United States v. Jones

Deon Jones (defendant) was a suspect in the shooting death of David Buskirk. Three weeks after the shooting, a detective videotaped an interview with Kelly Bigham. On the videotape, Bigham told the detective that she sold Jones a revolver and that Jones drove her to a different part of town, got out of the car, and shot a man using the revolver. Bigham then provided directions for the detective to drive to the place in which Buskirk had been shot. Three years after the shooting, Jones went to trial for murdering Buskirk. At trial, Bigham claimed she could not clearly remember selling Jones a revolver or anything she said to the detective. Bigham was shown the videotaped interview outside the jury’s presence to see if it refreshed her recollection of the prior events, but she testified that she still did not remember much. When asked if the videotape was accurate, Bigham responded that if she said something on the video, that is what she remembered at the time. In response to further questioning, Bigham agreed that what she said on the videotape was true and accurate to the best of her knowledge at that time. The trial court then determined that the videotape qualified as a recorded recollection and allowed the jury to see it. Jones was convicted and appealed. On appeal, Jones argued that the videotape was inadmissible hearsay and should not have been shown to the jury.