State v. Archer, 2011 ME 80

David Archer and the victim dated Feb–Apr 2008; victim ended the relationship and began seeing someone else.
On April 26, 2008, Archer confronted the victim and stabbed her outside a Bangor home, causing serious abdominal injuries.
Archer was arrested the following morning and indicted on attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault, with a later NGI defense raised.
During trial, the State admitted medical records from the victim’s treating physicians; Archer objected to reliance on non-testifying sources.
Archer sought to introduce all eleven jailhouse recordings of conversations with his mother, but the court admitted portions and excluded the rest; the jury found Archer guilty and criminally responsible, and he was sentenced to prison and probation.
The issues on appeal concern medical-records testimony, admissibility of a pre-crime threat testified to by Archer’s mother, and the completeness of recorded conversations; defenses argued errors affected the jury’s deliberations, which the court denied, and the convictions and sentence were affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admission of medical-record testimony based on non-testifying physician	State: expert may rely on admitted medical records	Archer: testimony improperly conveys hearsay	Admission proper under Rule 703; does not inject hearsay into the jury
Testimony about threats made hours before the attack	State: relevant to Archer’s intent and malice	Archer: remoteness and potential prejudice require exclusion	Court acted within discretion; testimony admissible to show state of mind
Exclusion of eight jailhouse conversations under rule of completeness	State: completeness requires admission to avoid misleading fragments	Conversations separate; not a single integrated statement; completeness not extend	Court did not err; rule of completeness not extended to separate statements

State v. Marques, 747 A.2d 186 (Me. 2000) (allowing expert to rely on other experts’ records as foundation for opinion)
State v. Ledger, 444 A.2d 404 (Me. 1982) (remoteness affects weight, not admissibility; admissible threats near incident)
State v. McEachern, 431 A.2d 39 (Me. 1981) (prior threats admissible to show animus)
State v. Lewisohn, 379 A.2d 1192 (Me. 1977) (threats within two months of homicide admissible)
State v. Doyon, 221 A.2d 827 (Me. 1966) (antecedent threats admissible to show malice/intention)
State v. Woodward, 617 A.2d 542 (Me. 1992) (completeness principle to prevent misleading partial statements)
United States v. McDaniel, 398 F.3d 540 (6th Cir. 2005) (defendant's statements offered via witness testimony are inadmissible hearsay)