State v. MacK

The question that this case presents is whether the federal Confrontation Clause prohibits a Department of Human Services (DHS) caseworker from testifying to statements that a three-year-old child made to her during a police-directed interview. We hold that it does and affirm the trial court’s order excluding that evidence.

The state charged defendant with murdering his girlfriend’s two-year-old son Lucas. The autopsy revealed evidence of blunt force trauma to Lucas’s head and face and described the cause of death as injuries consistent with smothering by facial compression. Lucas’s…