State v. Sargeant

EDMUNDS, Justice.

In this case, we consider whether the trial court correctly excluded the hearsay statement made by one of the participants in a murder. The excluded statement implicated the State’s only eyewitness, not defendant, as the instigator of the crime. Because we find that the trial court’s findings of fact are not based upon competent evidence and that the record in its entirety does not support its conclusions of law, we determine that the trial court erred. We further conclude that defendant Neil Matthew Sargeant was prejudiced by the error. Accordingly, we modify and affirm the…