Supreme Court of Missouri
State of Missouri, Respondent v. Lawrence Sanchez, Appellant
June 14, 19881988 Mo. LEXIS 51
Summary
The court held that admitting videotaped depositions of the child victims violated the defendant’s confrontation rights because the state did not establish that the children were unavailable to testify at trial. Although the depositions had sufficient reliability safeguards, the trial court relied only on an unsupported allegation of likely trauma rather than evidence presented at a hearing. The judgment was reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.
Holding
- Admission of videotaped child-victim depositions and confrontation. Before videotaped depositions may be admitted in lieu of a child victim’s trial testimony, the state must present evidence at a hearing establishing that emotional or psychological trauma from testifying in open court or in the defendant’s personal presence effectively makes the child unavailable as a witness at trial. The state failed to make that showing here, so admission of the depositions violated the defendant’s confrontation rights.
Docket 69741
Cited authorities
- Fed. R. Evid. 804(a)
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