State v. Milton Aponte

Syllabus

This case came before the Supreme Court on appeal by the defendant, Milton Aponte (defendant), from a judgment of conviction entered in the Superior Court following jury verdicts of guilty on (1) one count of first-degree child molestation (2) three counts of second-degree child molestation and (3) one count of simple assault and battery. On appeal, the defendant argued that the trial justice erred in admitting the complaining witness's out-of-court written statements, which were offered for the truth of the matter asserted and did not fall within an exception to the rule against hearsay. The defendant argued that the trial justice erred in admitting the complaining witness's out-of-court written statement to her mother as nonhearsay because he made no claim of recent fabrication and that the trial justice also erred in admitting the complaining witness's handwritten statement to the police as an excited utterance. The defendant further argued that the trial justice erred in excluding relevant video evidence of the complaining witness's demeanor while making her statement at the police station. The Supreme Court held that (1) the trial justice abused his discretion by admitting the complaining witness's letter to her mother because the defendant made no claim of recent fabrication and the statement did not qualify as a prior consistent statement under Rule 801(d)(1)(B) of the Rhode Island Rules of Evidence and (2) the trial justice abused his discretion by admitting the complaining witness's handwritten statement to police as an excited utterance under Rule 803(2) because the state did not meet its burden of showing that the declarant was still laboring over the stress of the alleged sexual assault when she made the statement to the police. With respect to the defendant's argument that the trial justice erred by excluding relevant video evidence of the complaining witness's demeanor when making her statement to the police, the Court reasoned that it was not an abuse