Commonwealth v. Carter

This is an appeal from the defendant’s convictions, after a bench trial, of assault and battery and of threats to commit a crime.1 The sole evidence against the defendant was the testimony of a police officer who recounted statements of the defendant’s mother that were admitted in evidence over the defendant’s objection2 under the spontaneous utterance exception to the hearsay rule.

The facts as testified to by Officer Hatzieleftheriadis, a member of the Brookline'police department, are as follows.

On November 4, 1999, at 12:05 a.m., Officer Hatzieleftheria*630dis and her partner received a call to…