Supreme Court of California

In a case raising post-Crawford confrontation clause issues, defendant's conviction for aggravated assault upon her 15-year-old son is affirmed where: 1) the victim's statements to a deputy, in a hospital emergency room and on tape at a sheriff's station, were testimonial for purposes of the confrontation clause; 2) the victim's statement to a doctor in the course of a physician's medical evaluation was not testimonial; and 3) consequently, the error regarding admission of the statements to the deputy was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/09/2007
• Published 04/09/2007

Judges

• BAXTER, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Jeanne Courtney Vanderhoff, El Cajon, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Manuel M. Medeiros, State Solicitor General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Michael T. Murphy and Scott C. Taylor, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent., David Labahn, Sacramento, and George Kennedy, San Jose, for California District Attorneys Association as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.