People v. Carmona-Olvara

PRESIDING JUSTICE McNULTY

delivered the opinion of the court:

We do not often need to look back 150 years for authority to guide our resolution of an appeal, but when an old case provides the best guidance, we will not hesitate to use it. In this case the prosecutor, who charged defendant Teodoro Carmona-Olvara with burglary and arson, introduced into evidence a police officer’s translation of a statement defendant made in Spanish. Defendant sought to introduce evidence that the officer mistranslated the statement. The court disallowed the evidence. The best authority we found for resolving…