Marina2
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bbmI believe that she was not making an excited utterance about the smell (smell only), simply because it was old news.IMO The part about the not seeing the grandchild for a month, is certainly old news.IMO A month to be exact. IMO An excited utterance requires new news I believe. IMO I am not sure why Ca ended up in that condition of panic or anger (which is it?), but it was not a condition to get to the truth. IMO I understand that many believe it was the realization of what had happened, but am not sure that falls under the excited utterance law. IMO
Certainly the parent is not at fault, but of no help in a condition of panic or anger. IMO I once saw a lady downtown that lost her child and she was screaming in a panic at the police officer. He was asking her to please calm down so he could ask her some questions and find her child. She was of no help what so ever, so he just started looking around and found the child.
I am not sure what state of mind Ca was in. Was she upset because she realized that Caylee was missing, or was she upset that she had lost control over Kc. IMO Many would like to believe the former, but the earlier 911 call shows anger in my opinion.
An excited utterance does not require "new news". It requires a statement made by a person under the stress of a shocking event. There can be no denial that CA was making a statement while under the stress of a shocking event. She had just found out that KC was claiming that Caylee was not at the babysitter's but had been kidnapped and the car smelled of death. This would be shocking for any grandparent, let alone CA who was very well aware of KC's propensity to lie.
At the point she made that 911 call, CA was in a state of total horror. She no longer had KC stating that Caylee was at the babysitter's. She no longer had GA there to assure her that the smell was only pizza. What she had now was KC's statement that Caylee had been kidnapped and an unmistakable odor of death in the car. This resulted in a "startling or shocking event". In CA's mind, Caylee was dead. She had not allowed herself to "go there" before. Her statements on that 911 call were spontaneous. They were not part of a plan to get LE there quicker. CA was incapable of of forming a plan during that call. She was paralyzed with terror. CA has made statements to the contrary but the terror in her voice will belie her.
NTS, what I stated above has been said before and I realize that you have chosen to believe CA had other motives for her statements during that call. But, this is the argument the state will use if they need to convince the judge that her statements were excited utterances. If so, the state will be successful. It will come in as an exception to the hearsay rule and will be used along with KC's statements to show the progression of her lies, ie consciousness of guilt. When the jury hears the recording they will have no doubt what CA was thinking when she made that call.