People V. Bowers

We granted the People's petition for certiorari to review the court of appeals' decision in People v. Bowers, 773 P.2d 1093 (Colo. App. 1988), which reversed the conviction of the defendant, Dwight Allen Bowers, for aggravated incest and sexual assault, and remanded the case to the district court for a new trial because of the erroneous admission into evidence of the unavailable child-victim's hearsay statements describing the sexual acts allegedly committed against the child. In reaching this result, the court of appeals held that the People  failed to establish the necessary foundational requirements for admitting the child's hearsay statements into evidence under the residual hearsay exceptions created by CRE 803(24) and CRE 804(b)(5) and also failed to satisfy the "reliability" and "corroborative evidence" foundational requirements for admitting the statements under section 13-25-129, 6A C.R.S. (1987). We hold that the only basis for admitting the unavailable child-victim's hearsay statements is section 13-25-129 and that, although the "reliability" requirement of the statute was satisfied, the People failed to establish the statutory requirement that there be "corroborative evidence of the act which is the subject of the [child's] statement." We accordingly affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.