STATE of Maine v. Richard A. LARSEN Jr.
Docket No. Aro-12-64.
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.
Argued Feb. 12, 2013. Decided March 28, 2013.
2013 ME 38 | 63 A.3d 1203
Todd R. Collins, District Attorney, and Carrie L. Linthicum, Asst. Dist. Atty. (orally), Presque Isle, for appellee State of Maine.
Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and ALEXANDER, LEVY, SILVER, MEAD, GORMAN, and JABAR, JJ.
SAUFLEY, C.J.
[¶1] We are called upon here to determine whether an out-of-court statement that incriminates both the nontestifying declarant and a defendant in a criminal trial is admissible in the defendant‘s trial when the declarant asserts the privilege against self-incrimination and is unavailable to testify.
[¶2] Richard A. Larsen Jr. appeals from a judgment entered by the trial court (Hunter, J.) after a jury found him guilty of burglary (Class C),
I. BACKGROUND
[¶3] In August 2009, Larry Allen, a contractor who had been hired to build a new clubhouse for the Presque Isle Snowmobile Club, died before the project was finished. Richard A. Larsen Jr., who had been Allen‘s employee, was not hired to complete the construction; instead, the Club hired another construction company.
[¶4] On September 8, 2009, employees of the new construction company alerted the Club that building supplies and materials worth a total of $11,000 or more were missing. There was no evidence of forced entry. Larsen had been in possession of a key to the groomer building in which these items had been stored. About ten people had keys to the building, and Larsen was the only key holder who was not a Club member. At some point, many of the missing supplies were found dumped and scattered along a road in the Beaver Brook area.
[¶5] In October 2010, Larsen was charged by complaint with burglary (Class C),
[¶6] Larsen pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, and he was tried alone before a jury in January 2012. The jury heard testimony from officеrs of the Club, the supplier of the building materials for the new clubhouse, several of Larsen‘s relatives and acquaintances, a friend on whose property Larsen had stored a variety of materials, the man who discovered the discarded building materials, law enforcement officers, and a Department of Corrections sergeant who testified about Larsen‘s son‘s telephone and mail correspondence while the son was in jail.
[¶7] Although Larsen‘s son was called as a witness at the trial, he invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to testify. The State then moved for the admission of two written statements that the son had signed, after being interviewed by the Presque Isle Police, as statements against the son‘s penal interest pursuant to
[¶9] The jury considered the son‘s statements in combination with additional evidence that Larsen‘s son had received a phone call and absented himself from his other family members and girlfriend on the night of August 28, 2009; that Larsen had told his daughter, his ex-wife, and his son‘s girlfriend that he had been involved in stealing windows and storing them on his friend‘s property; that Larsen had in fact stored items on that friend‘s property; that Larsen had threatened to slit his ex-wife‘s throat if she turned him in; and that Larsen had told his son‘s girlfriend that he would kill anybody who ratted on him.
[¶10] The jury found Larsen guilty of burglary and theft, and not guilty of tampering with a witness or violating a cоndition of bail. For the burglary conviction, the court sentenced Larsen to thirty-six months in prison, all but eighteen months suspended, with two years of probation that included conditions that Larsen have no contact with his ex-wife, her husband, his son‘s girlfriend, or his daughter. The court also ordered him to pay $11,044.58 to the Club in restitutiоn and $25 to the victims’ compensation fund. For the theft conviction, the court imposed a concurrent sentence of eighteen months in prison and ordered Larsen to pay $25 to the victims’ compensation fund. Larsen timely appealed. See
II. DISCUSSION
[¶11] The State argues that Larsen‘s son‘s statеments were admissible as statements against interest, see
A. Admissibility of Statements Against Interest
[¶12] “‘Hearsay’ is a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.”
The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule if the declarant is unavailable as a witness [as provided in
M.R. Evid. 804(a) ]:. . . .
(3) Statement against interest. A statement which was at the time of its making so far contrary to the declarant‘s
pеcuniary or proprietary interest, or so far tended to subject the declarant to civil or criminal liability or to render invalid a claim by the declarant against another or to make the declarant an object of hatred, ridicule, or disgrace, that a reasonable person in the declarant‘s position would not have made the statement unless believing it to be true. A statement tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability and offered in a criminal case is not admissible unless corroborating circumstances clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the statement. A statement or confession offered against the accused in a criminal case, made by a defendant or other person implicating both the declarant and the accused, is not within this exception.
[¶13] Here, the statements of Larsen‘s son were not made in court and were оffered to prove the truth of the matters that he asserted in those statements: that he and another person met on property that had been owned by Larsen‘s former employer, used a key to enter a Club building, took away materials from that building, and stored them at the home of Larsen‘s friend. See
[¶14] To determine whether the statement-against-interest exception to the hearsay rule could apply, the threshold question is whether Larsen‘s son was unavailable as a witness. See
[¶15] Next, we consider whether the statement-against-interest exception applies in the circumstances of this case. The plain language of thе exception provides that the exception does not apply if, in a criminal case, the statement implicates both the unavailable declarant and the defendant: “A statement or confession offered against the accused in a criminal case, made by a[n] . . . othеr person implicating both the declarant and the accused, is not within this exception.”
[¶16] Because Larsen did not draw thе court‘s attention to this evidentiary basis for exclusion, however, and instead argued that the admission of the statements would violate his constitutional right of confrontation, see Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123 (1968), we next address the constitutional considerations that formed the basis for the court‘s evidentiary ruling.
B. Constitutional Right of Confrontation
[¶17] “We review constitutional interpretations de novo.” State v. Mitchell, 2010 ME 73, ¶ 41, 4 A.3d 478. The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to be confronted with the witnesses against him.”
[¶19] A nontestifying co-defendant‘s confession is not admissible against the nondeclarant defendant, however, even in a joint trial. See Richardson, 481 U.S. at 211; Bruton, 391 U.S. at 135-37.4 The redaction undertaken in a joint trial is specifically designed to ensure that the content of that confession relates only to the defendant who made the confession. See Richardson, 481 U.S. at 211. Accordingly, even if redacted, a confession of a witness who invokes the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refuses to testify is ordinarily inadmissible as evidence of the nondeclarant defendant‘s guilt when that defendant is tried alone. Cf. id.
[¶20] In the matter before us, Larsen was tried alone. Thus, contrary to the State‘s assertion, the Bruton analysis and the rule of redaction adopted in Richardson have no application in the matter. To the extent that we earlier held that a nontestifying accomplice‘s redacted out-of-court statement is admissible against a defendant who was tried alone, seе Platt, 1997 ME 229, ¶¶ 3-6, 704 A.2d 370, we overrule that holding.
[¶21] Moreover, as the Supreme Court clarified in Crawford v. Washington, statements such as those made by Larsen‘s son during police interrogation well after the events that led to the burglary and theft charges are testimonial statements for purposes of the Confrontation Clause, and such testimonial statements of an unavailable declarant cannot bе admitted in evidence of a defendant‘s guilt unless the defendant has had an opportunity to cross-examine that declarant. 541 U.S. 36, 51-52, 59, 65, 68-69 (2004); see also State v. Mangos, 2008 ME 150, ¶ 11, 957 A.2d 89. The redacted testimonial statements of Larsen‘s son could not be admitted because Larsen‘s son refused to testify and Larsen lacked the opportunity for cross-examination either at trial or in any earlier pro-
[¶22] Having determined that the trial court erred in admitting the statements of Larsen‘s son based on both the Rules of Evidence and the United States Constitution, we will vacate the judgment entered against Larsen unless the error in admitting the evidence is harmless.
C. Harmless Error
[¶23] “Any error, defect, irregularity or variance which does not affect substantial rights shall be disregarded.”
[¶24] We are not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the error in admitting the statements of Larsen‘s son did not contribute to the verdict. See id. The improperly admitted statements from Larsen‘s son were the only pieces of evidence offered by the State that cоmmunicated the means by which the building supplies were removed from the Club property. The details contained in the statements clearly implicate Larsen as the “person” who, with the help of his son, drove to the Club‘s property from what had been Allen‘s garage, unlocked the Club‘s groomer building, took the building supplies, and concealed them on property owned by a friend of Larsen‘s who testified at trial about Larsen‘s storage of materials on his property. We are not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the properly admitted evidence alone would have рersuaded the jury of Larsen‘s guilt. In these circumstances, we cannot conclude that the error was harmless, and we vacate the judgment of conviction.
The entry is:
Judgment vacated. Remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
LEIGH I. SAUFLEY
Chief Justice