Matz v. State

Appellant Harold Lee Matz was convicted by a jury of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentenced by the jury to life imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. After complainant T.M. testified at trial, the trial court admitted into evidence a videotaped interview with T.M. which Child Protective Services (CPS) had filmed before trial. In the court of appeals, appellant complained, inter alia, that the trial court erred in admitting the videotape because it was inadmissible hearsay. In affirming the conviction, the Second Court of Appeals overruled this point of error. It noted that Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 38.071, which provides that under certain circumstances, a recording of an oral statement of a child sexual assault victim is admissible, was not applicable, since T.M. had testified at trial. Matz v. State, 989 S.W.2d 419, 423 (Tex. App.--Fort Worth 1999). Then assuming (but not holding) that the trial court erred in admitting the videotape, the court of appeals held that appellant failed to preserve error. Id. It found that because the videotaped interview essentially repeated T.M.s live testimony, and because appellant never objected to T.M.s testimony about the abuse, any error in admitting the videotape was waived. Id. at 423-24. We granted appellants petition for discretionary review to determine whether "the trial court erred in allowing the state to play for the jury a videotaped interview of the complaining party after the child testified live, in that such evidence is hearsay."