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State v. Bennett7/13/1999
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for rehearing under Rule 22 as well as formal revision before publication in the New Hampshire Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Clerk/Reporter, Supreme Court of New Hampshire, Supreme Court Building, Concord, New Hampshire 03301, of any errors in order that corrections may be made before the opinion goes to press. Opinions are available on the Internet by 9:00 a.m. on the morning of their release. The direct address of the court's home page is: http://www.state.nh.us/courts/supreme.htm
After a jury trial in Superior Court (Abramson, J.), the defendant, Eric Bennett, was convicted of manslaughter, RSA 630:2, I(b) (1996). On appeal, he argues that the trial court erred by excluding: (1) evidence of the circumstances surrounding his taped statement to the police; (2) excerpts from his taped statement to the police; (3) evidence of the victim's prior conduct; and (4) testimony of his expert and certain cross-examination of the State's expert. We affirm.
I.
On August 3, 1996, the defendant went to a bar with some friends, including his former girlfriend, Jennifer Bohl. Around 11:15 p.m., the group proceeded to Bohl's house, where the intoxicated defendant passed out or fell asleep. While he was unconscious, Bohl and some of the others attended a party in a nearby town, where they were joined by Doug Goodman. Upon returning to Bohl's house, Goodman woke the defendant, whom he knew, and explained that they were taking him home. The defendant eventually got into the back seat of Bohl's car. Bohl drove while Goodman sat in the front passenger seat.
At some point, the defendant grabbed Goodman around the neck with his left arm and held him against the seat. Bohl pulled the car over, and the defendant screamed for her to call the police. When a local police officer arrived approximately ten minutes later, she made three demands that the defendant release his hold on Goodman. He refused to do so until the officer drew her gun. Goodman died as a result of the defendant's choke hold. An autopsy revealed that his hyoid bone had been fractured.
Following his arrest, the defendant waived his Miranda rights and gave a taped statement. He was charged with second degree murder, RSA 630:1-b, I(b) (1996), and convicted by a jury of the lesser-included offense of manslaughter. This appeal followed.
II.
We first address the defendant's argument that the trial court erred by excluding evidence of the circumstances surrounding his taped statement to the police. Specifically, he argues that he should have been permitted to introduce testimony that he voluntarily waived his Miranda rights.
Prior to trial, the court granted the State's motion to exclude the defendant's statement as inadmissible hearsay. See N.H. R. Ev. 802. The defendant makes no claim that the State attempted to introduce his taped statement at trial and the defendant did not testify. He sought, however, to establish through the cross-examination of an interrogating officer that he waived his Miranda rights and voluntarily gave the statement, arguing the evidence was "relevant to his state of mind of innocence."
We conclude that the circumstances surrounding the defendant's taped statement were not relevant. Cf. State v. Guyette, 139 N.H. 526, 529, 658 A.2d 1204, 1206 (1995). To be relevant, evidence must have a "tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." N.H. R. Ev. 401. Absent evidence of the substance of the defendant's statement, the circumstances surrounding it were not p
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