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Freeman v. State

The trial court properly admitted hearsay testimony from the EMS worker who treated the victim at the scene, since the victim's statements were made during an initial examination to determine the diagnosis and treatment of her injuries.

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Following a jury trial, Leonard Freeman was convicted of burglary1 and attempted malice murder.2 He now appeals from the denial of his motion for new trial, assigning as error 1 the admission of statements he made during a police interview, 2 the admission of hearsay testimony of an emergency medical worker who attended to the victim, 3 the denial of his motion for a mistrial due to lack of access to real-time court reporting, 4 the closure of the courtroom during sentencing, 5 failure to sentence him as a first offender, and 6 ineffective assistance of counsel. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

Construed in favor of the verdict,3 the evidence shows that a police officer responded to a nighttime 911 call about a burglary in progress and encountered Freeman, whom the officer knew, walking near the victim’s address. Freeman, who lived across the street, denied any knowledge of the burglary, so the officer investigated the house for damage and, upon shining his flashlight in a bedroom window, saw Jan Nelson, Freeman’s mother-in-law, on the floor covered in blood. The officer radioed for emergency medical services “EMS”, and a responding medical technician, Russell Fortenberry, spoke to Nelson about her injuries. Nelson told Fortenberry that she had awoken to go to the bathroom and found someone in her house who tried to smother her by putting a bag over her head, and she had somehow hit her head.

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