JAMIE TURNER V. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
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RENDERED : MARCH 20, 2008
TO BE PUBLISHED
,supraat Courf of
2006-SC-000097-MR
JAMIE TURNER
V
APPELLANT
ON APPEAL FROM BREATHITT CIRCUIT COURT
HONORABLE WILLIAM LARRY MILLER, JUDGE
NO. 05-CR-00038
COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
APPELLEE
OPINION OF THE COURT BY JUSTICE ABRAMSON
AFFIRMING
Jamie Turner appeals as a matter of right from a January 20, 2006 Judgment of
the Breathitt Circuit Court convicting her following a jury trial of three counts of firstdegree and one count of third-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (KRS
218A.1412 and KRS 218A.1414) . She was sentenced as a second-degree persistent
felony offender (KRS 532 .080) to three concurrent prison terms of twenty years each
and to a concurrent twelve month term for the lesser offense . The Commonwealth
alleged that in Jackson, Kentucky, in late November and early December 2004, Turner
sold methadone wafers on three separate occasions to undercover police officers and
to a confidential police informant . On one of those occasions she was also alleged to
have sold four Xanax pills. The grand jury returned the indictment containing these
charges in January 2005 and Turner was tried in December of that year . At trial, the
two officers who participated in the undercover buys testified that the buys were
arranged by the informant. They described the meetings with Turner, the drug
transactions, and their efforts to procure audio recordings of what transpired. One of
the recordings failed, but over Turner's objection the Commonwealth introduced
recordings of two of the transactions . The recordings include several comments by the
informant, who was not present at trial, and Turner contends that because she was
given no opportunity to cross-examine the informant the admission of those comments
violated the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States
Constitution, as recently expounded by the United States Supreme Court in Crawford v.
Washington , 541 U.S . 36, 124 S. Ct. 1354, 158 L. Ed. 2d 177 (2004) and Davis v.
Washington ,
U .S .
, 126 S. Ct. 2266, 165 L. Ed. 2d 224 (2006) . With one
possible, harmless exception, explained below, we are convinced that the
Commonwealth's introduction of the transaction recordings did not violate the
Confrontation Clause, and accordingly, we affirm .
As Turner correctly notes, in Crawford and Davis the Supreme Court held that
the Confrontation Clause bars the admission into evidence of testimonial hearsay
"`unless [the declarant] was unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior
opportunity for cross-examination ."' Davis v. Washington , 126 S. Ct. at 2273 (quoting
from Crawford v. Washington , supra). The bar applies regardless of whether the
evidence would otherwise be admissible pursuant to an exception to the hearsay rule.
The Supreme Court has not yet had occasion to attempt a definitive distinction between
"testimonial" and "nontestimonial" statements, but in Crawford the Court held that
"[s]tatements taken by police officers in the course of interrogations are . . . testimonial
under even a narrow standard ." 541 U .S . at 52, 124 S. Ct. at 1364. In Davis, a case
that addressed the admissibility of statements made to 911 operators and to officers
responding to 911 calls, the Court explained that
[s]tatements are nontestimonial when made in the course of
police interrogation under circumstances objectively
indicating that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to
enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency.
They are testimonial when the circumstances objectively
indicate that there is no such ongoing emergency, and that
the primary purpose of the interrogation is to establish or
prove past events potentially relevant to later criminal
prosecution .
Davis v. Washington, 126 S . Ct. at 2273-74. Although the Supreme Court couched this
distinction in terms of police interrogation, it was careful to note that
Our holding refers to interrogations because . . . the
statements in the cases presently before us are the products
of interrogations-which in some circumstances tend to
generate testimonial responses . This is not to imply,
however, that statements made in the absence of any
interrogation are necessarily nontestimonial .
Id . at 2274 note 1 . Turner contends that the informant's comments on the audio
recordings were testimonial hearsay, and thus that their admission into evidence
violated the rule laid down in Crawford and Davis.
Two of the federal Circuit Courts of Appeal have addressed this issue and both
have noted that an informant's recorded statements may well be testimonial, as the
Supreme Court has described, since the informant is aware that his or her statements
are being recorded by government agents for the very purpose of criminal prosecution .
United States v. Nettles, 476 F.3d 508, 517 (7t" Cir. 2007); United States v. Hendricks,
395 F.3d 173 (3rd Cir. 2005). Both Courts have held, however, that the informant's
statements are not hearsay and thus that their admission does not violate Crawford,
when they are offered not for their truth, but "to put [the defendant]'s admissions on the
tapes into context, making the admissions intelligible for the jury." United States v.
Nettles, 476 F.3d at 517 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted) . We concur in
this analysis, summarized by the Third Circuit as follows :
[I]f a Defendant or his or her coconspirator makes
statements as part of a reciprocal and integrated
conversation with a government informant who later
becomes unavailable for trial, the Confrontation Clause does
not bar the introduction of the informant's portions of the
conversation as are reasonably required to place the
defendant or coconspirator's nontestimonial statements into
context.
United States v. Hendricks, 395 F.3d at 184.
Turner contends, however, that some, at least, of the informant's recorded
statements were introduced not for the sake of context but as proof of the matter
asserted and thus that Crawford still applies . She objects in particular to comments the
informant made to one of the officers as they were sitting in the officer's car waiting for
Turner to arrive. At one point the informant said, "The methadone is hers, but the
Xanaxes, I don't know where they're coming from ." A little later she said, "She's coming
right now," and "Here she comes ." Turner also objects to two of the informant's
remarks during one of the transactions : "How much are they?" the informant asked at
one point . And at the end of the transaction she said, "Thank you, love you baby." All
of these remarks, Turner contends, were offered as statements tending to prove the
matters asserted, i.e. Turner's possession of the methadone and the Xanax and a sale.
We disagree .
Even if all of these remarks could be construed as statements (although
questions and "thank you's" certainly strain that construction), all but the first of these
remarks clearly provided context for Turner's portions of the conversations, and thus, as
discussed above, their admission did not violate Crawford . It is arguable, however, that
the informant's pre-transaction statement to the officer about Turner's possession of
methadone was testimonial, and it was not reasonably required to place any of Turner's
statements into context.' We may assume, therefore, without deciding, that under
Crawford that statement was inadmissible and should have been redacted . See United
States v. Cromer, 389 F.3d 662 (6 th Cir. 2004) (applying Crawford to informant's
accusatory statements volunteered to police) . In the context of this case, however, we
are convinced that even if the admission of the methadone possession statement was
erroneous, the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt . The evidence against
Turner-three transactions, two of which were captured on tape, involving two
officers-was certainly compelling if not overwhelming . Turner's only defense was to
argue that the informant's absence from trial suggested that she, Turner, was being
framed, either by the informant, by the officers, or by the three of them together. She
offered no evidence to support that theory, or any other theory. In these circumstances,
it is well beyond a reasonable doubt that excluding the informant's statement indicating
that Turner was in possession of methadone would not have affected the result of
Turner's trial . The admission of that statement, therefore, does not entitle Turner to
relief. Heard v. Commonwealth , 217 S.W.3d 240 (Ky. 2007) (recognizing that harmless
error analysis applies to Crawford violations).
In sum, to the extent that the non-testifying informant's statements and remarks
' It appears likely that an informant's pre- or post-transaction accusatory statements
will often raise this issue, so the Commonwealth would be well advised to limit its taperecorded evidence to the transaction itself.
on the audio recordings of Turner's drug sales provided context for Turner's portions of
the conversations, the admission into evidence of the informant's portions did not run
afoul of Turner's confrontation right . One of the informant's statements occurred before
Turner was present and did not provide immediate context for anything Turner said .
Even if the admission of that statement was erroneous, however, given the ample proof
of Turner's guilt, the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, we
affirm the January 20, 2006 Judgment of the Breathitt Circuit Court .
All sitting . All concur.
COUNSEL FOR APPELLANT :
Shelly R. Fears
Assistant Public Advocate
Department of Public Advocacy
100 Fair Oaks Lane
Suite 302
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601-1133
COUNSEL FOR APPELLEE :
Jack Conway
Attorney General
Susan Roncarti Lenz
Assistant Attorney General
Office of Attorney General
Criminal Appellate Division
1024 Capital Center Drive
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601-8204
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