LAKEPORT — A judge Thursday ruled that portions of testimony offered by several witnesses in the Robby Alan Beasley preliminary hearing would be stricken from the record because the statements were deemed as inadmissible hearsay.
Presiding Judge Richard Martin made the ruling after the prosecution finished presenting evidence. The defense offered no evidence during the preliminary hearing.
Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe represented the Lake County District Attorney”s Office, and attorney Stephen Carter represented Beasley.
Beasley, 30, and co-defendant Elijah Bae McKay, 28, each face two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Maine residents Frank Maddox, 32, and Yvette Maddox, 40. Beasley faces a third felony charge of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
LCSO investigators testified Wednesday that the partially decomposed bodies of the married couple were found in March at the bottom of an embankment off of Morgan Valley Road in Lower Lake and subsequent autopsies determined both Maddoxes died as a result of gunshot wounds to the head.
McKay testified Tuesday that Beasley invited the Maddoxes to Lake County in October 2009 to work as marijuana trimmers for a growing operation run by McKay.
Three Maine residents testified Thursday morning before Martin heard arguments regarding the hearsay issues.
Starr Larrabee said she was a friend of Yvette Maddox and spoke with Yvette Maddox on the phone after the couple”s move to Lake County. Yvette Maddox said her boss, a man known only to Larrabee as Beasley, threatened her, Larrabee said.
Yvette Colon, Yvette Maddox”s young adult daughter, testified that her mother said in a phone conversation that she had gotten in an argument with her boss, a man known as Beasley, and he had threatened her with a gun.
Maria Carrion, another self-identified friend of Yvette Maddox, was the final witness called Thursday and testified about threats Yvette Maddox claimed Beasley made against her.
Carter objected to similar statements made by two Lake County residents during their testimony Tuesday. Both residents told the court that Yvette Maddox told them about threats made by Beasley against her and Frank Maddox.
Carter said that statements attributed to the Maddoxes should be stricken from the record because the defendant would not have an opportunity to discount the validity of alleged statements by having his attorney cross-examine the original sources (the Maddoxes).
Statements that a person under oath attributes to another person are generally considered hearsay under the law. Hearsay cannot be used as evidence in court, though there are some exceptions to the hearsay rule.
Grothe argued that California Evidence Code Section 1390, which came into effect on Jan. 1, provided such an exception.
The new section reads as follows: “Evidence of a statement is not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule if the statement is offered against a party that has engaged or aided and abetted in the wrongdoing that was intended to, and did, procure the unavailability of the declarant as a witness.”
Grothe said that the statements attributed to the Maddoxes should be allowed because the defendant”s action of allegedly killing the couple was “an effort to silence those two folks” and prevented them from testifying, thus making them unavailable as witnesses.
Carter argued that Grothe”s interpretation did not “make sense, logically or legally” because the Maddoxes were not witnesses in pending criminal case and the charges against Beasley include homicide, of which the Maddoxes were the victims.
The new hearsay exception should be applied to situations in which a defendant in an existing case intimidates a witness or otherwise causes a witness not to testify, after the fact of a crime having been committed, Carter said.
Martin acknowledged that because the exception has been applied only for the last three weeks, little to no case law exists in terms of the specific exception. The court did review several U.S. Supreme Court cases relevant to this type of hearsay exception, Martin said.
Martin ruled that all statements attributed to the Maddoxes by witnesses who testified during the preliminary hearing would be stricken from the record, basing his decision on past court rulings regarding victims” statements to people before the alleged crime occurred.
Martin said he would review the preliminary hearing testimony with the two court reporters and determine which statements are to be stricken.
Today at 8:15 a.m. in Department 2, Martin will specify the statements to be stricken as well as make a ruling on whether the burden of probable cause was established during the preliminary hearing.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37.
