People v. Banos

In People v. Banos (2009) 178 Cal.App.4th 483, the court addressed the admissibility of several out-of-court statements made by a domestic violence victim who was later murdered by defendant. In March 2004, the victim called 911 and, in response to the dispatcher's questions, identified herself and said she had a restraining order against defendant, but he was at her apartment and she was afraid he was going to attack her. The victim explained she was calling from a phone booth because he was dangerous, he had been arrested a few months earlier for attempted murder, and he was not supposed to be near her. (Id. at pp. 488, 492.) Banos held the victim's statements to the 911 operator in March 2004 were not testimonial under Davis v. Washington (2006) and Crawford v. Washington (2004). (Banos, supra, 178 Cal.App.4th at pp. 492-493, 497.) The victim's "primary purpose for making the statements to the 911 dispatch officer was to gain police protection. The statements were not yet the product of an interrogation, rather they were made to police conducting an investigation into an ongoing emergency." (Id. at p. 497)