Vega v. State

OPINION

By the Court,

Hardesty, J.:

In this opinion, we address three issues on appeal.

First, we consider whether appellant Bernardo Vega’s constitutional right to confrontation under the Confrontation Clause, Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), and Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. 305 (2009), was violated. We conclude that Vega’s constitutional right to confrontation was violated when the district court erroneously admitted the testimonial statements from an unavailable expert witness without the witness previously being subjected to cross-examination. However, we conclude that…