People v. Rayford CA5

INTRODUCTION

Defendant Heaven Rayford assisted Mickey Pulley to rob a gas station and take a television (TV) from a retail store. Convicted of two counts of robbery after separate trials, the trial court suspended sentence and placed defendant on a three-year term of probation. Defendant appeals her conviction and argues that the trial court erred in ruling that the conviction of the first robbery count could be used to impeach her should she testify at retrial of the second robbery count. Defendant also argues that the trial court abused its discretion and denied her a fair trial by excluding evidence of her exculpatory statements to police. In her reply brief, defendant acknowledges that, by failing to testify, she forfeited any challenge to the court’s ruling to allow the prosecutor to impeach with her conviction on the first robbery count. We agree that defendant forfeited her challenge to the trial court’s ruling to allow use of her robbery conviction to impeach and find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded her postarrest exculpatory statements as hearsay and not within the hearsay exception for evidence of her state of mind. We affirm the…