Gray v. STATE CAPITAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY

The plaintiff assigns as error the admission in evidence in the hearing below of a statement made by the insured to an officer who arrived at the scene of the shooting a few minutes after it occurred. The officer found Clark lying on the ground at the point where he had been shot and inquired of him as to what happened. He said: “We tried to break in and I got shot.”

Spontaneous utterances, in order to be a part of the res gestae, must be made “during the happening of the main transaction or immediately and instantly after the transaction and in direct connection with it. They must be forced…