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Davis v. State | 207 So. 3d 142 (2016)

Hearsay is an out-of-court statement offered for the truth of the matter asserted. Although hearsay generally isn’t admissible in court, the hearsay rule has numerous exceptions. We explore one of those exceptions in Davis versus State.

Leon Davis Junior entered the Headley Insurance Agency with the intent to rob it. Yvonne Bustamante and Juanita Luciano were working when Davis arrived. Davis tied up both women, doused them with gasoline, and set them on fire.

Bustamante and Luciano escaped and sought help from bystanders. When Bustamante exited the building, witness Fran Murray observed that Bustamante was on fire and that her skin was falling off. Bustamante died five days later, and Luciano died three weeks later. Autopsies confirmed that both women died from injuries they sustained in the fire.

The State of Florida charged Davis with first-degree murder. To prove that Davis was the perpetrator, the state sought to rely, in part, on statements that Bustamante made at the scene to police officer Joe Elrod. The state asserted that Bustamante’s out-of-court statements were admissible pursuant to the dying-declaration exception to the hearsay rule. Davis contended that Bustamante’s statements weren’t admissible.

The trial court held an evidentiary hearing to resolve that question. Witness Fran Murray testified that Bustamante asked Murray to pray with her because Bustamante believed she was dying. After observing the severity of Bustamante’s injuries, Officer Elrod concluded that she wouldn’t survive. Elrod asked Bustamante who attacked her, and she told him it was Leon Davis. She further advised that she knew Davis because he was a former Headley client.

The trial court found that Bustamante’s statements were dying declarations and allowed Elrod to testify regarding them at trial. The jury convicted, and Davis was sentenced to death. Davis appealed to the Florida Supreme Court. Among other things, Davis argued that the admission of Bustamante’s statements violated the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause.

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