State v. Navarette

OPINION

CHÁVEZ, Justice.

{1} The main question in this case is whether Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004) and its progeny preclude a forensic pathologist from relating subjective observations recorded in an autopsy report as a basis for the pathologist’s trial opinions, when the pathologist neither participated in nor observed the autopsy performed on the decedent. We answer this question affirmatively and conclude that there was a Confrontation Clause violation because (1) the autopsy report contained statements that were made with the primary intention of establishing facts thatthe…