OROZCO, Judge.
¶ 1 Martell Darren Franklin (Defendant) appeals his convictions and sentences for disorderly conduct, a class six felony; assault, a class one misdemeanor; and unlawful imprisonment, a class six felony. Defendant alleges that the trial court erred when it admitted
¶ 2 In July 2011, Defendant was arrested after Glendale Police Department officers responded to a fight. After S.L. (Victim) arrived at the hospital, Officer A. contacted her. Victim was visibly upset and had sustained noticeable injuries, but she responded to Officer A.'s questions. Officer A. electronically recorded the ten to fifteen minute interview. During the interview, Victim described her version of the events and identified Defendant as the individual responsible for her injuries.
¶ 3 The State charged Defendant with one count of aggravated assault, one count of assault, and one count of unlawful imprisonment. As part of his conditions of release, Defendant was "not to initiate contact of any nature" with Victim. The record indicates that Defendant did not post bond, and he remained in custody until his trial date.
¶ 4 Beginning in late October 2011, Victim became uncooperative with the State's investigation. She would not answer or return any of the phone calls placed by her victim advocate. The State requested jail call records for Defendant and discovered that between October 25, 2011 and November 30, 2011, Defendant attempted to contact Victim by telephone 109 times and spoke to her fifty-eight times. After Victim was subpoenaed to attend Defendant's trial, she called her advocate asking what would happen if she did not testify or refused to attend the trial.
¶ 5 After learning that Defendant had been contacting Victim, the State moved for a forfeiture by wrongdoing hearing. Although Victim was subpoenaed to attend Defendant's trial on December 11, 2011, she did not appear. The trial was reset for the following day, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. The next day, Victim again failed to appear.
¶ 6 On December 13, 2011, a pretrial evidentiary hearing was held addressing the State's forfeiture by wrongdoing motion. During the hearing, the State argued Victim's hearsay interview statements that she made to Officer A. should be admitted because Defendant, during the jail calls, had engaged in wrongdoing that was intended to, and did, procure the unavailability of Victim at trial. After taking the matter under advisement, the trial court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Defendant engaged in "chicanery," reflective of the "abhorrent behavior which strikes at the heart of the system of justice itself." As a result, Victim's interview statements were admitted at trial.
¶ 7 A jury convicted Defendant of one count of disorderly conduct,
¶ 8 Defendant timely appealed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Article 6, Section 9, of the Arizona Constitution and Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) sections 12-120.21.A.1 (2003), 13-4031 (2010), and -4033.A.1 (2010).
¶ 9 Defendant contends that the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted Victim's hearsay statements pursuant to Rule 804(b)(6) because admitting the statements violated his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. We disagree.
¶ 11 The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment guarantees an accused the right to confront witnesses. "Testimonial statements of witnesses absent from trial have been admitted only where the declarant is unavailable, and only where the defendant has had a prior opportunity to cross-examine."
¶ 12 After the federal codification of the forfeiture by wrongdoing doctrine, the Arizona Supreme Court revised the Rules of Evidence and adopted language identical to its federal counterpart. See Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(6). Under Arizona's Rule 804(b)(6), statements "offered against a party that has engaged or acquiesced in wrongdoing that was intended to, and did, procure the unavailability of the declarant as a witness" are not excluded as hearsay. There are four factors to consider when determining whether to apply Rule 804(b)(6). We address each of them in turn.
¶ 13 Pursuant to Rule 804(a)(5), witness unavailability arises in situations where the declarant "is absent from the hearing and the proponent of a statement has been unable to procure the declarant's attendance ... by process or other reasonable means." In this case, the Victim was unavailable because she failed to attend trial despite the State serving her with a subpoena and issuing a warrant for her arrest.
¶ 14 In order to fall within the forfeiture exception, the defendant's conduct must constitute a wrongdoing. Ariz. R. Evid. 804(b)(6). A "wrongdoing" under the forfeiture exception generally entails "some wrongful act on the part of the defendant." Steele v. Taylor, 684 F.2d 1193, 1201 (6th Cir.1982) (persuasion and control); State v. Hallum, 606 N.W.2d 351, 358 (Iowa 2000) ("encouraging and influencing" the witness not to testify); Commonwealth v. Edwards, 444 Mass. 526, 830 N.E.2d 158, 168, 170 (2005) (murder, threats, intimidation or "collusion with a witness to ensure that the witness will not be heard at trial"); Gonzalez v. State, 195 S.W.3d 114, 117 (Tex.Crim.App. 2006) (chicanery).
¶ 15 While a criminal act is not necessary to invoke the doctrine, see Fed.R.Evid. 804, Advisory Committee Notes, 1997 Amendments, witness tampering is a classic form of wrongdoing that can lead to forfeiture. See Giles, 554 U.S. at 366, 128 S.Ct. 2678 (noting that prior to 1985, courts never "invoked forfeiture outside the context of deliberate witness tampering"); Edwards,
¶ 16 Pursuant to A.R.S. § 13-2804.A.3 (2010), "[a] person commits tampering with a witness if such person knowingly induces a witness in any official proceeding or a person he believes may be called as a witness to ... [a]bsent himself from any official proceeding to which he has been legally summoned." Inducement consists of "persuading another person to take a certain course of action." Black's Law Dictionary 845 (9th ed.2009).
¶ 17 In the transcribed portions of the jail calls that took place between October 27, 2011 and November 2, 2011, a few of the relevant portions of Defendant's discussions with Victim provide:
¶ 18 The October 27 transcript reflects that Defendant believed his case would be dismissed if Victim called Defendant's attorney to drop the charges. Defendant relayed some version of that information on at least five different occasions during his first telephone contact with Victim. Although Defendant did not directly request that Victim proceed in a certain way, the frequency with which these various suggestive statements were made during this particular phone call and the fact that they were said to the person who was to actually carry out the
¶ 19 Moreover, in the November 1 call, Defendant stated that Victim may be subpoenaed to "make her come" and "if the subpoena don't work," a warrant may be issued for her arrest. Although the context is not entirely clear, in at least two different portions of that statement, Defendant told Victim to stay with her brother, presumably to avoid arrest. The context becomes clearer when, in the November 2 conversation, Defendant stated that Victim would merely pay a fine as a result of violating the subpoena and resulting warrant and that she should stay at her brother's house for two weeks.
¶ 20 We conclude that the subpoena and warrant referred to in these discussions were to procure Victim's testimony against Defendant at trial. In the November discussions, Defendant referred to Victim's warrant as "just" a misdemeanor warrant and downplayed the importance by indicating that she would not be arrested for violating such a warrant. Furthermore, Defendant stated that Victim would be required to pay "like a $200 fine." Defendant's language indicates that he was encouraging Victim to violate the subpoena by minimizing the severity of the penalty associated with the violation. Defendant's conduct, at the very least, was a persuasive and coercive effort focused on encouraging Victim not to testify.
¶ 21 In the end, regardless of whether the discussions were moments of encouragement, control, collusion or chicanery, we agree with the trial court that all of these exchanges had the overall objective of inducing Victim to avoid testifying at trial. Thus, Defendant's discussions amounted to the criminal act of witness tampering and a "wrongdoing" for purposes of the forfeiture exception.
¶ 22 Defendant must have also engaged in, or acquiesced to, the witness tampering. Ariz. R. Evid. 804(b)(6). To acquiesce means "[t]o accept tacitly or passively." Black's Law Dictionary 26 (9th ed.2009). Similarly, engaging involves taking part or involving oneself in the conduct. Id. at 608.
¶ 23 "The doctrine is based on the principle that `any tampering with a witness should once [and] for all estop the tamperer from making any [Confrontation Clause] objection based on the results of his own chicanery.'" Gonzalez, 195 S.W.3d at 117 (quoting 5 John H. Wigmore, Evidence § 1406, at 219 (Chadbourn rev.1974)) (emphasis added). Therefore, "any" tampering at any point during the conversations would suffice to limit Defendant's ability to object. See id. As a result, we agree with the trial court's finding that in speaking with Victim more than fifty times, Defendant engaged in wrongdoing for purposes of Rule 804(b)(6).
¶ 24 Next, Defendant must have intended to procure, and actually procured, Victim's unavailability as a result of the witness tampering. See Ariz. R. Evid. 804(b)(6). Knowingly inducing a person to avoid attending trial under A.R.S. § 13-2804.A fits within conduct designed to deliberately cause unavailability under Rule 804(b)(6). Put another way, the purpose of tampering with a witness in this context is to intentionally procure that witness's unavailability. Therefore, we agree with the trial court's finding that Defendant's actions were intended to procure Victim's unavailability.
¶ 25 Defendant argues that because Victim indicated she would not testify, the forfeiture exception should not apply to Defendant's actions. However, because Victim's unwillingness to cooperate began at approximately the same time that Defendant began to make telephonic contact with Victim, the trial court could properly infer that Defendant's tampering did procure Victim's eventual absence from trial. Therefore, because Defendant's actions are clearly within the confines of Rule 804(b)(6), the trial court correctly ruled that Victim's interview statements survive Defendant's Confrontation Clause objections.
¶ 26 For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Defendant's convictions and sentences.
CONCURRING: PETER B. SWANN, Judge and ROBERT C. HOUSER, Jr. Judge Pro Tempore.