State v. Rasmussen

Philip Rasmussen (“Defendant”) was charged by Second Amended Felony Information with assault in the first degree for allegedly striking Victim, “in the neck with a closed fist” on July 23, 2014. Following a trial to a jury that began on July 11, 2016, the jury found Defendant guilty of assault in the second degree, and the trial court sentenced Defendant as a prior and persistent offender to fifteen years in the Department of Corrections.1 Defendant appeals, and, in a single point, claims that the trial court erred in admitting at trial the preliminary hearing testimony of a witness who was…