Jackson v. State
Jackson v. State
Opinion of the Court
A DeKalb County jury found Chartisia Jackson guilty of two counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, and one count of kidnapping. Jackson claims the trial court erred in allowing the state to introduce the hearsay testimony of Camara Griffin, Jackson’s boyfriend, under the necessity exception to the hearsay rule. For. the reasons set forth below, we disagree and affirm.
On appeal from a criminal conviction, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict.
After the police recovered Patrick’s vehicle, she noticed that her
During the investigation of the crime, Potter interviewed Jackson’s boyfriend, Griffin, while he was in police custody on an unrelated charge, and Griffin’s statement was recorded in Potter’s handwriting. The state asked that Potter be allowed to testify to Griffin’s statements under the necessity exception to the hearsay rule because Griffin was hiding from the police and was unavailable. The trial court allowed Potter’s testimony over the objection of the defense. Potter read the statement to the jury:
On 7/16/2000, at around 10:00 o’clock in the morning, [Jackson] called me at home and we spoke for a short while. When I was on the phone with her, she told me that I could have the cell phone she was using because she didn’t like it. At around 5:00 p.m. I went to [Jackson’s] house . . . she wasn’t there, but her roommate, [Shanks], was. I asked [Shanks] where [Jackson’s] cell phone was and she said she took it with her. I saw a cell phone on a table and said, whose is that. [Shanks] said, mine. I said, well, [Jackson] said I could have it. And then [Shanks] said, oh, and went to [Jackson’s] bedroom and got another phone. [Jackson] had never had a phone before the 16th.
Jackson argued to the trial court, and now on appeal, that a tape recording made by Detective Potter of his interview with Griffin showed that Griffin stated that he retrieved the cell phone from Shanks’ bedroom, and not Jackson’s bedroom. The trial court nevertheless allowed the hearsay testimony, but ruled that the relevant portion of the tape could be played for the jury. The tape was played, and Detective Potter confirmed on cross-examination that during the taped interview Griffin twice said that he retrieved the phone from Shanks’ bedroom. Detective Potter’s explanation was that Griffin had told him before the taped interview that he had retrieved the phone from Jackson’s bedroom.
There are three prerequisites for admission of hearsay because of necessity: (1) death or unavailability of the declarant, (2) particularized guarantees of trustworthiness, and (3) the evidence must be
Defense counsel objected to the Griffin statement on the grounds that it lacked the required guarantees of trustworthiness.
In determining whether there are sufficient indicia of reliability the trial court must examine the totality of the circumstances surrounding the making of the statements sought to be introduced. The test is whether the declarant’s truthfulness is so clear from the surrounding circumstances that the test of cross-examination would be of marginal utility.4
Although we may have decided differently, we conclude that the trial court acted within the range of its allowable discretion in admitting Griffin’s hearsay statement to Detective Potter. As our Supreme Court noted in Thomas v. State,
Fenimore v. State,
We find that the trial court did not err in admitting Griffin’s hearsay statement into evidence.
Judgment affirmed.
Paul v. State, 231 Ga. App. 528 (499 SE2d 914) (1998).
See Holmes v. State, 271 Ga. 138-139 (2) (516 SE2d 61) (1999).
Gissendaner v. State, 272 Ga. 704, 710-711 (6) (532 SE2d 677) (2000).
(Punctuation and footnotes omitted.) Chapel v. State, 270 Ga. 151, 155 (4) (510 SE2d 802) (1998).
274 Ga. 156, 162 (8) (549 SE2d 359) (2001).
See Johnson v. State, 273 Ga. 345, 347-348 (5) (541 SE2d 357) (2001).
See Quijano v. State, 271 Ga. 181, 185-186 (516 SE2d 81) (1999).
See Abraha v. State, 271 Ga. 309, 313 (2) (518 SE2d 894) (1999).
See Hayes v. State, 268 Ga. 809, 811-812 (3) (493 SE2d 169) (1997).
See notes 6-9, supra.
218 Ga. App. 735 (463 SE2d 55) (1995).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.