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Criminal Defendant Accidentally Furnishes Confession Unaware of Tape Recording Device Inside Police Cruiser  Uploading ....The legal definition of the word "hearsay" is "an extrajudicial statement that only has evidentiary value for the truth of the matter asserted." Hearsay is typically excluded from evidentiary hearings because it's deemed to not be reliable. Nevertheless, there are lots of exceptions to the general hearsay rule. An out of court statement is only hearsay, & therefore excluded, if the statement is testimonial in nature. If the out of court declaration isn't testimonial, it may still be introduced into evidence.
In the appeal in Bowens v State of Florida, the Fourth District Court of Appeal addressed this subject as it pertained to a co-defendant's recorded statements while in the backseat of a police car. Police gain information as well as confessions in this manner quite frequently. 2 individuals sitting in the back seat of a police vehicle trying to get their stories straight accidentally give the police a confession.
The 4th District Court of Appeal, following defendant's appeal of a strong-armed robbery judgment and sentence, upheld the lower court's refusal to exclude a surreptitiously recorded conversation containing admissions by the defendant in the rear of a police car, and upheld the circuit court's denial of a motion for a mistrial.
After being apprehended for strong-arm robbery, the defendant & the driver of the car that he was a passenger, were put into the rear of a police vehicle. A hidden microphone taped their discussion in which defendant made admissions relating to the robbery. The District Court of Appeal ruled the taped statements of the defendant were admissible as the statements were determined to be a party admission under Florida Statute 90.803(18)(a), & that the statements of the co-defendant were also admissible to place the defendant's statements in context (thereby making the statements non-testimonial). The Fourth District Court of Appeal also held that the statements weren't instigated or facilitated by anybody for the main reason of gathering evidence for a prosecution, but were a recording of a spontaneous conversation. The Appellate Court ruling contains a detailed discussion of Crawford v. Washington, as well as other cases which have ruled on surreptitious tape recordings.
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