State v. Espinosa

Defendant appeals his convictions on two counts of aggravated murder. ORS 163.095. Defendant’s assignments of error pertain to the admission into evidence of hearsay statements of the two people defendant was with immediately before and after the murders. The state concedes that certain admissions by defendant’s companions should not have been admitted into evidence as statements against penal interest, OEC 804(3)(c), but argues that the admission of those statements was harmless. We conclude that the erroneous admission of the disputed statements was not harmless. Consequently, we reverse…