Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District / Feb 4, 2020
State of Missouri, Respondent, vs. Eldar Gyunashev, Appellant.
Eldar Gyunashev appealed his conviction for domestic assault in the third degree, arguing the trial court abused its discretion by admitting 911 call recordings containing inadmissible hearsay. The recordings, made by Gyunashev's son, described the ongoing assault. The appellate court affirmed the judgment, holding that the 911 calls were properly admitted under the present-sense-impression exception to the hearsay rule, and alternatively, under the excited-utterance exception. The court also concluded that any error in admission would have been harmless given the overwhelming evidence of guilt.