State v. Metzger

2010 ME 67, 999 A.2d 947, 2010 Me. LEXIS 68
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedJuly 20, 2010
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 2010 ME 67 (State v. Metzger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Metzger, 2010 ME 67, 999 A.2d 947, 2010 Me. LEXIS 68 (Me. 2010).

Opinion

MEAD, J.

[¶ 1] Reno Metzger appeals from a judgment of conviction entered by the District Court (Caribou, O’M ara, J.) on one count of domestic violence assault (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 207-A(l)(A) (2009), and one count of domestic violence reckless conduct (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 211-A(1)(A) (2009).1 Metzger contends that because the victim did not testify at his trial, the court erred in allowing a police officer to testify that she identified him as her attacker at the scene of the crime. Metzger argues that the officer’s testimony was inadmissible because (1) it was hearsay not subject to any exception, and (2) its admission violated his Confrontation Clause rights under the United States and Maine Constitutions. Although we are unpersuaded by that challenge, because the evidence admitted at trial was insufficient to support a finding beyond a reasonable doubt that Metzger and the victim were “family or household members,” we vacate the judgment and remand for entry of a judgment of conviction on lesser included offenses, and for resentencing.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] The record, when viewed in the light most favorable to the State, supports the following facts. See State v. Townsend, 2009 ME 106, ¶ 10, 982 A.2d 345, 346-47. On July 30, 2008, at about 1:00 a.m., Officer Douglas Bell of the Caribou Police Department was at the dispatch center when another officer took a call and started writing down its details. As soon as Bell saw the officer write down the name of the Par & Grill, a restaurant and bar located approximately nine-tenths of a mile from the station, he went to that location, arriving less than ninety seconds later. When he arrived, Bell saw vehicles in the parking lot and some people standing in the foyer; he then went inside. He found the victim sitting on the floor “crying hard, breathing rapidly, [and] looking] ... scared.” The victim was “covered with blood,” including on her face, hands, and sweatshirt, the right side of her head was swollen, and there was an apparent cut over her left eye.

[¶ 3] Less than one minute after seeing the victim, only two and one-half minutes after getting the initial call, Bell asked her two questions that are central to this appeal. He first asked, “What happened?” He then asked her whether she was hurt and, ‘Who did it?” The victim told Bell that her boyfriend, Reno Metzger, had kicked her in the stomach and hit her repeatedly. She told Bell that Metzger was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans, [950]*950that he did not have any weapons, and that he might be “[o]ver by the truck.”

[¶ 4] Bell called for an ambulance and then left to locate Metzger. He found Metzger, who was “very drunk” and “very distraught,” walking toward him from a truck; he was bleeding from the nose and had blood on his face and hands. Metzger asked Bell how the victim was. Bell arrested Metzger some four to five minutes after first seeing the victim on the floor of the bar, some six to seven minutes after first getting the call at the station.

[¶ 5] Metzger was charged by complaint with domestic violence assault and domestic violence reckless conduct; he pleaded not guilty and retained counsel. His motion to suppress statements that he made to police at the stationhouse was granted. Anticipating that the victim would not attend the trial, Metzger filed a motion in limine seeking to bar the admission of her statements to Officer Bell identifying him as her assailant on the grounds that they were hearsay and that their admission would violate his Confrontation Clause rights. The court conditionally admitted Bell’s testimony concerning the victim’s statements in a bench trial at which Bell was the only witness. At the trial’s conclusion, the court took the motion in limine and its verdict under advisement.

[¶ 6] At a subsequent sentencing hearing, the court made findings of fact. It then concluded that the victim’s statements were admissible hearsay because they qualified as excited utterances, see M.R. Evid. 803(2), and that their admission did not violate the Confrontation Clause because they were nontestimonial, see Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. 813, 821, 126 S.Ct. 2266, 165 L.Ed.2d 224 (2006) (stating that only testimonial statements implicate the Confrontation Clause). The court found Metzger guilty beyond a reasonable doubt on both counts, entered judgment, and sentenced Metzger on the domestic violence assault count to eight months’ incarceration with all but four months suspended, two years of probation including a requirement that Metzger complete a certified batterer’s intervention program, a $500 fine, and a $1000 jail fee; on the domestic violence reckless conduct count, the court imposed a sentence of four months concurrent incarceration. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Admissibility of the Victim’s Statements

[¶ 7] Metzger contends that Bell’s testimony putting in evidence the victim’s answers to his two primary questions— “What happened?” and “Who did it?” — was inadmissible as both a violation of M.R. Evid. 802, which provides that hearsay is not admissible unless subject to an exception, and a violation of his constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him, see U.S. Const, amend. VI; Me. Const, art. I, § 6. Whether Bell’s testimony was properly admitted is the central issue in this case because his report of the victim’s answers, namely that she was beaten and that Metzger did it, is the indispensable evidence against Metzger.

[¶ 8] In Crawford v. Washington, the Supreme Court made it clear that evidence that would otherwise be admissible under an exception to the hearsay rule may be barred by the Confrontation Clause. 541 U.S. 36, 61, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004); see State v. Tayman, 2008 ME 177, ¶¶ 10-11, 960 A.2d 1151, 1155; State v. Mangos, 2008 ME 150, ¶ 12, 957 A.2d 89, 93 (“A criminal defendant’s confrontation right often arises when an out-of-court statement is admitted pursuant to a hearsay exception.”) Accordingly, Metzger’s challenge requires us to make two separate inquiries: (1) whether Bell’s testimony concerning the victim’s statements, [951]*951which was certainly hearsay,2 was, as the State asserts, admissible under the excited utterance exception to the hearsay rule; and (2) if the testimony was admissible as an excited utterance, whether the Confrontation Clause nonetheless required its exclusion. See Tayman, 2008 ME 177, ¶ 12, 960 A.2d at 1155.

1. Excited Utterance

[¶ 9] The District Court found that although Bell’s testimony concerning the victim’s statements was hearsay, it was nonetheless admissible pursuant to the excited utterance exception to the hearsay rule. The court’s ruling will be upheld unless it is clearly erroneous. State v. Watts, 2007 ME 153, ¶ 5, 938 A.2d 21, 23.

[¶ 10] A hearsay statement qualifies as an excited utterance if “(1) a startling event occurred; (2) the hearsay statement related to the startling event; and (3) the hearsay statement was made while the declarant was under the stress of excitement caused by that event.” Id.; see M.R. Evid. 803(2). In deciding whether the test has been met, a court must consider a variety of factors, including

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Bluebook (online)
2010 ME 67, 999 A.2d 947, 2010 Me. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-metzger-me-2010.