Guys, hearsay is an out of court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Federal Rules of Evidence section 801 (c). In other words, it is any statement made outside of the court proceedings that is now being discussed in court in order to show that what was being uttered (not "uddered", LOL!) is true. It can be confusing, however, because the matter asserted could be other than a statement. An example of classic hearsay would be if the defense puts on testimony from someone who said he heard someone else say, before trial that the Defendant "is innocent. He was not even there on the day of the crime." The defense would be offering that out of court statement to prove that indeed, the defendant was not there and is innocent. So, it would be hearsay. In this case, the statement potentially offered here, "Tim, something's wrong with my dad", would be offered not to prove that something was wrong with the dad, but instead, that the child was there before Tim died. If it was a statement uttered by someone other than the child and if I was the attorney wanting the statement in, I would argue that it is not hearsay because the truth of the matter asserted was not what I was offering the statement for. But, let's say the statement was offered to show that the dad was hurt before Tim died and that the kid said this (and was thus there at the scene). If said by someone other than the child, it would be considered hearsay. But, none of that matters here because any statement by the child would NOT be hearsay as it is considered an "admission" by a party, the kid. Any statements made by a party to the case, (here, the defendant), is considered an "admission" and is not classified as hearsay. It falls under the state equivalent of Federal Rules of Evidence section 801 (d) (2). I probably confused things even more! Sorry. Point is, the statement comes in.
