State v. Jhun

OPINION OF THE COURT BY NAKAYAMA, J. After a jury trial, defendant-appellant Manuel Jhun (Jhun) was found guilty of assault in the second degree in violation of Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 707-711(1)(d) (1993). Through an opinion filed on December 5, 1995, the Intermediate Court of Appeals of Hawai'i (ICA) vacated the judgment and remanded the case for a new trial. State v. Jhun, 1995 Haw. App. LEXIS 53 (Haw. Ct. App. 1995). In so holding, the ICA addressed only one of the issues that Jhun raised in his appeal, namely, whether the trial court had erred by applying the hearsay rule, precluding Jhun from cross-examining a police officer about the contents of an absent witness's statements that the police officer had written down in his investigative report. The police officer's testimony about the absent witness's statements might have supported Jhun's assertion that he had been justified in stabbing his victim as a means of defending his brother, whom a group of men had allegedly attacked. Although the police officer's testimony about the absent witness's statements constituted hearsay, the ICA held that it was presumptively admissible pursuant to Hawai'i Rules of Evidence (HRE) Rule 803(b)(8)(C) (1993), the public records and reports exception to the hearsay rule. In response to the State of Hawai'i's (the prosecution) petition, we granted certiorari to review the ICA's holding, and, for the reasons set forth below, we hold that the trial court did not err in concluding that the police officer's testimony about the absent witness's statements constituted inadmissible hearsay. We therefore reverse the ICA's decision and order the ICA's opinion depublished. Furthermore, after reviewing the remaining issues that Jhun has raised in his appeal, we affirm Jhun's conviction of assault in the second degree.