OPINION
delivered the opinion of the Court,
We granted this appeal to determine whether the admission into evidence of an automobile license tag number observed and written down by a bystander near the crime scene who did not appear at trial violated the defendant’s right to confrontation under the federal and state constitutions. A few seconds after being robbed at her place of employment, the victim ran out of the business, told a bystander that she had been robbed, and asked the bystander to observe the tag number of the vehicle operated by the man who had just left the business. The bystander did so and then came inside the store to write the number down for the victim. The victim added other descriptive information about the robber to the same piece of paper and then turned it over to the police. The tag number was traced to a vehicle owned by the defendant, whom a jury ultimately convicted of one count of robbery. The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction, holding that the written tag number was “testimonial hearsay” within the
Factual Background
The events giving rise to this case took place at the Yorkshire Cleaners located in a strip mall at the intersection of Poplar Avenue and Holmes Street in Memphis. At the time of the events in question, a restaurant was being constructed immediately to the west of the cleaners, and a Baptist Minor Medical Center was open for business immediately to the east.
On Saturday, July 29, 2006, Melissa Poison was the only employee working at the Yorkshire Cleaners. Sometime that morning between 10:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M., Poison testified that she was serving a customer when she saw another man standing in line. Poison testified that the man waited for about three minutes while she went to the back of the store to retrieve the first customer’s clothing. Once Poison finished with the first customer, she asked this man to state his last name. 2 She thought his answer sounded like “Phillips” but was not sure, so she asked the man to say his last name again. Instead of repeating his last name, the man told Poison, “Give me all your money or I’m going to blow your ass off.”
Based on this threat Poison presumed that the man was armed and would shoot her if she did not give him the money in the store’s cash register. Looking down, Poison complied and handed over the money out of the cash drawer. The man then asked Poison to lift up the drawer to see if larger bills were kept underneath. There were no such larger bills. The man then told Poison to back up, turn around, and count to ten. Poison testified that the event “seemed like a long time” but took less than fifteen minutes.
As Poison completed her count to ten, she heard the dinging sound that the store’s front doorbell made whenever it was opened. Poison then looked at a television monitor displaying the image from the store’s security cameras. This image showed the man “speed walking” away from the store to the left. 3 Poison then walked to the front door, and, within “maybe a couple of seconds” after hearing the ding, she exited the front door facing the parking lot. Poison admitted that she “took a chance” by going out of the store so quickly after the man had left, especially given her belief that he was armed.
Poison testified that, when she exited the front door, the only person whom she saw was a contractor helping to build the restaurant next door. Poison could see a white minivan beginning to move, about twenty feet away in the direction that the man had walked after he exited the store. The white minivan was the only vehicle
Poison asked the contractor where the man went who had just walked out of her door. She told the contractor that she had been robbed and needed the tag number of the vehicle that the man had gotten into. Poison testified that, while standing only two to three feet away from the white minivan, the contractor leaned over and observed its tag number. 4 He then walked back to her. When the contractor came back to the store, Poison’s hand was shaking too badly to write down the tag number herself. Therefore, the contractor wrote down the tag number for her. Later, Poison wrote details about the man’s face, height, and size on the same sheet of paper with the tag number. Subsequently, she gave that paper to the police when they arrived at the scene.
That same morning, Rhonda Dugger and Stephanie Smith were working as receptionists at the front desk of the Baptist Minor Medical Center (“medical center”) next door. Each testified that a man entered the medical center and asked their permission to use the lobby restroom. They simultaneously granted him permission. After using the restroom, the man then left the medical center. Several minutes after the man left the medical center, police arrived on the scene, and Dugger and Smith learned that the Yorkshire Cleaners next door had been robbed.
Sergeant John Williams, the first patrol officer on the scene, testified that Poison was “[vjery upset and scared” when he arrived at 10:24 A.M. Based on the Yorkshire Cleaners’ location within his assigned ward, Williams estimated that it would have taken him three to four minutes from the dispatch call to get to the scene. Williams testified that he spoke with Poison, who explained that a black male had entered the business and demanded that she empty the cash register. Poison described the man to Williams as six feet tall, heavy set, and dark complected. Williams also testified that Poison had provided a tag number for the white minivan leaving the business, and Williams included that tag number in his offense report. 5
According to Poison, another office 6 spoke with the contractor inside the Yorkshire Cleaners. Poison testified that she and the contractor both provided the officers on the scene with their driver’s licenses so the police could contact them later. However, no officers who testified had interviewed the contractor or had any information about his identity. He was not called as a witness.
Officer Mondie Quinn was assigned as the case coordinator for the Yorkshire Cleaners robbery. Quinn testified that he began his investigation by reviewing the offense report that uniform patrol officers had prepared at the crime scene. He contacted Poison to verify some of the facts in
Next, Quinn ran tag number 52B FTD, which was listed in the offense report narrative, through a police vehicle registration database. The tag number was registered to Darrell Franklin (“Defendant”)- During Quinn’s testimony the State introduced the vehicle registration form for this tag number into evidence as a public document, and Quinn read the tag number for the record.
Quinn then prepared a photo spread, with Defendant’s headshot placed in the number five position. On the afternoon of July 31, Quinn, accompanied by Detective Paul Neely, visited Poison at the Yorkshire Cleaners. Quinn presented Poison with the form entitled “Advice to Witness Viewing Photographic Display” (“advice form”). This form explained, among other things, that the persons depicted might or might not have been involved in the crime, the viewer should not assume that the guilty party is represented in the lineup, and the viewer should make an identification only if the viewer is “positive.” Poison went over the advice form, “made sure [she] understood what it was saying,” and then signed the form.
After Poison signed the advice form, Quinn laid the photo lineup down on the store counter for Poison to review. Quinn “didn’t want to pressure” Poison, so he “walked off’ while she reviewed the lineup. Poison testified that she looked at the lineup for “five to ten minutes because [she] did not want to just pick someone [she] recognized off of the street” and because she “just wanted to make sure the person [she chose] was the right one.” She circled the headshot placed in the number five position and wrote in the space underneath, “This is the guy that robbed me. He said give me your money or I’ll blow your ass off.” She signed and dated the form. At trial, Poison conceded that, although she had described the suspect as clean shaven, she picked the photograph of an individual with facial hair. Poison explained that “the beard in the photo was so short you could see the shape of [his] face. It’s not going to change.”
While Quinn was at the strip mall, he and Neely walked next door to the medical center and spoke with Dugger and Smith. Both Dugger and Smith independently reviewed and signed an advice form. Then, they separately reviewed a photo lineup. 7 Quinn testified that the advice form and photo lineup were identical to the ones that he had given to Poison. Dugger circled the headshot in the number five position and wrote underneath, “This is [the] guy that came in our facility to use the restroom 7/29/06.” She signed and dated the form. At trial Dugger testified that the person who used the restroom looked the same as in the headshot, and, when specifically asked about whether the person had facial hair, she testified, “That’s what I picked.” She testified that the person was wearing a baseball cap on the day he asked to use the restroom.
Smith also circled the headshot in the number five position on her copy of the photo lineup and wrote underneath, “This is the guy that came in to use [the] bathroom on the day of [the] robbery.” She signed and dated the form. At trial Smith
Although Quinn found construction workers on site at the strip mall, Quinn testified that he could not locate the contractor who wrote down the minivan’s tag number. The patrol officers did not give Quinn a name and address from a driver’s license, or any other information that would identify the contractor.
Having obtained three positive identifications of Defendant, Quinn directed the Criminal Apprehension Team to obtain a warrant and arrest him. After Defendant was brought into custody, Quinn interviewed Defendant on August 21, 2006. Defendant signed a waiver of rights before the interview began.
When Quinn informed Defendant of the robbery allegations, Defendant first claimed that he had been home all of July 29 with his “wife,” 8 Tenniale Shaw. Quinn attempted to phone Shaw but was unsuccessful. Quinn then informed Defendant of the description and tag number of the minivan observed at the scene of the robbery. Defendant responded that he had been at the family apartment with Shaw’s wheelchair-bound uncle, while Shaw had the minivan throughout the day. Quinn testified that he spoke with Shaw over the telephone that evening, and Shaw said that, on July 29, she had gone shopping with her children for school clothes. 9 Quinn spoke again with Defendant the following day, but that conversation only lasted for about five minutes since Defendant did not change his account of events.
Shaw testified for the defense at trial. On July 29, Defendant had left then.' apartment around 2:00 A.M. to go to a casino. Shaw was watching television when Defendant returned at 5:15 A.M. and went to bed. Shaw further testified that the family owned one car at the time — a white 1998 Plymouth Voyager minivan. At 7:30 A.M., according to their typical practice on Saturday mornings, Shaw and the three children took the minivan to a park along Alcy Road in South Memphis to participate in a church function. When Shaw left the apartment, she saw that Defendant was still in the bed. Shaw and her children remained at the park until 11:00 A.M., when they went to the house of Shaw’s grandmother in the Orange Mound neighborhood. At some point during the day, Shaw, her children, and her grandmother shopped at a Wal-Mart. Nothing in the record indicates that the Wal-Mart was located in the vicinity of where the robbery took place, nor did Shaw testify that she otherwise drove the minivan into the parking lot of that strip mall on July 29.
Defendant also testified on his own behalf, answering “no” when asked repeatedly whether he had robbed the Yorkshire Cleaners on July 29. He further testified that, between the hours of 8:00 and 11:00 A.M. on that day, he was home asleep in bed. He testified that he had driven the white Plymouth minivan, which was registered in his name, to the Grand Casino at 2:00 A.M. He returned at 5:15 A.M. and went to sleep. Although he testified that his wife and children “normally” went to the park on Saturday morning, he did not remember their leaving on July 29 because he was asleep at the time.
Defendant testified that he could remember his whereabouts on July 29 because his birthday was the next day. When asked why he initially told Quinn that he was with his wife and kids when the robbery occurred, Defendant testified that he “probably was confused” and was “nervous, real nervous” while being questioned by the police. When asked on cross-examination, “So it didn’t matter when the robbery was committed, what day, what hour, your standard excuse would have been I was at home with my wife and kids?,” Defendant answered, “Right.” 10
The jury convicted Defendant of a single count of robbery, a class C felony. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-401 (2006). Classified as a Range III persistent offender, Defendant was sentenced to twelve years in the Department of Corrections.
Procedural Background
On the day of trial and before the court empaneled the jury, defense counsel orally moved to suppress the contractor’s written statement of the tag number from the white minivan leaving the strip mall parking lot immediately after the robbery. Defense counsel argued that the tag number, if offered into evidence, would be inadmissible hearsay because the contractor was not going to testify. In denying the motion and allowing the State to introduce the tag number into evidence, the trial court explained:
If [Defendant’s] tag and his van w[ere] present at the scene ... that’s just a piece of circumstantial evidence.... And if [Polson]’s there witnessing the van, directing the witness to write [the tag number] down and then takes it because she’s too scared to write or too nervous to write it down, ... she’s subject to being cross-examined and the weight that the jury wants to give theaccuracy and so forth of that is a weight question.... 11
In his motion for new trial, Defendant again objected to the tag number as inadmissible hearsay. At the motion hearing defense counsel contended that the tag number had come into evidence for the truth of the matter asserted — that is, “[the white van] was [Defendant’s] • car and therefore that was why he was at the scene.” The trial court rejected Defendant’s argument that the tag number was presented as hearsay:
[Poison] didn’t testify to ... the license number that the [contractor] wrote down. All she did was testify, I told him to write something down. I watched him write it down. He gave me the piece of paper. I gave the piece of paper to the police officer. The police officer looked up that license number and it led him to Mr. Franklin.
With specific reference to the testimony of Sergeant Williams and Officer Quinn, the trial court again concluded that the tag number was not introduced for its truth:
They didn’t say they got the right tag number from the person. They said I did research on the tag number that was in the file. I got a photo spread based upon the research that I found and I went out and showed a photo spread to the victim and she identified somebody.
The trial court denied Defendant’s motion for new trial on all grounds. 12
Defendant appealed his conviction. Defendant again argued that the trial court erred in allowing the State to introduce the tag number as hearsay. For the first time, Defendant also argued that the admission of the tag number violated his right to confrontation pursuant to the federal and state constitutions. Defendant specifically contended the contractor’s written statement was “testimonial” within the guidelines set forth by the United States Supreme Court in
Crawford v. Washington,
The Court of Criminal Appeals determined that the written tag number was hearsay because the trial court admitted the statement to prove what it asserted, that is, the tag number belonged to the white van leaving the parking lot shortly after the Yorkshire Cleaners robbery. In a single sentence, the court concluded that no hearsay exception applied. After analyzing the Supreme Court’s reasoning in
Crawford
and
Davis
and considering the multi-factor test that we recounted in
State v. Lewis,
Standard of Review
Generally, the admissibility of evidence rests within the trial court’s sound discretion, and the appellate court does not interfere with the exercise of that discretion unless a clear abuse appears on the face of the record.
Lewis,
Whether the admission of hearsay statements violated a defendant’s confrontation rights is, however, a pure question of law.
Lilly v. Virginia,
ANALYSIS
The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution directs, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” U.S. Const, amend. VI. The right of confrontation is fundamental and applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Pointer v. Texas,
Within the past decade, the Supreme Court’s standards for evaluating Confrontation Clause violations have changed. In
Crawford v. Washington,
the Supreme Court held that, “[wjhere testimonial evidence is at issue, ... the Sixth Amendment demands ... unavailability and a prior opportunity for cross-examination.”
Whether the Statement Is Hearsay
Up to this point in our
post-Crawford
jurisprudence, we have dealt with statements that were undisputed hearsay. The present case is different, however, because the trial court ruled that the written tag number was not hearsay, though the Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed. As
Crawford
noted parenthetically, the Confrontation Clause “does not bar the use of testimonial statements for purposes other than establishing the truth of the matter asserted.”
Therefore, in deciding this case, before we address whether the written tag number is “testimonial,” we must first satisfy ourselves that the statement is hearsay and thus potentially eligible for Con
“ ‘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.” Tenn. R. Evid. 801(c). A written assertion counts as a “statement.” Id. 801(a). In this case, Poison told the contractor standing nearby that she had been robbed and asked the contractor to observe the tag number of the vehicle driven by the man whom she believed had just left the Yorkshire Cleaners. The contractor, who was closer to the vehicle than she was, did so. The contractor then came inside the business and wrote down the tag number for Poison. Accordingly, this written statement asserts that the tag number belonged to the white minivan that the contractor observed leaving the strip mall parking lot.
Sergeant Williams testified that Poison provided a tag number for the vehicle she said belonged to the robber and that he included the tag number in his offense report. Officer Quinn then testified that he saw the tag number in the offense report, researched that number, and discovered that it was registered to a vehicle in Defendant’s name. Based on this testimony, we conclude that the State introduced the contractor’s written statement for its truth, that is, the tag number belonged to the white minivan in which the man who had robbed the Yorkshire Cleaners left the scene. Since it was made out of court by a declarant not available for cross-examination, it is hearsay.
Whether the Statement Is Testimonial
Having determined that the contractor’s statement was indeed hearsay, we now turn to the “threshold question” of Confrontation Clause analysis: whether the statement is “testimonial.”
See United States v. Hinton,
After articulating several possible “formulations” of a testimonial statement, the Court ultimately concluded that the “testimonial” category “applies at a minimum to prior testimony at a preliminary hearing, before a grand jury, or at a former trial; and to police interrogations.”
Id.
at 51-52, 68,
In
Davis,
the Supreme Court was asked to “determine more precisely which police interrogations produce testimony.”
This “primary purpose” test in
Davis
was sufficient for the Court to decide the companion cases, both domestic assaults. A 911 caller’s identification of the defendant was a nontestimonial statement because it was “plainly a call for help against bona fide physical threat” with a primary purpose “to enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency.”
15
Id.
at 827-28,
By contrast, in the “much easier” companion case of
Hammon v. Indiana,
the Court held that the victim gave testimonial responses to police questioning, including a written statement on a battery affidavit, after the disturbance had ended and while her husband-assailant was kept by another officer in a separate room.
Id.
at 829-30,
(1) whether the declarant was a victim or an observer; (2) whether contact was initiated by the declarant or by law-enforcement officials; (3) the degree of formality attending the circumstances in which the statement was made; (4) whether the statement was given in response to questioning, whether the questioning was structured, and the scope of such questioning; (5) whether the statement was recorded (either in writing or by electronic means); (6) the declarant’s purpose in making the statements; (7) the officer’s purpose in speaking with the declarant; and (8) whether an objective declarant under the circumstances would believe that the statements would be used at a trial.
Id.
Applied to the facts in
Maclin,
we described as “testimonial” the victim’s “detailed narrative of the defendant’s assault” in response to police officers’ general question whether the victim was okay.
Id.
at 352. Our analysis emphasized that the victim had initiated contact with police by calling 911, was no longer in immediate danger when police responded, and included “extraordinary detail” in her response.
Id.
By contrast, in the “much easier” companion case of
State v. Anderson,
we held that a group of teenage witnesses offered nontestimonial statements when they flagged down a police officer and, upon being asked “What’s going on?,” pointed to a building sounding a burglar alarm and gave a physical description of the intruder.
Id.
at 353. We concluded that the witnesses’ statements “merely intended to direct police intervention to a crime in progress” without anticipating their statements would be used at trial.
Id.
Likewise, we concluded that the officer’s intent “was not to develop evidence for prosecution or trial, but merely to determine what was happening and what type of police intervention was needed.”
Id.
We emphasized the
With the benefit of the Supreme Court’s decision in
Davis,
we returned to the Confrontation Clause in
State v. Lewis.
In that case, the defendant was convicted for facilitation of the attempted especially aggravated robbery and criminally negligent homicide of the owner of an antiques store. At trial, the proof established that, when employees of the business next door heard noises in the antiques store and went to investigate, the owner cried out for help, asking them to call 911 and explaining that he had been shot. A police officer arrived at the scene and asked the owner questions about what had happened. After paramedics arrived and began treating the owner’s wounds, he told the officer that “the lady’s information is on the desk.” When the officer asked which “lady” the victim meant, the victim replied, “the lady with the vases.” When asked whether this lady was connected to the crime, the victim responded, “I know she is.” The officer found a paper on the desk counter with the defendant’s name, driver’s license number, and the words “two vases.” Prior to the crime, the defendant had been in negotiations to sell two vases to the owner.
On appeal, the defendant challenged the admission of the victim’s statement “I know she is” as a violation of the Confrontation Clause. Id. at 146. We recited language from Davis regarding the distinctions between testimonial and nontesti-monial statements made to law enforcement, id. at 143-44, and regarding the factual distinctions among the contexts surrounding the statements made in Crawford,, Davis, and Hammon, id. at 146-47. We held that the statement “I know she is” qualified as testimonial. Id. at 147. Our analysis emphasized that the assailant had left the store, the victim had spoken with the employees from the business next door, and the 911 call had already taken place. Id. Although still at the crime scene, the victim was responding to inquiries by investigating officers. Id. The statement was a summary of past criminal events, rather than a description of an ongoing emergency. 17 Id.
In our most recent decision addressing the definition of “testimonial,” we acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s decision in
Davis
“abrogated” our prior decision in
Maclin
because the Court adopted a “primary purpose test ... requiring] courts to examine the context in which a statement is given.”
Cannon,
In
Cannon,
we applied the primary purpose test to four sets of statements made by a rape victim. First, we held that statements to emergency room personnel, as memorialized in the victim’s medical records, were nontestimonial because (1)
Crawford
cited business records as an example of nontestimonial statements and (2) the primary purpose of the statements was medical diagnosis and treatment.
Id.
(citing
Crawford,
Fourth and finally, we held that the victim’s statements to the sexual assault nurse examiner were testimonial. Id,, at 305. We considered these statements to raise a question of first impression explicitly unresolved by Davis — “[t]he proper classification of out-of-court statements to persons other than law enforcement personnel” — -although we noted that the Supreme Court had treated the 911 operator in Davis as an agent of the police. Id. at 304. We concluded that the primary purpose of the nurse’s interrogation of the victim was to establish past events relevant to a later prosecution. Id. at 305. We emphasized the nurse’s testimony concerning her law enforcement training on how to ask questions and collect evidence; her description of the “investigation” and “forensic examination” that she performed on the victim; the detective’s participation in the questioning; the delay of the questioning until after emergency room personnel examined the victim; and the policy of both the police department and the hospital to have a sexual assault nurse examiner speak with each victim of a sex-related crime. 18 Id.
Even more specifically than the statements to the sexual assault nurse examiner in
Cannon,
the case presently before us raises a question that the Supreme Court has explicitly left undecided: “whether and when statements made to someone other than law enforcement personnel are ‘testimonial.’ ”
Davis,
Some of the existing law supports the proposition that conversations between private parties are categorically nontesti-monial. In
Crawford,
while discussing the scope of the Sixth Amendment, the Supreme Court explained that “[a]n off-hand, overheard remark ... bears little resemblance to the civil-law abuses the Confrontation Clause targeted,” in contrast with
“ex parte
examinations [by government officials] ... the Framers certainly would not have condoned.”
Other language in
Davis
also suggests that conversations between private parties cannot be testimonial. In discussing the history of the Supreme Court’s Confrontation Clause jurisprudence,
Davis
cited a
Based on the language from Crawford and Davis, some courts have categorically held that statements between private parties — or, at least, specific types of such statements — are not testimonial. 19 Today, however, we do not hold that statements between private parties unconnected to law enforcement, such as the exchange between the "victim and the contractor in this case, are per se nontestimonial and thus exempt from Confrontation Clause scrutiny. The United States Supreme Court has not expressly decided this issue, and, much like that Court, we will continue to define which statements are “testimonial” only to the extent necessary to resolve the case before us. 20
Drawing from cases involving police interrogations, the law is clear that statements “ ‘are testimonial when the circumstances objectively indicate that there is no ... ongoing emergency, and that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to establish or prove past events potentially relevant to later criminal prosecution.’ ”
In the context of statements obtained through questions and answers, courts have grappled with the issue of whether the declarant’s or the questioner’s intent is the proper focus in determining the primary purpose. Some courts have focused exclusively on the declarant’s intent.
21
E.g., Cuyuch v. State,
We believe that considering the intent both of a reasonable person in the declar-ant’s position and of a reasonable person in the questioner’s position is the approach most faithful to the Supreme Court’s decisions in
Crawford
and
Davis
and most consistent with our previous applications of
Objectively considering the statement from both the declarant’s and questioner’s perspectives comports with the way that we have analyzed these questions in prior cases. In
Maclin, Lewis,
and
Cannon,
we thoroughly considered all the surrounding circumstances in making case-by-case determinations whether a particular statement was “testimonial.” In
Maclin,
the sixth factor in our non-exclusive list was “the declarant’s purpose in making the statements,” and the seventh factor was “the officer’s
22
purpose in speaking with the declarant.”
We believe the multi-factor test that we first articulated in
Maclin
and repeated in
Leivis
remains relevant in determining whether the statement is “testimonial.” Such factors as the identity of the declarant, the formality of the surrounding circumstances, the structure and extent of the questioning, et al. may very well bear on the ultimate, decisive inquiry: an objective determination of the primary purpose of the statement. We emphasize that the factors are “non-exhaustive,”
Lewis,
The Court of Criminal Appeals considered the
Lewis
factors and concluded that the contractor’s statement of the written tag number was testimonial. The court opined that, under the circumstances, an objective witness would have reasonably believed that his statement would be available for use at trial. The contractor was an observer with whom Poison initiated
Based on our review of the facts, we conclude that the contractor’s primary purpose for making the statement was to respond to the victim’s cry for help and assist with an ongoing emergency. Poison exited the store, got the contractor’s attention, and, in quick succession, informed him that she had been robbed and asked him to get the tag number of the vehicle she saw leaving the parking lot. Poison then saw the contractor lean over and observe the tag number as the minivan drove by. Rather than providing a description of past events that had occurred well beforehand, the contractor’s written statement memorialized events that he observed as they were actually happening. 23 Although Poison initiated contact with the contractor, the surrounding context reflects a total absence of the formality and solemnity a reasonable person would associate with the kind of questioning that produces testimonial statements. Poison’s “questioning” lacked the bare modicum of structure and was limited in scope to a single issue: the observation of a tag number that the contractor could see but she could not.
Under these circumstances, we conclude that the contractor was simply responding to a plea for help from a distressed individual in need of assistance. An employee from the business next door to his job site claimed that she was robbed and asked him to observe a tag number of a vehicle belonging to a man who was leaving the premises. In the heat of that moment, a reasonable person in the contractor’s position would have had very little time to think. He was merely providing requested assistance. The fact that the tag number became relevant to a later prosecution does not automatically make the tag number “testimonial.”
See Mendez,
Even after the actual crime has ended, the emergency may continue as long as the perpetrator might be found in the vicinity.
See United States v. Arnold,
Because these federal constitutional principles are frequently litigated in other courts, we consider the decisions of other jurisdictions concerning statements made in comparable factual circumstances. These decisions indicate a growing consensus that statements establishing the identity of the perpetrator are nontestimonial when made in informal settings during the immediate aftermath of a crime.
In
State v. Calhoun,
a woman arrived home at the same time a police officer pulled up in response to a call regarding shots fired in the vicinity.
The context surrounding these identity-establishing responses may provide additional reasons for finding them nontestimo-nial. In
State v. Slater,
two men were approached by a victim “walking down the
Similar analysis led the
Brown
court to conclude that, minutes after a shooting, when one witness asked another emotionally distraught bystander what was wrong, the second bystander gave a nontestimonial response by saying, “That’s my cousin. They said Lovey shot him.”
Indeed, if the questioning is sufficiently informal, such identity-establishing responses have been held nontestimonial even when they are made to law enforcement. In
Osorio,
a police sergeant arrived on the scene of a burning building to establish traffic control for the fire department.
Finally, these kinds of identity-establishing statements have been admitted into evidence where the declarant provides
Having considered the factors in our non-exclusive test, all the surrounding circumstances, and factually similar cases decided by other courts, we hold that the written license tag number of a vehicle leaving the parking lot shortly after the robbery occurred and provided by a civilian bystander to the victim was a nontesti-monial statement with the primary purpose of responding to a cry for help during an ongoing emergency. The primary purpose was not to establish or prove past events of potential relevance to subsequent criminal prosecution. Therefore, the statement was nontestimonial hearsay, and its admission into evidence did not violate Defendant’s state and federal constitutional rights of confrontation.
Whether the Statement Is Admissible Under the Tennessee Rules of Evidence
Because the written tag number did not violate Defendant’s confrontation rights, the Tennessee Rules of Evidence govern its admissibility.
24
Lewis,
Before this Court, the State maintains that the statement is admissible under the
Underlying the excited utterance exception is the theory that “circumstances may produce a condition of excitement which temporarily stills the capacity of reflection and produces utterances free of conscious fabrication.”
State v. Land,,
Second, the contractor’s statement was related to the startling event. Along with announcing that she had been robbed, Poison asked the contractor to observe the tag number of the vehicle that the man leaving the store had gotten into. The contractor recorded the tag number in response to Poison’s request.
Third, the contractor observed and recorded the tag number quickly, suggesting that the contractor was still under the stress and excitement of Poison’s announcement that she had been robbed. Poison testified that, as she exited the store, the white minivan was already beginning to move. Therefore, the contractor’s observation of the tag number took place just a few moments after Poison announced that she had been robbed. The contractor was standing two to three feet away from the vehicle as it passed by. Since it was moving away, he had little time to reflect before acting. Poison testified that the contractor then came back inside the store, where he found Poison shaking too severely to write down the tag number herself. Given the quick succession of events, the seriousness of robbery, and the contractor’s close proximity to the minivan when observing the tag number, the totality of the circumstances indicates that the contractor observed and recorded the tag number in a manner that “preclude[s] the idea of deliberation and fabrication.”
Smith,
Remaining Issues
Our resolution of the single issue presented to us reinstates Defendant’s conviction. Typically, this would result in a remand to the Court of Criminal Appeals to consider any issues pretermitted by its original ruling. In this case, however, the
First, Defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to establish his identity as the robber. The proper inquiry is, after considering the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.
See
Tenn. R.App. P. 13(e);
Jackson v. Virginia,
We likewise reject Defendant’s challenge to the length of his sentence and the denial of community corrections. On appeal the party challenging the sentence imposed by the trial court has the burden of proving it is erroneous. Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-35-401, sentencing comm’n cmts. (2006);
State v. Ashby,
In conducting de novo review, we must consider provisions contained in Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-35-210(b) (2006). The 2005 amendments to our Sentencing Act eliminated mandatory weighing of mitigating and enhancement factors, rendering them purely advisory.
See
Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-210(c);
Carter,
Robbery is a Class C felony. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-401. As a Range III offender, Defendant was eligible for a sentence of ten to fifteen years.
Id.
§ 40-35-
The record supports both of the trial court’s findings. For a Class C felon such as Defendant to qualify as a Range III persistent offender, he must have received at least five prior felony convictions within the same, higher, or next two lower felony classes.
Id.
§ 40-35-107(a)(l) (2006). Here, within Defendant’s twenty-year-long criminal history, the State cited nine felonies in its “Notice of Enhancement and Impeachment,” all documented in the pre-sentence report: four convictions for driving while a habitual motor vehicle offender, three convictions for possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, and one conviction apiece for solicitation of a felony and petty larceny. Therefore, beyond the five prior felony convictions that establish Defendant as a Range III offender, he has a history of additional criminal offenses that the trial court properly considered as an enhancement factor. Furthermore, the presentence report documented a violation of probation in 1987 that establishes Defendant’s failure to comply with conditions of a sentence involving release into the community.
30
Although Defendant asserts that such a judicial finding violated his right to a juiy trial under
Blakely v. Washington,
Defendant next argues that the sentence should have been into community corrections, rather than the Department of Corrections. By likewise rendering advisory the guidelines for alternative sentencing, the 2005 amendments eliminate the presumption that a Class C felon is a favorable candidate for alternative sentencing.
See
Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-35-102(6) (2006);
Carter,
In the absence of any reversible error in the issues that Defendant raised before the Court of Criminal Appeals, we likewise reject Defendant’s argument that the trial court’s errors cumulatively deprived him of the constitutional rights to due process and a jury trial.
Based on an objective review of the surrounding circumstances, we conclude that the primary purpose of the written tag number was to provide assistance during an ongoing emergency, rather than to establish or prove past events of potential relevance to subsequent criminal prosecution. We also hold that the written tag number satisfied the requirements of the excited utterance exception to the rule against the admission of hearsay testimony. Therefore, the trial court, while failing to recognize the statement as hearsay, properly allowed it into evidence. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals and reinstate Defendant’s conviction for robbery and sentence of twelve years. Since it appears Defendant is indigent, we tax the costs of this appeal to the State of Tennessee.
Notes
. Every customer's order was identified by a phone number and by the first three letters of the customer's last name. Poison testified that it was easier to ask each customer for a last name.
. Although the police provided a compact disc for copying the recording from the surveillance cameras, the owners refused to cooperate with the police in providing the video footage. Thus, it is not a part of the record.
. The record does not contain any maps or diagrams that illustrate the respective positions of Poison and the contractor or the location of the parked minivan and the route by which it exited the parking lot.
. Contrary to Poison's own testimony that she did not personally see the man who robbed the business inside the white minivan, Williams testified that Poison told him at the crime scene that she had observed the same man leave the parking lot in the minivan.
.This officer is not identified by name in the record.
. Dugger testified that she and Smith were each paired with a different officer when they individually reviewed the photo lineup. Dug-ger did not discuss the lineup with Smith before making an identification, nor could Dugger see what Smith was doing when Smith made her identification.
. At trial, Defendant explained that he was not legally married to Shaw, despite referring to her as his wife. Although Defendant was no longer living with Shaw, he had previously been with her for seventeen years and fathered three children by her. At the time of trial, Shaw was living with someone else but was discussing reconciliation with Defendant.
. Quinn conceded that he did not record his conversation with Shaw in his written case notes, which indicated only that he had tried and failed to reach Shaw by telephone. Shaw, who used the phone at her sister’s residence nearby as a contact number, testified that she never spoke with Quinn about the case. Her sister said that Quinn had called, but Shaw claimed that Quinn never answered when Shaw tried to call him back.
. The State also asked Defendant what Quinn told him about the robbery during the interview after Defendant's arrest. During his response Defendant volunteered that his record only included an offense for driving while a habitual motor vehicle offender, an "old dope charge,” and "a few misdemeanors.” The trial court then held a juiy-out hearing and ruled the State could ask about Defendant’s nine prior felony convictions that the State had listed in a Notice of Enhancement and Impeachment served on defense counsel before trial. See Tenn. R. Evid. 609(a)(3). When cross-examination resumed, Defendant testified that he had four convictions for driving while a habitual motor vehicle offender, four convictions for drug offenses, and one conviction for larceny.
.Stated slightly differently, the trial court later explained, "if [Poison] directed somebody to write something down, she watched them write it down, they immediately hand it to her, she immediately hands it to the police, all of that is subject to cross-examination.”
.The motion for new trial also challenged the sufficiency of the evidence and the appropriateness of the sentence. These issues were also raised to and rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Neither issue is raised before this Court.
.After vacating the conviction based on the
.
Before
Crawford
established "testimonial hearsay,” unavailability, and a prior opportunity to cross-examine as the touchstones of Confrontation Clause analysis, the hearsay statement of an unavailable declarant would be admissible where the statement had "adequate 'indicia of reliability.’ ”
Ohio v. Roberts,
Subsequently,
Davis
explained that nontes-timonial statements were outside the scope of the Confrontation Clause.
. The Court treated the 911 operator as an agent of law enforcement and considered her actions to be those of the police.
Davis,
. Since
Davis,
the United States Supreme Court has addressed the Confrontation Clause in four other decisions, none of which requires a detailed analysis to resolve the case presently before us. In
Whorton v. Bockting,
the Supreme Court held that
Crawford
did not apply retroactively to cases already final on direct review when
Crawford
was decided.
. Although we classified the statement as testimonial, we nonetheless sustained the trial court's admission of the statement into evidence because it was a dying declaration. Joining every other jurisdiction that had decided the issue, we held that the dying declaration hearsay exception "survives the mandate of
Crawford
regardless of its testimonial nature.”
Lewis,
. Although the testimonial statements were improperly admitted without an opportunity for the defendant to cross-examine the victim, we did not conduct a harmless-error analysis because we had already held that the defendant was entitled to a new trial on unrelated grounds.
Cannon,
.
See People v. R.F.,
. As the Supreme Court of Kansas has aptly summarized the state of the law:
In light of the ambiguities and uncertainties of the Crawford and Davis decisions, the unsettled nature of the case law, and the continuing debate between members of the United States Supreme Court and among legal scholars as to the efficacy of the testimonial standard and as to what test formulation best determines when that standard has been met, we will continue to approach the issue broadly under the possibility that the Supreme Court may intend for conversations between a declarant and a nonofficial to be testimonial if other aspects of the test stated in the decisions are met.
Brown,
. Prior to the Supreme Court's decision in
Davis,
evaluating the statement from the perspective of a reasonable person in the declar-ant's position was the prevailing view.
See People v. Vigil,
. For cases not involving law enforcement, we can readily substitute "officer's” with "questioner's" or a similarly neutral term.
. We decline to convert the contractor's summary of events as they were actually happening into a description of past events merely because some negligible amount of time passed between the contractor's personal observation of the tag number in the parking lot and his writing down the number on the sheet of paper inside the cleaners. The outcome of the case does not depend on whether the contractor happened to have pencil and paper on hand as the minivan drove by. Based on Poison’s testimony, the primary purpose for which the contractor wrote down the tag number had nothing to do with recording proof for prosecution. Instead, he wrote down the number simply because Poison's hand was shaking so badly that she could not write it herself.
. Although we review the statement's admissibility under the Rules of Evidence after completing the Confrontation Clause analysis, we emphasize that trial courts are not bound to follow the same sequence when confronted with potentially testimonial statements. Indeed, trial courts understandably may want first to determine whether a hearsay statement falls within one of the applicable exceptions or exclusions.
See, e.g., Wright v. State,
. We previously confronted the question of whether alleged “excited utterances” can be classified as testimonial and refused to adopt a per se rule exempting all excited utterances from the category of testimonial hearsay.
Maclin,
.
Stout
was abrogated by statute on other grounds as stated in
State v. Odom,
. Other factors potentially relevant to deciding whether the declarant made a statement under stress or excitement include " 'the nature and seriousness of the event or condition; the appearance, behavior, outlook, and circumstances of the declarant, including such characteristics as age and physical or mental condition; and the contents of the statement itself.’ "
Stout,
.In addition to the three requirements enumerated
supra,
the excited utterance exception has a competency requirement: "the declarant must have had an opportunity to observe the facts contained in the extrajudicial statement.”
Land,
. Because we conclude that the statement is nontestimonial hearsay admissible as an excited utterance, we need not reach Defendant’s argument that the State failed to prove that the contractor was unavailable to testify at trial, and we offer no opinion on the merits of that argument.
See Cannon,
. Because the probation violation had taken place twenty years before the sentencing hearing for the robbery conviction in this case, the trial coui't stated on the record and in its findings of fact that it would not assign weight to Defendant's failure to comply with conditions of release into the community.
