People v. Lerma

Victim was shot to death while sitting on the unlit front steps of his home.  Victim, immediately after being shot, told family members it was Defendant who shot him, and this eyewitness identification was admitted into evidence under excited utterance exception to hearsay rule. The other eyewitness identification was by female companion who was sitting with victim on the steps when  a man dressed all in black approached the house and began shooting at them; companion admitted that she had seen Defendant only once or twice before shooting, and did not know him. Qualified expert would present relevant and probative testimony directly addressing State's only evidence against Defendant.  Court's reasons for denying expert's testimony were expressly contradicted by expert's report and inconsistent with actual facts. Under these specific facts, trial court abused its discretion when it denied Defendant's motion to allow expert testimony as to reliability of eyewitness identifications.(GARMAN, FREEMAN, KILBRIDE, KARMEIER, BURKE, and THEIS, concurring.)