State v. McCain

Decision Date05 July 2001
Citation175 Or. App. 274,28 P.3d 641
CourtOregon Court of Appeals
PartiesSTATE of Oregon, Respondent, v. Janis Ellen McCAIN, Appellant.

Sally L. Avera, Public Defender, and James N. Varner, Deputy Public Defender, for appellant.

Theodore R. Kulongoski, Attorney General, Virginia L. Linder, Solicitor General, and Jonathan H. Fussner, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent.

Before LANDAU, Presiding Judge, and DEITS, Chief Judge, and BREWER, Judge.

PER CURIAM

This case is before us on remand from the Supreme Court for reconsideration in light of its decision in State v. Fleetwood, 331 Or. 511, 16 P.3d 503 (2000). Defendant was convicted of conspiracy to commit possession of a controlled substance. Over defendant's objection, the trial court admitted into evidence audio recordings of face-to-face and telephone conversations involving defendant, defendant's boyfriend and codefendant, a police informant, and police detectives who were working undercover as cocaine dealers. The trial court's ruling admitting the recordings, which had not been authorized by court order, was error. Id. at 529-30, 16 P.3d 503.

The state asserts that the error was harmless, because the detectives who participated in the conversations testified to the same effect at trial. Defendant's defense was that she was not involved in a conspiracy to purchase cocaine. We cannot say that the trial court's error in admitting 12 audio tapes, which were played to the jury throughout the trial and during closing arguments, had little if any likelihood of affecting the verdict. State v. Carr, 302 Or. 20, 27, 725 P.2d 1287 (1986).

Reversed and remanded.

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3 cases
  • State v. Jury
    • United States
    • Oregon Court of Appeals
    • November 20, 2002
    ...time that it was made. The "benchmark" for error is the law existing as of the time the appeal is decided. See, e.g., State v. McCain, 175 Or. App. 274, 28 P.3d 641 (2001) (a defendant who preserved issue in trial court obtained reversal on appeal based on the newly announced rule of law fr......
  • State v. Vaughn
    • United States
    • Oregon Court of Appeals
    • July 5, 2001
  • State v. Aldrich
    • United States
    • Oregon Court of Appeals
    • August 8, 2001
    ...the case of a codefendant of this defendant that the error in erroneously admitting audio recordings was not harmless. State v. McCain, 175 Or.App. 274, 28 P.3d 641 (2001). For the same reasons that we concluded that the error was not harmless as to the codefendant, we conclude that the err......

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