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ADMISSION OF A HEARSAY STATEMENT BY A BYSTANDER WHO TOLD A POLICE OFFICER DEFENDANT HAD RUN INTO A HOUSE WAS (HARMLESS) ERROR (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department determined it was (harmless) error to admit the hearsay statement attributed to a bystander who told a police officer the defendant had run into a house after a car chase:

Defendant contends that County Court erred in allowing inadmissible hearsay testimony when the police officer was allowed to testify at trial that the bystander told him that the fleeing suspect ran into the house. We agree. The statement of the bystander was inadmissible hearsay because it was admitted for the truth of the matters asserted therein … . Indeed, the import of the bystander’s statement was to confirm that the suspect had indeed fled into the house, and thereby confirm that someone inside the house, i.e., defendant, perpetrated the crime. Nevertheless, we conclude that the error was harmless because the evidence of defendant’s guilt is overwhelming and there is no significant probability that defendant would have been acquitted but for the admission of the hearsay testimony … . Defendant was identified by the victim and the other eyewitness as a perpetrator of the robbery, which had occurred in broad daylight, close in time to the show-up identification procedure. Those identifications of defendant were corroborated by testimony of the police officer, who observed the suspect flee from the stolen vehicle toward the house where defendant was apprehended. Moreover, the evidence strongly supported an inference that defendant was not in the house for innocent purposes because he did not live at that address and had tried to conceal his identification in an uninhabited part of the house. People v Harrington, 2020 NY Slip Op 02399, Fourth Dept 4-24-20

 

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