McCoy

Defendant Joe Lynn McCoy physically and sexually assaulted his girlfriend, Cindy H., fracturing her spine during the attack and rendering her a quadriplegic. Because Cindy H.’s medical condition provided reasonable grounds to fear she would be unable to testify at trial, she was examined conditionally during the preliminary hearing via two-way video. At trial, as anticipated, the video of this examination was played for the jury because Cindy H. was unable to testify. Defendant was convicted of torture (count 2), inflicting corporal injury on a cohabitant (count 3), and unlawful sexual penetration with a foreign object (count 4). With respect to count 3, the jury found defendant personally inflicted great bodily injury causing paralysis. With respect to count 4, the jury found defendant personally inflicted torture. The trial court sentenced defendant to state prison for a term of 25 years to life and imposed other orders.

On appeal, defendant asserts (1) the introduction of Cindy H.’s conditional examination violated his Sixth Amendment right of confrontation because (a) the video equipment used during the conditional examination was not set up to allow him to confront…