State v. Cunningham

57 P.3d 149, 184 Or. App. 292, 2002 Ore. App. LEXIS 1629
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided October 16, 2002·No. C930434CR; A87792·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinions

[294] HASELTON, P. J.

The state petitions for reconsideration of our decision in State v. Cunningham, 179 Or App 359, 40 P3d 1065 (2002), in which we reversed defendant’s conviction for murder, ORS 163.115, and remanded for a new trial. We grant reconsideration but reject the state’s arguments and adhere to our disposition for the following reasons.

Defendant was convicted of the murder of his estranged wife, Cheryl Keeton Cunningham. In our original opinion, we reversed that conviction, holding that (1) the trial court had erroneously ruled that testimony recounting the victim’s statements to her mother in a telephone conversation at 7:59 p.m. on the night of the murder was admissible under OEC 803(2), the “excited utterance” exception to the hearsay rule, Cunningham, 179 Or App at 379-81; and (2) that error was not harmless because the contested evidence “was the only direct evidence that the victim met defendant within minutes of her murder near where she had been murdered.” Id. at 383. In so holding, we explicitly acknowledged that the state had presented a strong circumstantial case of defendant’s guilt, but emphasized, nevertheless, that the improperly admitted evidence “supplies the missing link. It makes what might otherwise be reasonably inferred direct and explicit.” Id.

The state now argues three alternative, and independently sufficient, grounds for reconsideration. First, the state asserts that, as a matter of law, we misconstrued and misapplied OEC 803(2). Second, even if testimony recounting the victim’s statements in the 7:59 phone call is not admissible under OEC 803(2), the same evidence is nevertheless admissible under OEC 803(3), the “state of mind” exception to the hearsay rule. Third, and in all events, any error in admitting the testimony was harmless because the inferential “missing link” was also supplied by other unchallenged testimony, particularly including testimony by Marvin Troseth, the victim’s mother’s boyfriend, in which Troseth recounted his telephone conversation with defendant at 9:54 on the night of the murder during which he had mentioned the victim’s 7:59 telephone call.

[295] We adhere to our determination that the victim’s statements in the 7:59 phone conversation did not fall within the “excited utterance” exception to the hearsay rule and reject, without further discussion, the state’s challenges to our reasoning in that regard. The state’s other two arguments warrant a more extended response.

ADMISSIBILITY OF THE 7:59 PHONE CONVERSATION UNDER OEC 803(3)

On reconsideration, the state, for the first time in the course of this appeal, argues that evidence relating to the victim’s statements in the 7:59 phone call alternatively would have been admissible under OEC 803(3), the “state of mind” exception.1 As support for that proposition, the state invokes State v. Clegg, 332 Or 432, 31 P3d 408 (2001), which our Supreme Court issued two weeks after this case was argued to us and nearly six months before we issued our original opinion. For the following reasons, we decline to consider the merits of the state’s argument as not properly raised under ORAP 6.25(1).

We begin by briefly canvassing the procedural history of the parties’ positions and arguments regarding the admissibility of the 7:59 phone conversation. That issue first arose in the context of an evidentiary hearing on defendant’s motion for pretrial release before the trial court in August 1993. Judge Bonebrake, who presided over that hearing, held, for purposes of that hearing, that the victim’s statements in that portion of a handwritten note describing her second telephone conversation with defendant on the night of the murder, September 21,1986 — and, by implicit extension, her contemporaneous statements to her mother — were admissible under OEC 803(3) as evidence of the victim’s intent.2 At the same time, the court stated that it was unconvinced that the state had made an adequate showing of the admissibility of the same statements pursuant to OEC [296]*296803(2). The court emphasized that its rulings in that regard applied to the release proceeding only.

In July 1994, the court convened an omnibus hearing to address a variety of pretrial issues, including defendant’s in limine motion to exclude evidence relating to the victim’s statements, both written and oral, on the night of her death.3 The state argued that those statements, including the victim’s statements during the 7:59 conversation with her mother, were admissible under both OEC 803(2) and OEC 803(3).4 Judge Alexander, who presided over the omnibus hearing (and at trial), ruled that the victim’s statements that evening, including her statements during the 7:59 phone call, were admissible under OEC 803(2). He did not hold that those statements were admissible under OEC 803(3).5

At trial, the parties properly treated the court’s omnibus hearing ruling on that matter as categorical. Accordingly, testimony describing the victim’s statements in the 7:59 conversation was admitted without further argument or objection.

[297] On appeal, defendant assigned error to the trial court’s denial of his in limine motion seeking to exclude evidence describing the victim’s statements on the night of her death.6 Defendant argued that that evidence, including testimony relating the 7:59 conversation, was not admissible under OEC 803(2). In addition — and in apparent anticipation of an “alternative basis for affirmance” argument by the state — defendant argued that the evidence also would not have been admissible under OEC 803(3).

The state’s respondent’s brief relied solely on OEC 803(2). With respect to defendant’s contentions regarding OEC 803(3), respondent’s brief stated only:

“The next section of defendant’s brief attacks the admission of [the victim’s] statements under OEC 803(3), the state-of-mind exception. The point of this argument is unclear because the trial court refused to admit her statements under this exception.”

The state made no argument about admissibility under OEC 803(3) in its brief, at oral argument, or after the case was submitted and the Supreme Court decided Clegg.7

With the stage so set, the procedural issue is presented: Under the circumstances here, can respondent seek reconsideration under ORAP 6.25(1) based on an “alternative basis for affirmance” that respondent could have raised in its briefing and argument on appeal but failed to do so?

ORAP 6.25(1) provides, in part:

“A petition for reconsideration shall be based on one or more of these contentions:
“(a) A claim of factual error in the decision;

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State v. Cunningham, 57 P.3d 149, 184 Or. App. 292, 2002 Ore. App. LEXIS 1629 (Or. Ct. App. 2002).

57 P.3d 149 (State v. Cunningham) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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