Status: Published

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS

OF TEXAS

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NO. 857-04 ELIAS DELGADO, Appellant

v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

ON APPELLANT'S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

FROM THE EIGHTH COURT OF APPEALS

DALLAS COUNTY

Per Curiam

O P I N I O N

A jury convicted appellant of murder. During the trial, the state introduced a statement made by a witness to a police officer responding to the scene. The witness was unavailable at trial. Appellant objected to the admission of the statement on both hearsay and confrontation-clause grounds. The trial court held that the statement was admissible as an excited utterance. On appeal, Appellant argued that the statement was hearsay and was admitted in violation of his confrontation- clause rights. The Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court that the statement was admissible as an excited utterance.

After the Court of Appeals issued its opinion in this case, the United States Supreme Court decided Crawford v. Washington, ___ U.S. ___, 124 S. Ct. 1354, 158 L. Ed.2d 177 (2004). In Crawford, the Supreme Court held that testimonial statements made to police during interrogation, although previously admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule, violate the Confrontation Clause. The Supreme Court declined to define "testimonial" or "interrogation." Appellant asserts that the statement at issue is inadmissible pursuant to Crawford. Accordingly, we grant Appellant's petition for discretionary review on ground one, vacate the judgment of the Court of Appeals, and remand to that court for reconsideration in light of the United States Supreme Court's opinion in Crawford.

Delivered October 6, 2004

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